Yahoo – Planning a trip to Vegas to party and strike it rich? Here’s a tip: you’ll have a better chance of winning if you avoid roulette. That’s because casinos have a big advantage in roulette. There are 38 numbers on a standard American roulette wheel: 1 though 36, plus 0 and 00. That means you have a 1 in 38 chance of picking the right number. But, if you bet a dollar and win, you don’t get $38 – you win $35 and keep the original dollar you bet, for a total of $36. That $2 difference between $36 and $38 is called the “house edge.” The higher the house edge, the more money the casinos keep. In roulette, casinos on average keep over 5% of the money gambled. In contrast, a skilled blackjack player can get the house edge below 1%. One reason is because the rules of blackjack allow you to “double down” and bet extra money on hands where you have an advantage – giving blackjack good odds compared to other games. If slot machines are your favorite, there’s also a trick with them: use the more expensive machines. Slots in Vegas that cost a dollar per spin are programed to have a house edge around 5%. But slots that cost only a penny per spin can have a house edge that’s twice as high. And where you play is as important as what you play. Smaller casinos off the Las Vegas strip may not be as fancy, but they will often give better odds on their slot machines and have lower minimum bets on their table games. And even if you don’t strike it rich, at least you know the odds being able to party hard in Vegas are 100%.

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