Are There Any Casino Games That Are Not Played Against the House?

You’ve heard the phrase, “The house always wins”. This gem of a phrase wasn’t plucked out of thin air by a poet. It’s a simple truth that every casino gamer knows. 

Nearly every casino game is played against the ‘house’, AKA the casino itself. What does this mean and are there any exceptions to the rule? Let’s find out. 

What Does Playing Against the House Mean?

When you play casino games, you make a bet on a certain outcome, whether it be the roll of a dice or the spin of a wheel. Most of the time, you are betting against the casino. The casino pays out the players when their bets pay off and, vice-versa, the casino takes the player’s money when the bets lose. 

Let me reiterate. Players’ losing bets go straight into the pockets of the casino. 

Imagine every bet had a 50/50 chance of going your way and a 50/50 chance of going the casino’s way, like a coin flip. Over time, you would expect that you and the casino would break even, both winning around half the bets. 

In reality, the odds are stacked in the casino’s favour. The odds of casino games are such that the ‘house always wins’, at least in the long term. To fully understand this, let’s explore two basic concepts: return-to-player (RTP) and house edge. They are two sides of the same coin. 

RTP is the percentage that a player can expect to get back from betting on a game, if they played this game an infinite number of times. So, if a game has an RTP of 95 percent, the player can expect to be paid back an average of $95 for every $100 bet. This is clearly a losing proposition for the player. 

The flip side of this is the house edge. The house makes money because the expected value of the games runs in their favour. To stick with the same example, if the game has an RTP of 95 percent, then the house has an edge of 5 percent. They stand to gain an average of $5 for every $100 bet. 

This is how the whole casino industry works. By having a small edge over players, they stand to make a lot of money in the long term. 

Gaming Against Other Players

We have established that the casino takes a small long term edge, and most players accept this as a kind of entertainment fee, whilst still having the opportunity to come out on the right side of the odds. 

There is one game that allows you to play against other people, rather than against the house edge. This game is poker. Most casinos have a separate card room for tournaments, as well as cash games on the casino floor. Here, opponents pit themselves against each other in a bid to take each other’s chips and win each other’s buy ins. 

In this case, players bet against each other and are paid off by each other. A losing bet for you ends up in the pockets of the player that you lost it to. 

Poker is the only game in the casino which is not played against the house. So, how does the casino make money if they are effectively not even involved in the betting? The answer is simple. Rake and fees. 

The way this works depends on the type of game. Poker cash games and poker tournaments have a different format. In cash games, the casino usually takes rake from individual hands played. This is normally a percentage, from 2% on the light end to 10% or more on the heavy end. 

There may also be a “no flop, no drop” rule, where rake is only taken on hands in which players see the flop. The dealer will take care of the rake, but check with the casino to see what their rules are so you know how much you are paying. 

In tournaments (or indeed online poker rooms, where the situation with poker is similar), casinos typically take an entrance fee at the start of the tournament, usually ranging from 10 – 20% of the buy-in. This fee is not added to the prize pool, but is the casino’s payment for hosting the game. 

Beating the House Vs Beating Players 

Knowing what we know about house edge and RTP (covered in the first section), it’s obvious that poker is the game to beat, and this is because you don’t play directly against the casino. 

In games which are played against the house, the casino will make more than the players on a collective level. An individual can still walk away with a win, which is what makes casino games exciting, but if you are looking to beat a game then go for poker. 

In poker, you can set the odds in your own favour by playing the right hands in the right situations, and forcing your opponents to make costly mistakes. This means that you can technically gain an edge in poker, though it requires skill and patience to overcome others who are thinking the same. 

You also have to gain enough of an edge over opponents to beat the casino or online poker room rake. If the casino is taking 2 percent per hand, your edge in hands you get involved with needs to be greater than 2 percent. 

Every Other Game Belongs to the House 

A final note. Every other casino game is played against the house. Some have fixed odds, such as roulette. European roulette always, no matter what bets you place, has an RTP of 97.3 percent (house edge of 2.7 percent). American roulette has an extra ‘00’ for the house, giving an RTP of 94.74 percent and house edge of 5.25 percent.

Slots vary. They can have an RTP as low as 70 percent, or as generous as 99.5 percent, especially online. 

Blackjack is a funny exception. It is a game of part skill, so the player’s actions do determine the odds. It is still played against the house, but with optimal strategy the player can bring the RTP up as high as 99.54 percent. With card counting, players can even beat the game. Casinos rely on the fact that the majority won’t play optimally. 

Have fun at the tables, and if you want to play against other people rather than the house then check out games of poker.