Why does the house always win, when there are so many people playing against it?

Question

It doesn't make sense to me, it would seem that odds and probability would balance things out. Do the casinos mess with the cards or something?

Answer 1

great question! The answer is that you are looking at it in the wrong way. The truth is that the amount of people that are in a casino does not affect the house edge on a game. For example,    say you flip a coin 100 times. You could assume that 50 would be heads and 50 tails(or close to it), but that is not the case in the short run. You could get 10 heads in a row, because the odds are 50/50 each time that you flip the coin not overall.

So where does the casino edge come from? It depends on the game. In blackjack the player plays his hand first and then the dealer. If the player and dealer both go over 21, the house still wins because the player played first. Different games have different rules that give the house the edge.

People might win money in the short run (like you can flip ten heads in a row), but in the long run the casino edge takes over.

Do dealers count cards? Some do and when the deck becomes favorable for the player, they shuffle up and start a new round. It's perfectly legal for dealers and players to count, but a casino can ask to leave because it is private property and they don't need a reason.

Hope that this was helpful!

Answer 2

Casino games are structured specifically so that the house has a statistical edge.  The house doesn't always win, and many times they don't, but on average they win more than they lose and the laws of statistics are what this is based on.  A simple example is roulette where the payouts are exactly what the statistics would dictate - for instance 1:1 for red and black or odd and even, if there were not the extra zero or double zero there, so the payout is even up but the odds are less than 50/50 because of the zeros and that's how they make money.  This is of course in addition to the floor staff trying to cajole you into betting and losing more :)

King Cobra Poker

Answer 3

It's not clear what game you're talking about, but the basic idea is simply that the odds are in the house's favor. For example, in blackjack, if the house gets blackjack, you lose immediately, even if you would have gotten a blackjack as well.

In Roulette, whether you bet on red or black, you lose if it comes up green. There are two green spaces (0 and 00) on a standard Roulette wheel.

Answer 4

the house doesnt always win - it is just a saying

the people who do win against the house get kicked out

which is why card counting can be dangerous

Answer 5

The HOUSE has odds of winning

Answer 6

They don't always win. People just don't know how to play the games. Pick a game and play it for free on poker site. Play it over and over and over for free until you get the hang of it and recognize a pattern in the game. I've been a dealer for 12 years and I don't gamble for money and I understand the games.

Answer 7

Of course it's rigged.

Answer 8

In most gambling games, the house always has a slight edge.  Couple that with the fact that 90% of people that play these games have no clue what they're doing...and you get the illusion that the house aways wins.

My advice to you is to play poker...the house can't win that one!

Answer 9

They don't always win. They just win in the long run. The odds of each casino game except poker are built into the game. The house loves it when there is a big winner at the c**p table and everyone is screaming. It just draws in more people to lose. And usually when you hear all the noise for every winner there are several losers who are betting wrong.

Answer 10

At the end of the night the house will always make a profit

You will have people who will lose all their money one night

You will have people who will hit a big win in the night

You will have people who break even.

Now the chances of everybody hitting it big in the night are far less than everybody losing.

Out of 10 people you might have:

1-2 big wins

1-2break even

and the rest lose, or at least if everybody just loses a little bit they are still making money.

The house also makes money through poker tournaments, as they take a percentage of each stake that is placed, and for big tournaments they will get a cut of the buy in

Answer 11

That's just the thing.  The odds and probablility are all tilted in the house's favor.  Some good examples of this:

The 0 and 00 spaces on the roulette wheel.  Every bet pays out based on a 36 space wheel (35 to 1 on a straight up bet, 1 to 1 on Red/Black, Even/Odd, etc.)  However, American Roulette wheels have 38 spaces, not 36, so the Casino is not paying you the true odds for that bet.  This translates into a long run advantage for the Casino.

Every game has a built in edge to the house, so over the long run, they make money.  Yes, some people do win money in the short term, but over the long run, the Casino will win.

As for Counting Cards, first of all, there is nothing illegal about counting cards.  Yes, casinos (outside of New Jersey) can throw you out, and they can stop you from placing bets, but they cannot have you arrested and the cannot confiscate your chips.

As for dealers, whether they count cards or not doesn't affect the game unless they are using a favorable shuffle, where they shuffle up as soon as the count favors the player. This is because the dealer NEVER makes a decision.  Every game has a strict set of rules that the dealer must use during gameplay that covers every eventuality.  The dealer will play the same hand the same way every time, regardless of what the players have done.