Top 10 Popular Online Casino Games

Online casino games offer players hours of fun while also giving them the chance to win real money. Casinos remain a popular destination for tourists and locals alike. You may be planning a vacation at a popular casino destination, or you might hang around at a local casino over the weekend, or you want to play in online casino at home. Before you go, we want to share with you the casino games which give you the best chances of winning.

We found that several of the most popular casino games with the best odds of winning give you an advantage over the casino. These games may initially seem intimidating, but with a bit of learning, you will find them easy to understand and play. When you are at a casino the next time, start by observing these games. If it is a slow time at one of the tables, talk to the dealers. Often, dealers will be more than willing to walk you through the rules and discuss basic game strategies to improve your odds of winning.

When comparing the house edge of various casino games, we found these four popular games to have the best odds:

• Blackjack
• Baccarat
• Craps
• Roulette

The house edge is defined as the ratio of the average loss a player makes to the initial bet amount. For example, if you play Blackjack with basic strategy, over the long run, the house edge is 0.5%. This means for every $10 you bet, you will lose 5 cents over the long run. With Baccarat or Craps, you will lose less than 10 cents for every $10 you bet. With roulette, depending on the game design, you could lose 27 to 53 cents for every $10 you bet.

If you-re not used to engaging in online casino games, you may certainly have some questions regarding how to best play them, which are the best to play, and what games offer the big jackpots. In this article you will find information about Blackjack, Baccarat, Craps, Roulette and other games for real money in casino.

1. Blackjack

Blackjack is not a good game for introverts unless you can find a table where no one else is playing. Even then, you’re still going to interact with a live human dealer—unless you’re playing online. But human interaction is almost always a given with a blackjack game.

Blackjack is most certainly a game of decisions, and what you decide has an effect on your outcome. A lot of the other players at the table think that what you decide has an effect on their outcome, too.

Blackjack has the lowest house edge in the casino. The house edge is the percentage of each bet that the casino expects to keep over the long run—thousands of bets. The higher the house edge is, the worse the odds are for the player.

If you find a game with a good set of rules, and if you play using basic strategy, the house edge might be under 0.3%. That’s the lowest house edge in the casino usually. Sure, you might sometimes find a video poker game with a comparable number, but even the best video poker games only tie blackjack when it comes to offering the player great odds.

Even blackjack games where the game conditions are less than favorable offer better odds than most casino games. The worst blackjack games usually have a house edge of around 1%.

Basic strategy of Blackjack refers to the correct decision for every potential hand in blackjack. You compare the total in your hand with the dealer’s up card, and there is one decision with the best expected value. If you make that decision every time, you’re using basic strategy.

Expected value is a mathematical term that expresses how much a particular decision is worth over the long run. You multiply the odds of winning by the amount you stand to win and subtract the odds of losing multiplied by the amount you stand to lose.

Luckily, you don’t have to figure out the correct basic strategy for yourself on every single hand. You can find detailed guides to basic strategy right here on our site. You can even print up a table to take into the casino, and the dealers will even let you use that printout while you play.

Even if you ignore basic strategy of blackjack and just follow your hunches, you’re only losing between 1.5% and 3.5% per hand—unless you’re just making purposefully boneheaded decisions, that is. If you hit every hand until you bust, the house edge is 100%.

Another great thing about blackjack is that it’s one of the only best gambling games where a talented, smart player can get an edge. Counting cards is the best known advantage gambling technique used in blackjack, but there are several other ways of getting an edge over the house.

Counting cards in blackjack is easier than you think, too. This site has an extensive series of pages about how to count cards in blackjack. We even have pages about other advantage blackjack techniques like shuffle tracking.

Blackjack is a great game, and even if it’s not your go-to game at the casino, it should be on the menu of games that you choose from. It’s just a lot of fun, and Blackjack has the best odds in the casino.

2. Video Poker

Video poker games resemble video slot machines, but they offer players much better odds of winning. And getting better odds of winning is something everyone should be interested in.

It’s also a much more transparent game.

Here’s why:

A video poker game uses a random number generator that duplicates the kinds of odds you’d see if you were playing with a real deck of cards. That means if you need an ace to fill your straight, you can calculate the odds of getting that card. There are 4 aces in the deck—no more, no less.

With a video slot machine, you have mo way of knowing what the likelihood of getting a particular symbol on a particular reel is. A cherry might be programmed to come up once every 10 spins, or it might be programmed to come up once every 100 spins. You have no way to know.

As a result, the payback percentage for a video poker machine can be calculated. You’re just multiplying the odds of achieving each hand by the payout for that hand. The payback percentage for a slot machine can be calculated, too. But not by you. You don’t have access to the information you need, and you’ll never be able to get access to it.

The best video poker games, like full pay Jacks or Better, offer a payback percentage of over 99% when played with appropriate strategy. Most slot machines, on the other hand, offer a payback percentage of 95% or much less.

Even video poker games with less than ideal pay tables pay more than slots. Even the worst Jacks or Better games, like the ones you’ll find at the airport, have a payback percentage north of 94%. Compare that with the slot machines there, which often have a payback percentage of 75% to 80%.

Having to learn how to use a little bit of strategy in order to get these better odds isn’t too big a drawback, either. In fact, learning strategy is fun.

If you’re a social gambler, video poker might not be the best choice. You don’t generally interact much with other players when you’re sitting in front of a Jacks or Better machine.

Also, if you’re a high roller or a low roller, video poker might not be available in the denominations you’re looking for. The lowest end video poker games cost $1.25 per hand to play (25 cents with a max bet of 5 coins), and even the highest end video poker games top out at less than most whales want to play.

3. Craps

Craps might be the most intimidating game in the real money casino. You have lots of people standing around the table, the bets all have funny names, and you even need an entire crew of people just to run a single game.

Craps is one of the best casino games for anyone, no matter what their level of experience is.

Once you learn how to play, it’s not that hard at all. There are only 2 dice in use, and there is only one shooter at a time. And the shooter’s goal is simple enough—she wants to roll a 7 or an 11 on the come-out roll, and she wants to avoid rolling a 2, 3, or 12.

If she rolls any other number, she’s set a point. Her goal then changes. She now wants to roll the point before rolling a 7.

The simplest bet at the table is a bet on whether or not the shooter is going to succeed or fail. This bet is called the pass/don’t pass bet, but subsequent bets also have a come/don’t come option, which treats those subsequent rolls as new come-out rolls.

But the game also offers the only bet in the casino which has a 0 house edge. This is called an odds bet. When a point is set, you can place an additional bet behind your original pass or don’t pass bet. This bet is a multiple of your original bet, and the maximum amount you can bet on this option is pre-determined by the casino.

But since this bet pays out at the actual odds of it being won, it’s a bet with a 0% house edge. This hedges your risk in a dramatic way. The more money the casino lets you place on the odds bet, the better your odds become.

It’s also easy to avoid the high house edge bets. Just stick with the simple bets on the table and avoid the ones that seem complicated. If you stick with pass/don’t pass, come/don’t come, and odds bets, you’ll be facing a house edge of around 1% or less. That puts this game on a par with blackjack.

But unlike blackjack, you don’t have to know any kind of strategy when you play craps. The only strategy for this game is to avoid the bets which have a high house edge and focus on the bets with a low house edge.

Craps is also one of the most social games in any casino. People are jumping up and down, yelling, and giving each other high fives constantly.

And if you think the game is too intimidating, look for the casino game class schedule at the casino. Almost all casinos offer these in the mornings and in the afternoons. Once you’ve taken one of these classes, you’ll be able to play craps as if you were an old pro.

The one of drawbacks of Craps is that the gameplay is actually a little bit complicated and hard to follow, especially if you’ve never played before. This is a game with a lot moving parts, but at the end of the day, it all boils down to someone shooting dice and hoping to get certain numbers.

It’s just that there’s a difference between the come-out roll and the subsequent rolls when the player is trying to make a point. Heck, even some of the bets on the table aren’t labeled.

Another drawback is that the game is as streaky as a casino game can be. You can easily lose hundreds of dollars at the craps table in a matter of moments. That’s a two-edged sword, though, as you can also win hundreds of dollars really fast, too.

Finally, some of the bets at the craps table offer some of the worst odds in the casino. The house edge for some of these bets is over 10%, in fact. But that’s not such a big drawback, either, as it’s pretty easy to choose the better bets.

4. Baccarat

The Baccarat been a favorite of casino high rollers for decades—maybe even longer. It has advantages and disadvantages over other card games in the casino, but one of the biggest advantages the game offers is its relatively low house edge.

Baccarat is a simple guessing game. The live casino dealer gets a hand and the player gets a hand. There’s an elaborate process for determining the score for each hand—you just add the card values together and ignore the first digit.

You don’t make any decisions when playing baccarat. This isn’t like blackjack at all, really—the only thing the games have in common is that they’re dealt from a traditional deck of cards.

This game is perfect for high rollers, as the stakes are generally available. It’s also perfect for players who aren’t looking for something especially fast paced. It’s a leisurely game that offers a certain amount of elegance.

It’s also a good game for players who don’t want to learn a Baccarat betting system and who aren’t interested in trying to get an edge over the casino. The online casino gamblers can get on a winning streak without too much trouble.

5.Vide Slot Machines

Not all slot machine games are created equally.

Video slot machines are the right games for people who aren’t interested in socializing with other gamblers. They’re also the right games for players who don’t want to make decisions. You put your money in, you spin the reels, and you accept your luck. That’s just how they work, and that appeals to a lot of people.

The best slots to play at casino are the ones played at the higher denominations. If you look at any table comparing payout percentages at the various denominations, you’ll see that the higher denomination games always have the best payouts. That doesn’t mean you should play above your bankroll, though.

You should always play a game where you’re comfortable with the stakes. If you get in over your head financially, it can be disastrous, and that can happen really quickly. Saving 1% on your payback percentage isn’t going to save you money if you’re switching from a $5 slot machine to a $25 video slot machine.

For Example:

You make 600 spins per hour on a $5 slot machine. That’s $3000 in action, and if you’re losing 5% on average, then you’re looking at an expected loss of $150 per hour.

You trade up to a $25 game, so now you’re putting $15,000 per hour into action. But now you’re only losing 4% on average, because the payout percentage is better. That’s an expected loss of $600 per hour.

Even if the payout percentage dropped to 3%, you’re looking at an expected loss of $450, which is still triple what you’d lose on the$5 game.

So it’s not all about payback percentage. The stakes for which you’re playing also make a big difference.

Another consideration is how complicated the game is. The general rule of thumb is that the payback percentage on the simpler games is higher than for the more complicated games. A 3 reel slot machine almost always has a better expected payout percentage of video slot machines than that of a 5 reel slot machine. A slot machine with a flat top jackpot almost always has a better payout percentage than that of a progressive jackpot machine.

So if you’re an introvert who’s not interested in making decisions, give the slots a try. Just stay within your budget and stick with the simpler, more traditional games.

6. European Roulette

In general, roulette gets a bad rap among so-called sophisticated gamblers. They cite the lack of a skill element and the high house edge for the game. But somehow roulette has managed to remain popular for centuries.

One reason is because the relatively high house edge is mitigated by the pace at which it is played.

Consider this. European roulette, which only has a single 0, has a house edge of 2.7%. Let’s say you found a really great slot machine that also has a house edge of only 2.7%.

Which game is going to cost you more money?

Most roulette tables probably don’t see 60 bets per hour—less if the table is crowded. Suppose you’re betting $5 per spin of the wheel. That’s only $300 that you’re putting into action each house. With a 2.7% house edge, you’re looking at an expected hourly loss of $8.10.

If you play that really good video slot machine for $5 per spin. You’re looking at 600 spins per hour, which amounts to $3000 in action. Remember we said that it had the same house edge, too? Now you’re expected hourly loss is $81.

Roulette is one of the best online casino games for social players who aren’t in a hurry. It’s a slow-paced game where there are usually lots of people at the table.

This description is only for European roulette. American roulette is going to make my list of worst casino games. That’s because the house edge for American roulette is almost twice as high as for European roulette, and there’s no advantage to playing it. The game simply has worse odds for the player.

Not all casinos have European roulette. My recommendation is to just skip roulette if the only version you can find is American roulette. There are other options with much better odds which suit similar temperaments—baccarat is one choice that might work well for you.

If enough gamblers start ignoring the American roulette wheels, the casinos might start putting in more European wheels.

7. Pai Gow Poker

Pai Gow Poker is a leisurely game. In that respect, it resembles roulette or baccarat. But the game also presents opportunities for pushes on a consistent basis, which lowers your expected hourly loss even further.

Like craps, though, Pai Gow Poker can be intimidating for beginners. Take one of the classes that the casinos offer for free and lear rules this online gambling game. Pai Gow Poker is fun enough and offers a good enough deal that it’s worth learning how to play.

Pai Gow Poker is played with a 53 card deck—it includes a joker as a wild card. Like blackjack, it’s a house-banked game. So it’s a “casino poker” game rather than a “real” poker game. In casino poker, players only compete with the dealer’s hand. In real poker games, the dealer doesn’t usually even have a hand, and all the players compete with each other.

The gimmick is that each player gets a 7 card hand. You’re required to set that hand into 2 hands—a 2 card hand and a 5 card hand. The dealer has to do the same, but the dealer has to do so in a prescribed way. (This is another similarity to blackjack.)

If the player’s 2 hands are better than the dealer’s 2 hands, he wins even money less a 5% commission. If the dealer’s 2 hands are better than the player’s 2 hands, the player loses his bet. Other outcomes result in a push, which happens more often than you probably think.

This game does require a certain amount of strategy, because you do have to make decisions about which cards to put in the 5 card hand and which cards to put in the 2 card hand. If you enjoy the mental challenge of making decisions that affect your bottom line, then Pai Gow Poker, like blackjack or video poker, is probably a good choice for you.

The house edge for this game is only about 1.5%, which isn’t as good as blackjack, but it’s still a great gamble. Even players on a budget can usually afford this because of the leisurely rate of play and the plentiful pushes.

8. Spanish 21

Some people consider Spanish 21 just a blackjack game with some rules differences. They’re not wrong about this, necessarily, but I think that the rules changes are significant enough that Spanish 21 deserves to be listed as its own game. It has most of the same pros and cons as blackjack.

Here are some of the differences between Spanish 21 and standard blackjack:

Spanish 21 uses a “Spanish deck”, which is a deck of playing cards with all of the 10s removed. This confused me the first time I read it, but I later realized that the face cards were still in the deck. It was literally just the cards with the number 10 on them that had been removed.

Late surrender, which is not available in most blackjack games, is always available in Spanish 21. Doubling after splitting is also always allowed in Spanish 21—most traditional blackjack games have limits to this, if they allow it at all. Aces can be re-split, too, which is also unusual in traditional blackjack games.

One of the other advantages a player gets in Spanish 21 is that a total of 21 for the player ALWAYS wins, regardless of the dealer’s total. That’s a huge difference right there. This includes blackjacks on both the dealer’s and the player’s side—the player always wins one of these ties.

Spanish 21 also has several bonuses for various hands. A 5 card hand totaling 21, for example, pays off at 3 to 1. A 6 card hand totaling 21 pays off at 2 to 1. 7 cards or more with a total of 21 pays off at 3 to 1.

A 678 or a 777 also gets a bonus payout—3 to 2. But if the cards are suited, the payout is increased to 2 to 1. And if the suit is spades, the payoff is increased again, this time to 3 to 1.

Like regular blackjack, players who are willing to learn and implement basic strategy are able to reduce the house edge dramatically. The house edge for Spanish 21 never goes above 1% as long as you use basic strategy, and under ideal conditions, the house edge is only 0.4%,

Spanish 21 is often a better game than blackjack, although the rules variations do mean you have to adjust your strategy in some significant ways. Still, it’s worth learning how to play. It’s often the best bet, mathematically, out of all the bets available in any real money casino.

9. 3 Card Poker

3 Card Poker makes the list not because of its low house edge but because it’s so much fun. In fact, 3 Card Poker has some of the worst odds of any game on this list. But the odds aren’t terrible, and the game has some other perks which might make up for the relatively high house edge in some ways.

There’s a difference between a traditional poker game and a casino poker game. That’s because in traditional poker you’re competing with the other players. In a casino poker game, the house is banking all the action. It’s like blackjack—you only have to beat the dealer; you don’t have to beat the other players at the table.

Of course, in a poker game with only 3 cards, the odds of getting certain hands change quite a bit. That’s part of the fun of this game. It’s easier to get a straight, a flush, or a straight flush when you only have to get 3 cards to match.

For Example:

Suppose you want to determine the probability of getting a flush. In probability terms, this is an “AND” question. The 2nd card needs to be of the same suit as the 1st card, AND the 3rd card has to match those suits, too.

In probability, when the question uses the word “and”, you multiply the probabilities of the separate outcomes by each other to get your overall probability.

To keep things simple, I’m going to estimate these odds without taking into account the cards that have already been dealt. There are 4 suits, so the probability of getting a card of any particular suit is ¼.

¼ X ¼ is 1/16, which is a reasonable approximation of your odds of getting a flush in 3 card poker.

In a 5 card poker game, the odds would look like this, instead:

¼ X ¼ X ¼ X ¼ = 1/256.

That’s an order of magnitude in difference.

The bottom line is that you’ll see bigger hands more often in 3 Card Poker, and that’s just more fun. Of course, your hand still has to beat the dealer’s hand in order to win.

The house edge for 3 Card Poker is around 3.3%, making it a worse bet than European roulette, but not by much. It’s also a considerably better bet than American roulette, which has a house edge of 5.26%.

10. Caribbean Stud Poker

Caribbean Stud Poker is another house-banked poker game, but this one offers a progressive jackpot. I recommended avoiding slot machine games with progressive jackpots earlier, because they offer worse odds to the players. If you’re looking for a fun game where you get a shot at a big prize, Caribbean Stud Poker is a good place to look.

Also, Caribbean Stud Poker is a game in which you can socialize with other players.

The house edge on this game is relatively high, about the same as that for roulette. So on our list of best casino games, this is the worst of the bunch. I wouldn’t recommend this at all if it weren’t for the fun factor and the potential progressive jackpot.

This is also a game that rewards strategy, but the strategy for playing is more complicated than just learning basic strategy in blackjack.

The truth is that it’s all about the progressive jackpot. Most blackjack games don’t offer a progressive jackpot, and sometimes I just want to dream about the big score. And you can’t ever get a big score if you don’t play a game where a big score is available.

Even if you don’t hit the progressive, some of the hands pay out at 100 to 1 or 50 to 1. You won’t see that at the blackjack table, either.
Each real money casino game has different odds and probabilities, therefore in order to win a substantial return it is better to know which casino games offer the best odds for players and which ones offers the worst. The best casino games to play are the ones with the lowest house edge or ones where the player has an advantage.

FAQ

What are the best online casino games?

We think that the best online casino games are the ones that you love to play the most. For many gamblers those games include slots, which are by far the most popular of all games offered, roulette, which is the most played table game, and various card games such as blackjack and its variants. Craps is also a game that many love to play due to the excitement that it generates and the low house edge on many of its bets.

How do popular online casino games work?

Online casino games usually follow the same rules as those played at land-based casinos. However, most online casino games, except for live dealer online casino games ones, are software driven. That is, the software program, which includes a random number generator (RNG), is designed to ensure fair results. The RNG determines the outcome of each round in an unbiased manner.

Popular online casino games are they rigged?

No, online casino games are not rigged. Games are developed and manufactured by various reputable companies. Before the games are sent to and installed at online casinos all elements, including the RNG, are set by the company. These games are then tested to ensure they offer fair results. The casino running the game cannot in any manner alter them. If you are concerned about fraud, we suggested that you only play at licensed online casinos that have their games tested on a regular basis by an independent auditor.

What popular online casino games have the best casino odds?

Games that offer some of the best casino odds include specific craps and roulette bets and certain card games such as blackjack and baccarat. In addition, many online slots offer a high rate of return to players, with high rate of return machines paying back 97% to 99% of each dollar spent on them. However, it should be noted that hitting the jackpot on any slot machine or winning a high odds bet on any table or card game is difficult. Check the payout odds to determine if your odds of winning are good or not. The better the payout, the higher your risk, and the more difficult it is to win.

Where can I find the biggest jackpots?

The biggest jackpots by far are offered by progressive online slots. These jackpots range anywhere from five to eight figures. The reason why progressive slot jackpots are so large has to do with the fact all of the machines of the same name, such as Mega Moolah, are linked together and a portion of every bet made goes towards the progressive jackpot. When the progressive is finally hit it may have been building for many months or even for more than a year.

Which are best for beginners?

Many people like slots because they are easy to play, while other beginners prefer roulette, which is fairly simple to understand. Whatever online casino game you decide to play, before betting any money read all the rules regarding the game, including how payouts work. Also, it-s always a good idea to play the game in free play mode, as this allows you to get a feel for how the game works before you risk any real cash.

How can I improve my winning chances?

There are a few things that you can do to help stretch your bankroll, which will give you more turns and increase your chances of winning. First, play stakes that will allow you to make as many bets as possible. If you have $100, don-t play a game that has a minimum bet of $10, play one that allows you to wager $1.00 per turn. Doing so gives you 10 times more bets. Prior to playing, make sure that you know all rules governing that game and play the game in free play mode first, as this will allow you to become acquainted with its finer points. Finally, always set limits for winning and losing and abide by them. Many players stay too long at the gaming tables, losing all of their winnings and more.