Casino "games" are not really games in the same sense as the games you might enjoy at home, where each player has the same chance of winning. They're carefully structured business propositions, in which the casinos know that over time they are certain to end up ahead.
Most casino games have a built-in "
house edge
." Imagine taking turns tossing a coin with a friend. If you call it correctly, he gives you $1, while if he calls it correctly you give him $1. Now imagine that he suggests a change in the rules; you still have to give him $1 when he's right, but from now on he'll only pay you 95¢. It's still possible that if you play for a few minutes, you may have a run of luck and win lots of 95¢ pay-outs. If you play all day, however, you're going to lose; if he can persuade millions of others to join in and play all day, every day, he's going to get very rich, very quickly. Thus, for example, the roulette table in most Las Vegas casinos holds 38 squares, numbered 1 to 36 plus "0" and "00." If you bet $1 on the correct number, the casino should in theory recognize that you had a 1-in-38 chance of being right, and pay you $38 (including your original $1 stake). Instead, they pay $36, or 94.74 percent; the $2 they hold back works out at 5.26 percent of the total, and that's the "house edge."
All Las Vegas casinos continue to ply gamblers, at both the slot machines and the gaming tables, with free drinks - just be sure to tip the waitress.
In addition to the edge, the casino also knows that most people don't bet at the best odds. It's too boring only to bet on one number for each spin of the roulette wheel, so you may well place a $1 chip on each of three numbers. Only one can possibly be correct, however, so even if you do win the casino grabs back another $2 in the process. According to casino insiders, the rate at which gamblers actually lose their money playing roulette amounts to
thirty percent
per spin of the wheel.
In any case, different people gamble for different reasons. Devotees of blackjack argue that the house edge is much lower than on other games, and that with enough cool calculation it's even possible to come out ahead. Others are far more drawn to the possibility of a quick big win playing craps and roulette, and say that it's about luck, not arithmetic
