Ranking the 10 Best Casino Games

What are the best casino games you should be playing online?

If you’re in search for the top options as far as RTP, enjoyability, and learning/playing difficulty, then I’ve got answers.

Let’s get right into the 10 best casino games and the reasons why. Click each game to learn more.

When asking about casino games with the best odds, many people will point you to blackjack.

People will say that blackjack is the best game to play at a casino, and they certainly have a strong argument.

While there are drawbacks to blackjack, they’re easily outweighed by the pros of the game. For starters, blackjack has one of the lowest house edges 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 long-term expectation for the player.

If you find a blackjack game with a good set of rules, and if you play using basic strategy, the house edge might be under 0.3%. That makes blackjack easily one of the best online casino games.

Sure, you might sometimes find a video poker game with a comparable number, or even slightly better, but that’s not common these days.

Even blackjack games where the game conditions are less than favorable offer better odds than the worst casino games, and even some of the ones on this list. The worst blackjack games usually have a house edge of around 1%.

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.

Even if you ignore basic strategy 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%.

The best way to become a better blackjack player is to practice. I recommend using the best blackjack online casinos to get as many reps in as possible.

Another great thing about blackjack is that it’s one of the only 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.

It’s easier than you think, too. Once you understand the basic concept, you’ll improve your chances of winning in blackjack.

Blackjack is, without a doubt, one of, if not the best casino game to play.

There’s a good chance you are already wanting to play blackjack after finding out it’s the best casino game. Well, the good news is that you don’t have to wait until your next trip to the casino to play.

You can play live blackjack online at the top gambling sites. The best site to play blackjack at is Ignition Casino.

They have a wide variety of blackjack games to choose from, as well as other games on this list.

If you’re looking for a spot to play the best online casino games, you can’t go wrong with Ignition Casino.

They even welcome you to their site with a 300% deposit boost (up to $3,000), which you can use to play for real money without risking your own.

So, the best game in a casino is blackjack, right? Well, as I said earlier, all gamblers are different. Some might prefer to play blackjack, but others might want to play poker instead.

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

As with blackjack, I’m going to look at the pros and cons of this game versus other games. I’ll start with its drawbacks.

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.

Finally, video poker is a game that rewards skilled play. This is just too much pressure for some players. The idea is that they’ve come to the casino in order to relax, not to think about what they’re doing.

Video poker might be one of the best games in the casino to win money at, but you’ll need to pay close attention to what you’re doing. This is not purely a luck-based game where it doesn’t matter how you play.

As with blackjack, the pros of video poker outweigh the cons in a significant way. The main reason is that the odds are so good. It’s also a very transparent game. Here’s why.

Compare this to playing slots. With a slot machine, you have NO 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, for players with my temperament, learning strategy is fun.

I like having some control over my destiny, even if I can’t turn the odds to my favor. I still want to get as much gambling for my money as possible, and I don’t mind making the effort to get there.

Another one of the top casino games with the best odds is craps. Craps may seem quite intimidating, but it’s undeniably one of the best gambling games.

Still, 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. And everyone is excited.

So, is craps the best casino game to win money? There are a few things to take into consideration.

I’ll start again with the drawbacks to craps, but I’m a firm believer that this is one of the best casino games for anyone, no matter what their level of experience is.

The first drawback 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 of 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. You can always take a glance at some craps bets you shouldn’t ever make in the casino.

19 Bets to Avoid When Playing Craps – Whirl Bet, Horn Bet, and More

One way to have an easier life as a gambler is to avoid these 19 worst craps bets. Bad bets in craps have high house edges and low payouts compared to your true odds. Other craps bets to avoid include Any 7, Betting on 2, the Whirl Bet, and more. What do the...

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So, what are the advantages to craps?

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—they want to roll a 7 or an 11 on the come-out roll, and they want to avoid rolling a 2, 3, or 12.

If they roll any other number, they’re set a point. The goal then changes. They now want to roll the point before rolling a 7.

The simplest bet at the craps 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.

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.

Casino games that offer no house edge are nearly impossible to find. The odds bet in craps instantly makes it one of the casino games with the best odds because of that, among others.

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.

The only real strategy for playing craps is to avoid the bets which have a high house edge and focus on the bets with a low house edge.

I’d also argue that craps is the best casino game to win money from an entertainment perspective.

People are jumping up and down, yelling, and giving each other high fives constantly. The lively atmosphere could make it the most enjoyable game to play out of any on this list.

I mentioned earlier that the game is, by its nature, streaky. That’s a feature, not a drawback. Few gambling experiences are more exciting than getting involved with a craps table with a hot shooter.

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. You could also play live craps online, to learn the game with no-one else around.

I’ll admit that baccarat isn’t one of the best online casino games on my personal list, but it’s 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 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.

As this Baccarat guide will tell you, it 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 strategy and who aren’t interested in trying to get an edge over the casino.

Baccarat is not as streaky as craps, but players can get on a winning streak without too much trouble.

You’ll be able to find a lot of the best gambling games at Everygame’s Casino, including Baccarat. They also offer a 200% welcome bonus (up to $7,777) to help get you started, so be sure to take advantage!

I probably sounded pretty down on slot machines when I wrote about video poker earlier, but the reality is that for the right type gambler, slot machines are an excellent choice.

But not all slot machine games are created equally. That’s not necessarily a bad thing either.

In fact, you can pretty much find any type of slot that you are looking for. They have a variety of themes, rules, paylines, and other features that could draw your interest.

Slot machines are easily among the best games to play at the casino 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 slot machines 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.

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 slot machine.

Here’s how the math of that works out:

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.

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 payout percentage 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. Slot machines get a bad rap, but that’s a little undeserved.

Personally, I find that the best games either have progressive jackpot slots, or a hot drop jackpot. These are two different types of jackpots, but they both bring a lot of excitement to the game.

So, if you’re looking for the best online casino games then choose slot machines! Bovada is one site that offers plenty of jackpot slots on an hourly basis!

In general, roulette gets a bad rap among so-called sophisticated gamblers, when in actuality it’s one of the best games to play at the casino.

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.

Say you play that really good 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.

You’ll notice that I specified European roulette on this list. 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.

European Roulette, meanwhile, ranks as one of the best online casino spinning wheel games.

Of course, 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.

SlotsandCasino is one of the top sites that offer European roulette.

You can check out this in-depth SlotsandCasino review for everything you need to know about the site, or head straight to their site to take advantage of their 300% welcome bonus (up to $4,500).

I love Pai Gow Poker for multiple reasons, but the main reasons have to do with the pacing. It’s one of the best casino table games because you can play it leisurely.

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.

There are also ways to hit the jackpot, such as this lucky $46,000 winner in Las Vegas.

However, it may not be one of the best games to play in Vegas for beginners, similar to craps. A lot of games are tough on new players because they aren’t fully aware of the rules and such.

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.

<p?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.

Simply put, it pays to know how to play Pai Gow poker.

Next up on my list of the best casino games to win money is 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 and I’ll discuss some of the differences between the two.

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.

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 given casino.

Not convinced that Spanish 21 is superior to blackjack? Check out the blog below and you’ll surely have your mind changed.

Comparing Spanish 21 vs. Blackjack – Which Game Should You Play?

While it would be a stretch to say there is a Spanish 21 vs. blackjack debate, there are some who feel strongly about which is the better game. Blackjack is one of the most popular casino games of all time. That will not change soon, regardless of any other...

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3 Card Poker is the best game to play at the casino 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.

I mentioned earlier that 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.

If that sounds intriguing to you, I recommend only using the best online poker sites to play.

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.

Here’s a look at the probability for each hand.

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 be 1/256 (¼ X ¼ X ¼ X ¼).

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%.

Rounding out my list of the top gambling games is 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.

I’m not a fan of gambling alone, although I know some people prefer slot machines and video poker because they ARE fans of gambling alone. As Shakespeare said in Hamlet, “To thine own self be true.”

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.

If those factors sound intriguing to you, this Caribbean Stud Poker guide will be of good use to you.

This is a plus and a minus, and here’s why. I enjoy a challenge. Learning a complicated strategy for a game is entertaining to me. But why would I want to spend my time learning a strategy for a game with a house edge that’s 10 times as high as that of blackjack?

I could just use that time learning basic blackjack strategy and enjoy a much better house edge.

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.

Heck, 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.

Practice makes perfect for any casino game, but for this one specifically, the best Caribbean Stud Poker tips will come in handy.

Helpful Caribbean Stud Poker Strategy – Use These 5 Tips to Win

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So, what is the best game to play at the casino? It all comes down to a matter of personal preference. You know your goals as a casino gambler better than I ever could.

Beware of people offering blanket black and white advice about which casino games are better than others and why.

A lot of these gambling pundits base all their advice on one factor—the house edge. As factors go, that isn’t a bad one, but it’s not the only thing most people consider—or even SHOULD consider—when choosing a casino game to play.

You should also think about whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert. You should think about whether you like a fast-paced game or a slow-paced game. Would you prefer to have frequent small wins, or do you prefer to go for a big jackpot?

The options on this list represent my favorites more than anything else, but there’s no denying they’re among the top casino games you should be interested in.

As for picking one casino game that rules them all, I’ll leave that task to the reader.

Hopefully, my breakdown of the best games to play at a casino will help you. Of course, the best piece of advice is to just play what you know and/or are comfortable with.

And if you need further guidance as to deciding where to play, visit the top online casinos.

Footnotes:

• Lucky Pai Gow poker player details are from KITV Island News.
• Reference to Shakesphere’s Hamlet is courtesy of Folger.