“House edge” is the reason why the house always wins. Edge is the average percent over time that the casino will make on each bet. Different games have different edges, the bigger the edge, the bigger the payout and the smaller your chances of winning. The National Lottery has an edge of around 50%, slot machines 17%, roulette 5.5%. Blackjack has an edge of 0.5%, if you’re good and if you have a strategy. But if you can count cards, you can gain the edge.
Card counting or card reading is a technique players can use predict the cards that will be dealt during a game of blackjack to place bets to the biggest advantage. Though not illegal and technically not cheating — it’s referred to as “advantage play” — it is frowned upon by casinos as it undermines their house advantage. Back in the golden age of Vegas — for the casinos, not the players — card counting could result in a visit from hired mob goons. These days your knees will remain intact but you will be escorted from the premises and possibly banned for life from that casino and any other casino they’d care to share your information with, which if you hadn’t already guessed, would be all of them.
Still, card counting remains popular, the Hollywood glitz and glamour of movies like 21 and the dream of hitting the big time fuels a cottage industry of forums, websites, courses and…
