Las Vegas - casino house advantage note

I was in MGM this past weekend; and picked up a flyer (in a rack near the PLAYERS CLUB booth) listing house advantages for various games.
Extracting a few items:
House Adv. expected loss/$100
Blackjack 0.05%-1.5% $0.50-$1.50
Nickel Slots 7%-12% $7-$12
Quarter Slots 5%-10% $5-$10
Dollar Slots 2.5%-6% $2.50-$6

Many more games are listed.
This info is from the American Gaming Association. Were the casinos required (by the casino control comm.) to post this info--I can't imagine that they would "voluntarily" want to tip the public off to "real" loss info.

I was in MGM this past weekend; and picked up a flyer (in a rack near the PLAYERS CLUB booth) listing house advantages for various games.
Extracting a few items:
House Adv. expected loss/$100
Blackjack 0.05%-1.5% $0.50-$1.50
Nickel Slots 7%-12% $7-$12
Quarter Slots 5%-10% $5-$10
Dollar Slots 2.5%-6% $2.50-$6

Many more games are listed.
This info is from the American Gaming Association. Were the casinos required (by the casino control comm.) to post this info--I can't imagine that they would "voluntarily" want to tip the public off to "real" loss info.

I don't see why they wouldn't. People should know what the House Advantages are on the games they play. Some are much worse than others.

Anyway, these numbers are readily available online and in many publications.

Those numbers are not really accurate given the variation in rules and slot payouts.

For example, many of the strip hotels now offer 6:5 payout on blackjack, which reduces the player's odds. :td:

And the slots vary widely. Some casinos have 99% payout on $1 slots, some pay 98% of 25cent slots, and other pay what you've posted. Casinos are free to set the payouts as they wish, and the numbers are published monthly by local trade rags.

......I can't imagine that they would "voluntarily" want to tip the public off to "real" loss info.

Since the flyer was available by the Players Club desk, it's most likely that the Players Club is advising the public of the figures they use to determine the comps/cash back that a player may expect from tracked play: typically a percentage of the "expected loss" figures.




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The same people who will comparison-shop the butter and eggs at Ralph's don't care about the price of gambling (the house percentage). If they did, almost nobody would play slots; nearly everyone would play blackjack and craps; and craps players would take full odds.

Show me a bank of slot machines that is marked "99%" and I'll show you a bank of slots that is empty, or that has fewer players than the unmarked 86% bank nearby.

The real loss figure is the "hold percentage" which is the ratio of the amount of cash-outs to the amount of buy-ins. This is a much higher figure, about 10% for a craps table.

To quantify properly $loss, you also need to take into account, how many times staked in a given hour. Slower for Roulette where individuals have to be given time to stake, ball needs to spins and winners have to be paid individually at varying odds. Dice/Craps are the same.

BlackJack is relatively fast but can be slow if half or more of the players are novices and take ages to make up their minds what to do. Best odds (ie lowest lost) is definitely BlackJack but number of stakes per given hour is significantly more so the Expected Loss could be just as high if not higher.

Speed of slots are dependant on how fast the player hits the button. Slowed down each time the player had to feed the machine (when was the last time you saw a slot take coins) or makes a physical payment (why do you ticket Las Vegas casinos now accept and issue vouchers).

Baccarat could be very fast but the dealers just slow it down big time to make a show of it as stakes are high.

Baccarat could be very fast but the dealers just slow it down big time to make a show of it as stakes are high.

@ Big Baccarat, the "players" are the "dealers" --- so, speed is YMMV.
[in comparison, mini and midi baccarat more very quickly]

I've seen shoes (@ Big Baccarat) completed in 45 minutes or 3+ hours --- all depends on the players.

But, as with dice, you don't have to wager every hand (roll) --- so, you can often wager far less at dice and baccarat --- and still be rated ok; unless the supervisors want to take into account skipped hands (rolls).

The speed of play doesn't affect the odds, just the amount of money being exchanged.

To the OP, I think the Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC) requires that casinos have available on the gaming floor informational materials regarding problem gambling/addiction. Perhaps what you were looking at was placed there by the AGA to meet, however vaguely, some NGC requirement-- kind of like a Surgeon General's warning on a pack of cigarettes.

The speed of play doesn't affect the odds, just the amount of money being exchanged.

Of course, the speed of play does not affect the odds.

The question I had was the information brochure had to make an estimate of the expected loss so they had to make an estimate of the speed of play or assumed a given number of plays.

Of course, the speed of play does not affect the odds.

The question I had was the information brochure had to make an estimate of the expected loss so they had to make an estimate of the speed of play or assumed a given number of plays.

Just like expected loss figures, casinos also have expected/average hands per hour figures for table games.

Show me a bank of slot machines that is marked "99%" and I'll show you a bank of slots that is empty, or that has fewer players than the unmarked 86% bank nearby.
But what if the unmarked slots are luckier??

The real loss figure is the "hold percentage" which is the ratio of the amount of cash-outs to the amount of buy-ins. This is a much higher figure, about 10% for a craps table.
No, hold is not a "real loss figure." It's the only statistic that the casino can reliably calculate for table games because they don't track every bet, so that's what they report to the NGC. It's very different from house advantage or theoretical win and can vary due to a number of factors not related to statistical variance (like player behavior).