If you are familiar with the world of gambling, there would have been times you asked yourself the question, “do casinos let you win at first?” Generally, the term gambling automatically connotes leaving the outcome of things completely to chance. Then, as with all things, there is a way one could master gambling that would give one a higher chance of winning. One would usually have to buy this type of knowledge with experience in the gambling world.

The Perspective of Gambling Newbies

Newbies in the world of gambling typically have stories of drastic loss. They most often lose all the money they come with to the casino. It is not an unusual phenomenon as they have no experience yet. There is always a common feature to their gambling stories. They would describe how they accrued so many wins at first, then suddenly went down a losing streak. These newbies would lament about how they had actually won so much money then all of a sudden their luck ran out.

 Over and over, people have told variations of this sad tale to different people in different places. Gradually, everyone has formed a narrative about casinos in their head. People now believe that casinos let people win at first, to lure them to gamble more and then trick them out of all their wins. Some people have even become so paranoid about the casinos. They have this absurd belief that casinos actually monitor their games in detail and the moment they start making meaningful wins, the casino would work against them. There is no thought process that could have been more incorrect.

The Structure of the Casino

In order to fully understand how people win or lose in a casino, you would have to understand how the casino is set up. You would have to fully understand the structure of the casino. A casino is a full-fledged business. Every business that people create is made to earn profit. The best businesses can do is to pretend they are not after your money, but instead providing you value. The truth is at the end of the day, every single business is after money, the good ones just ensure you get value for your money. If they were not after your money they would be a charity.

The logic stated above would let you understand that the owners definitely set the casino up to make money. They are definitely not a charity. While it might look like they built the casino with the mind of giving people opportunities to get rich quickly, you can trust me that it definitely was not the thought process.

The owners of the casinos are out to make good money off their patrons. There is a popular statement in gambling that talks about the house never losing. A business would always have a system in place that would ensure profit. No one ever leaves a business to chance. In a similar fashion, casinos have a system put in place that gives them an edge over their clients. There are few advantages here and there that give the casino a higher hand over the players. The less experienced a player is, the more likely they are to lose their money.

The House Edge

In gambling, there is a term people know as “the house edge.” This is a term experienced gamblers are familiar with but just a few understand completely. The concept of the house edge could be explained as a measure taken by casinos to ensure they are always winning something. It might sound strange but they set it up in such a way that even when the player is winning, they are also winning.

As a gambler, one of the things you need to understand is that there would always be a higher chance of the casino winning your money than you walking away with their money. The owners design all the games that you would play in a casino to give them an edge over you.

Do Casinos Let You win at First

Types of Games and Their Edges

• Roulette: In most casinos, there is a trick they do with the roulette game. People have the general knowledge that the largest payout when one is dealing with a single number bet is thirty-six to one. The casinos devise a method to get their own pay by adding additional numbers. Some wheels have the number zero while some wheels even have double zeros. These numbers increase the odds of the game and yet the casinos only pay the players for the thirty-six to one. Roulette has a 5.6% edge for the casino.
• Keno: The percentage that the casino gains from the house edge on Keno is as high as 25%. This would depend on how the individual casino sets up their games, but it could go that high.
• Slot machines: These machines are one of the most notorious for swallowing up players’ money. This is because the edge of the house is really high. Slot machines hold a whopping 17% for the casinos.
• Baccarat: The house edge on baccarat is quite low when one compares it to other games. It just has an advantage of 1.06% on the players.
• Craps: This is also another game will a low house advantage. Generally, the house percentage in this game is hardly higher than 0.8%.
• Blackjack: It is the game with the lowest house advantage. It usually peaks at 0.5% and sometimes you would find casinos that would play the game for even 0.25%.

Do the Small Edges Really Matter?

At the end of the day, even the games with small edges hardly matter. This is because for those edges to have an effect in a player’s favor, they would need to be perfect. They would have to make sure they are playing at the exact odds that would give them an advantage. Let us face it, in the heat of the moment, with slightly drunk players and the casinos pushing for faster decisions, few people ever play the right odds.

Why Players Feel Like the Casino Makes Them Win at First

One can explain this feeling better if one considers how the house advantage works. The moment a player just starts playing, one could liken it to a blank sheet. It is very easy to record profit at the beginning. This is because you have not yet lost much money to the game. Most times, in the beginning, players can easily recover what they have lost with just one win. This gives the impression that they are “winning.”

The problem that players face with the house edge is that the owners set it up to ensure the players do not get back as much money as they put in in the long run. The casinos always have the long term in mind. The more time that players spend playing, the more likely they are to make wrong decisions. They might decide to put back their winnings and they might lose.

It is a known fact that casinos try their best to make their clients lose track of time. They have staff whose purpose is just to goad their patrons to bet as much as possible. The casinos also ensure their buildings are void of clocks. They even go as far as offering “free complimentary drinks” to their patrons. These drinks are not as free as they seem. They are just stunts that they do to make their patrons slightly disoriented. It then becomes very easy for the players to make wrong decisions.

Slot Machines: A Case Study

A good study of how the house advantage works could be found in the slot machines. As it has been pointed out before, it is very notorious for swallowing up the player’s wins. This is because casinos configure these machines to give them an advantage. They have been designed to always pay out less than has been put in them in the long run.

Some people try to trick the machine by taking breaks and coming back to continue playing. For some reason, this method does not work. This is proven because there are times gamblers would start losing from the first game. Gambling is indeed a game of luck slightly tilted in the casino’s favor.

Do Casinos Let You Win First

In conclusion, the answer to the question “do casinos let you win at first” is no. Casinos never go out of their way to make players win on their first few plays. It would be highly unprofessional and possibly criminal if any casino was doing that.  They do not try to collect wins- if any – back from their patrons. The only important thing to note is that casinos are always at an advantage in all games.