Introduction to Table Games
Table game players have had a lot of undue influence on slot machine players. But putting our cards on the table, slot machines are BETTER than table games. That’s not my opinion, but established and verifiable FACT.
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Biggest Money-Maker?
The biggest money-maker for casinos is slot machines. That’s well understood. If there were an equal number of slot machines AND table seats, most dealers would stand idle.
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So, casinos adjusted the ratio of slots to tables until there were thousands of slot machines and only tens of table games, at best. Even then, it’s never long before a slot machine is played while the table games stand idle. And idle slot machines cost little in electricity, but idle tables have dealers and others who still get paid a salary even while they are waiting.
But my focus isn’t about casino gaming revenue or popularity among casino patrons. It’s about the odds of winning at slot machines versus any table game. I’ll explore those facts in a moment.
Which Have You Played?
You’re likely a slot player because you’re here. But are you also a table game player? Or were you, once upon a time?
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We all have opinions about table games. That’s certainly fine! But if your gambling goal is to make money, then the best odds of winning matter.
Twenty U.S. states offer slot machine return statistics, of which seven offer payout returns broken down by slot machine denominations. But let’s take that a bit further. Of those states, how many also offer return statistics for table games?
At least four U.S. gaming jurisdictions offer state reporting on both slot machine and table game returns:
- New Jersey’s Division of Gaming Enforcement offers Monthly Gross Gaming Revenues
- Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission’s Gaming Revenue Reports
- Mississippi Gaming Commission’s Monthly Revenue Reports and Monthly Archives
- Nevada Gaming Control Board and Nevada Gaming Commission’s Gaming Revenue Information
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Indiana also offers returns for table games, but not the win or hold percent, which is less convenient for our purposes today.
New Jersey State Data
Let’s start with New Jersey. Why? Because casino-by-casino, they show month-by-month return statistics for both slots and table games.
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Returns from table games are shown in total with poker table games excluded. But here you can see the two casino hold percent for table games and slots. Remember that casino hold percent is 100% minus player win percent.
Every state does one or the other, around a 90% player% or a 10% casino%. For New Jersey, it’s casino% so the larger the percent, the better the return is for the casino and worst the odds are for players.
Iowa State Data
Second is Iowa’s returns for its nineteen casinos. I’ve highlighted both the table and slot revenue percentages. Iowa is like New Jersey in that they provide the casino% so, again, the larger the percent, the worst for players.
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Iowa also starts with a casino-by-casino percentage. However, unlike New Jersey, they also provide a game-by-game breakdown at each casino.
Mississippi State Data
Third is Mississippi’s returns for its four state regions. Not every state region has every game. But notice how the state region average is always just a little higher than the casino% for blackjack. Why?
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Because there are typically twice as many blackjack tables as all other table games combined. What this means is, the lower return, although not LOW with regards to slots, brings down the overall average return for all table games.
Nevada State Data
And last is Nevada’s returns. Let’s look at the state averages for April 2022 (page 1). Baccarat is relatively low, with slightly better odds than the typically worst penny slots return.
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But notice that the Baccarat return is only 9.27% for April 2022, as the 3-month average and 12-month average is 4 to 5% higher over the long term. Pai Gow is also very low, but it’s over 10% less than its long-term average.
Let’s look a little deeper into the Nevada returns to solve the mystery of what’s going on with these two table games. The returns for all of Clark County (page 6) show Baccarat to be around 9% but Pai Gow had a 104.2% return for April. But where was this?
Downtown Las Vegas? North Las Vegas? The Strip?
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Let’s look further into Clark County returns and find out. Nope, not downtown (page 8). They don’t offer Baccarat nor Pai Gow, just Mini-Baccarat and Pai Gow Poker which we’re not look for.
So, let’s look at The Strip (page 12). Ah, there it is. That’s where Baccarat and Pai Gow drove down the state average.
Mystery solved? But let see if we can see which casino on The Strip where this occurred…. During all of this, except for a couple of exceptions in April 2022 on The Strip which was fun to track down, slot returns had casino% in the single digits with perhaps 10% at worst.
A Fundamental Misunderstanding
Now, you might say these are averages across all table game players. And there are some terrible poker players out there that other poker players beat the pants off of. Yes, there are skilled poker players that beat the average.
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These professional poker players (or semi-pro?) take the chips of poker players that don’t know what they are doing. Same with blackjack players counting cards. Or craps players using dice control to improve their odds.
And yes, some casinos have pretty much shut down counting cards with infinite shufflers and other controls. And perhaps dice control only exists on the special tabletop conditions found at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. Also, I do wonder if Mohegan Sun on the Strip uses the same craps table supplier as they have in Connecticut.
It’s something you’ll want to check, I bet. Yes, you can improve your odds with some table games if you’ve put the skill into it. But the same is true for slots players.
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YOU aren’t an average slots enthusiast, especially if you’ve taken my course. You’re skilled! A skilled table game player has a long way to go to get their personal return over 100% where they can start making a profit. 35%? 20%?
But slots enthusiasts have a lot less farther to go to get their personal return over 100%. 10%? 8%? 6%?
Slot machine odds are factually better than table game odds. Not just better, but twice as good even if you’re playing penny slots. Or 3x better. Or as much as a 6x better return.
Summary of Table Games
Putting all our cards on the table, slot machines are BETTER than table games. Check the state data if you don’t believe me. And if you try to spin it, remember that same spin applies even better to slot machines.