Not All Blackjack Games Are Created Equal...

Disclaimer: All statistics come from this great article in the Las Vegas Sun

The proliferation of 6:5 blackjack in Las Vegas is among the chief arguments that people turn to when pointing to the downfall of player’s rights in Las Vegas. More and more, gambling conditions are worsening, with methods such as lower pay tables in Video Poker machines and automatic shuffle machines…not that we should be the least bit surprised.

For those not in the know, at a traditional Blackjack table, when a player receives a blackjack (An Ace and a face card or ten) and the dealer has anything but 21 also, the player receives one and a half times his bet as payments. This is called 3:2 Blackjack, as the bet pays out at a ratio of 3:2. However, more and more in Las Vegas, especially at the Strip Casinos, this payout is lowered to 6:5.

The edge might not seem significant, but when you break down the math, it means that a basic strategy player will lose his money 5 times faster at a shoe-dealt game, and 8 times more quickly at a single-deck game.

So why are Casinos doing this? Simple, because people play it. More and more, the lower-limit games at casinos employ this bottom-line-friendly game, as the lower-level player probably wouldn’t notice anyway.

The lesson here is to carefully check out the rules on the table felt before sitting down to play. However it is becoming increasingly hard to find a game with decent rules, as seemingly all the full payout tables can only be found at Downtown Casinos, or Off-Strip, locals places.

Anthony Curtis of the Las Vegas Advisor, perhaps recognizable from those awful quasi-infomercials about Vegas on the Travel Channel, states in this article:

"Over time, bit by bit, person by person, the entire market is going to react as a single organism and people will move away from that game," Curtis said. "It will hurt the casinos in the long run."

I don’t buy this one bit; vacationers (like us) come to Las Vegas to have a good time, not to scour each table up and down the strip till you find what you are looking for. And by the look of the completely full tables on our last trip, 6:5 isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. I predict that soon, we will be looking around for a 6:5 table to play at, as all the casinos will offer is even-money.

Taking a hit: New blackjack odds further tilt advantage toward the house

6:5 Blackjack? Just say No!