Blackjack vs Roulette vs Poker: Which Has the Best Odds?
Of the three, poker is the only one with no house edge: you play against other players, so a better player can come out ahead for good. Between the two house games, blackjack has far better odds if you play it right. With perfect basic strategy the house keeps about 0.5% of what you bet, against 2.70% on a European roulette wheel and 5.26% on an American one. Play blackjack by feel, though, and it can cost more than roulette.
The numbers side by side
"House edge" is the share of every bet the house keeps over time. Here's what each game takes from 1,000 chips wagered, from our simulations and the games' exact math.
| Game, played how | House edge | Lost per 1,000 chips bet |
|---|---|---|
| Blackjack, perfect basic strategy | 0.5% | 5 |
| European roulette with la partage, even-money bets only | 1.35% | 13.5 |
| Blackjack, never doubling or splitting | 2.4% | 24 |
| European roulette, any bet | 2.70% | 27 |
| American roulette, any bet | 5.26% | 53 |
| Blackjack, copying the dealer | 5.7% | 57 |
| Blackjack, never risking a bust | 8.1% | 81 |
| Poker | None to the house | Depends on your opponents |
The blackjack rows come from our simulations of millions of hands at 6-deck rules where the dealer stands on 17 (how to win at blackjack has the method). The roulette rows are exact: one zero takes 1 chip in 37, two zeros take 2 in 38. European vs American roulette explains the difference.
Blackjack: the best odds, if you earn them
Blackjack is the only house game here where your decisions change the edge. The dealer follows fixed rules; you choose when to hit, stand, double and split. Choose perfectly and the house keeps half a percent. Choose badly and it keeps sixteen times that.
The catch is that "perfectly" means following a basic strategy chart, including plays that feel wrong, like hitting 12 against a dealer 2 or splitting 8s against a 10. Rules matter too: a table paying 6 to 5 for blackjack instead of 3 to 2 adds about 1.4% to the edge before the first card.
Roulette: simple, and the same for everyone
Roulette asks for no decisions after you bet, and no bet is better than another: on a single-zero wheel, red, a dozen and a single number all lose 2.70% over time. That's both its weakness and its charm. A complete beginner plays roulette exactly as well as an expert.
No betting system changes it. We played six of them 100,000 times each and every one lost between 2.7% and 2.8% of what it wagered; the full results are in roulette strategy, tested. The only real choices are the wheel (avoid double zero) and how much to bet.
Poker: no house edge, but not a free lunch
In poker the house doesn't play. Chips move between players, so over time the better players win what the weaker ones lose. In a casino or on a real-money site, the house takes a small cut of each pot, called the rake; that's how it earns money from a game it doesn't play in. At House21 there's no rake.
So your "odds" in poker depend on who's at the table. Against weaker opponents, a good player has a real long-term edge, something no blackjack or roulette player can have without counting cards. Against stronger ones, you'll lose. And any single hand is mostly luck: even pocket aces lose to a suited connector almost a quarter of the time, as our poker hand rankings show.
Edge isn't everything: how much each game swings
Two games can have similar edges and feel completely different.
| Game | How a session feels |
|---|---|
| Blackjack | Steady. You win about 43% of hands and push 9%; one hand rarely moves more than one or two bets. |
| Roulette, even-money bets | Steady, close to a coin flip each spin. |
| Roulette, single numbers | Long dry runs, occasional 35-to-1 wins. A number misses 36 spins in a row about 37% of the time. |
| Poker | Many small pots and a few huge ones. One all-in can double or empty your stack. |
What it costs per hour
House edge is per bet, so speed matters. At House21 a roulette wheel spins about every 33 seconds, roughly 110 spins an hour. Bet 10 chips on red every spin and you'll lose about 30 chips an hour on average.
A blackjack table with several players deals far fewer hands an hour. At, say, 60 hands an hour with 10-chip bets and basic strategy, the average cost is about 3 chips an hour; at 120 hands, about 6. A slow, social blackjack table is the cheapest game per hour by a wide margin, as long as you play the chart.
So which should you play?
- Lowest house edge: blackjack with basic strategy.
- No thinking required: European roulette.
- A game you can actually beat: poker, if you're better than the table.
- The longest night out of the fewest chips: blackjack at a full table.
- The most dramatic swings: single numbers in roulette, or all-ins in poker.
Or play all three: at House21 they share one free chip balance, so you can switch from a blackjack table to the roulette wheel to a hold'em game without paying for any of it. What is a social casino? explains how that works.
Common questions
Is blackjack easier to win than roulette? In any single session either can go your way. Over many sessions, a basic-strategy blackjack player loses about a fifth of what a roulette player loses for the same amount wagered.
Can you beat roulette? No, not on a fair wheel. Every bet has the same negative edge.
Is poker gambling or skill? Both. Short-term results are mostly luck; long-term results depend on skill, which is why professional poker players exist and professional roulette players don't.
Which game has the best odds at House21? Blackjack with basic strategy for the house games, and poker if you outplay the table. How to play Texas Hold'em gets you started.
Try all three with free chips in the lobby.