Product
Table Games
Definition
The casino games traditionally played at a table against the house: blackjack, roulette, baccarat, craps, casino poker variants and their online RNG and live-dealer versions. Lower house edge and lower volume than slots, and the core of the live casino product.
Key takeaways
- Table games have low, rule-determined house edges: roulette around 2.7 per cent, blackjack under 1 per cent with basic strategy.
- They come as RNG simulations and as live-dealer streams, the latter now the growth product of online casino.
- Low edges are why table games contribute little to wagering requirements and why side bets carry the margin.
- Table players stake more and play longer than slot players, which offsets the lower edge.
Why it matters
Table games are the second pillar of the online casino after slots, and they behave differently in almost every commercial respect. Their house edges are low and set by the rules rather than by a designer: single-zero roulette holds around 2.7 per cent of stakes, blackjack under 1 per cent for a player following basic strategy, baccarat around 1.1 per cent on the banker bet. That means the operator earns less per unit staked, but table-game players tend to stake more and play longer, and in several markets the average table player is worth more than the average slot player.
Online, table games come in two forms. RNG versions are software simulations, fast and cheap to run, with the same certified randomness as slots. Live-dealer versions stream a human dealer from a studio with bets placed on screen, and have become the growth product of the online casino: they carry the credibility of a physical table, support side bets and game-show hybrids that widen the margin, and are supplied by a small number of specialist studios on revenue-share terms that reflect their scarcity.
For bonus design and compliance, table games are treated separately. Their low house edge is why they contribute little or nothing toward wagering requirements, why advantage play (card counting is irrelevant online, but strategy play is not) is watched, and why side bets exist: a side bet with a house edge several times the main game is where the margin on a blackjack table comes from.
Frequently asked questions
Which table game has the lowest house edge?
Blackjack played with basic strategy, at under 1 per cent under common rules, followed by the banker bet in baccarat. Single-zero roulette is around 2.7 per cent; double-zero roulette roughly doubles that.
Why do table games count for so little toward bonus wagering?
Because a bonus cleared at a 0.5 per cent house edge would cost the operator far more than one cleared at a 4 per cent slot edge. Contribution tables of 10 per cent or less, or exclusion, protect the bonus arithmetic.
Are online table games random or dealt?
Both exist. RNG table games use a certified random number generator; live-dealer games use physical cards and wheels in a studio, streamed with the result read by optical recognition.