Robin Benjamin asked 6 months ago
Bookmakers and casinos give themselves an edge and 99% of individuals fall into their “trap”. How do they do this and what should be avoided?
Let’s look at the example of roulette in a casino.
On the surface, it looks OK. 36 numbers, choose one and obtain 35-1 if you’re correct right? Wrong. the majority of people forget that you’ll find actually 37 numbers including zero (as well as 38 with a double zero on American roulette). This make a big difference on the subject of payouts. So just using European roulette, let’s crunch the numbers.
If you choose one number, the specific odds of getting that number correct is 1 in 37 or 36-1. So by offering 35-1, the casino has instantly stacked the odds ever so subtly within their favour. Just the reduction of 1 point gives the home an edge of around 2.7%. Not much of a lot you could think but over the course of Ł100,000 that’s Ł2700 in favour of the casino. A small margin but a margin nonetheless.
So what about red/black or odd/even? Again, it will appear to be a 50/50 bet. But with the inclusion of zero, you actually have an 18 in 37 chance (48.65%). That favours the home by 1.35% which over the course of one day, could equal to thousands of pounds.
But this really is nothing in comparison to bookmakers.
As I’ve demonstrated, a “50/50” at a casino is really a 48.65/51.35 against you. At bookmakers, the margin is significantly greater. A seemingly 50/50 bet is normally priced up at 9/10 or 1.9 in decimal odds.
Therefore the bookmaker is giving themselves a tremendous 10% margin on these kind of bets, the most common of that are called “handicap bets”. The handicap bets are set up in such a way that you’ll find only two possible outcomes, rated as equally likely. But regardless of what is it worth your choice is, the bookie stands to keep 10% of the particular odds. Not fair, you could think. Well, they are not going to give you anything for free. They are within the business of making money after all.
So how can you counter these edges?
It is possible with bookmakers to work with a system of “handicap doubles”. I will explain this at another time. Otherwise, only good fortune will counter a bookie’s edge and which is not something to rely upon.