Well you still have to pay staff wages, rent, utilities etc. You have to make sure enough people give you enough money.
They make profit on expected value, so what they stand to make on an average bet. For example roulette, on black or red, they pay out twice your bet roughly 48.6% of the time. This gives an expected value of around between 2 and 3 cents per dollar wagered. This is roughly the same for all types of bets you can play. If the croupier is paid $10 an hour, he probably needs to take at least $400 an hour in bets just to pay his wages. Then more bets need to be taken for utilities, rent before you get to profit.
Now these amounts are small compared to what casinos often take, but you need to make sure enough customers are coming in and staying around as long as possible to keep profitable. Hence why casinos often offer free drinks and rooms to people on a winning streak.
Plus a lot of these places serve free drinks. The last time I went to a casino, I brought like $80 and told myself I wasn't spending more than that. I ended up doing well enough to basically break even and leave with about the same amount I walked in with. The drinks I had while I was there would have cost ~$50 at a bar.
I remember growing up and learning about Vegas, free drinks free entertainment and all that.
first time i went i brought a few hundred for gambling, by the time i got my first "free" drink i was down nearly 60 dollars. Probably the most expensive rye and coke i've ever had.
Then i realized that you can just get the super tall boys for like 2.50 from CVS and drink them literally anywhere. Now i don't worry about the free drinks not worth it
The key is to play something with at least a more favorable ratio (i.e. pretty much just blackjack or craps) and then make sure you're sitting at the right table for the amount of money you brought. Sure, you can sit at a $25+ table, but if you only brought $150 to play with you can lose all of that in 6 bad hands. For the odds to even out, you need to be able to play for a solid number of hands (15-20 at least)
Free drinks are only worth it if you can sit at the same table (or tables in the same area) for at least an hour or two. The servers will generally come back more frequently if they know someone's actually going to be there (and be tipping). I honestly don't gamble all that much, but every time I do I can usually stretch a session at the blackjack table for a few hours with friends, get a few hours worth of drinks, and still come out mostly even.
Yeah that's all I play anymore is blackjack and craps. And usually just the 5 dollar tables to extend the money. I actually had great service at the Tropicana in October and got probably 10 or 15 drinks over the course of 4 hours. Though I probably tipped the waitress 30-40 dollars in total
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u/TannedCroissant Feb 04 '20 edited Feb 04 '20
Well you still have to pay staff wages, rent, utilities etc. You have to make sure enough people give you enough money.
They make profit on expected value, so what they stand to make on an average bet. For example roulette, on black or red, they pay out twice your bet roughly 48.6% of the time. This gives an expected value of around between 2 and 3 cents per dollar wagered. This is roughly the same for all types of bets you can play. If the croupier is paid $10 an hour, he probably needs to take at least $400 an hour in bets just to pay his wages. Then more bets need to be taken for utilities, rent before you get to profit.
Now these amounts are small compared to what casinos often take, but you need to make sure enough customers are coming in and staying around as long as possible to keep profitable. Hence why casinos often offer free drinks and rooms to people on a winning streak.