Turkeyslam

I have seen it. As much as I genuinely love seeing people win (outside of the selfish reason of getting more tips from winners), I don't like seeing people win life-changing amounts of money. Here's why. Huge wins set mental precedents for gamblers. They see the game as something that at one point saved their asses and made them a ton of money. This kind of crap is what gets people addicted to slot machines, primarily. Everyone's heard of the guy who hit a 5/6/7 figure score on a cheap slot machine. The part you don't often hear, however, is that the average North American casino makes over EIGHTY percent of its revenue through slot play.

Big wins are amazing, however, they may have very substantial and negative consequences.

With this question, I am going to assume you go to it with OPTIMAL play. AKA, playing it flawlessly, where applicable. The games I can currently think of, in order from best to worst:

1) Poker. No specific advantage, but the house has absolutely no stake in who wins or loses other than cutting out a small percentage for the house in each hand. Hundreds of thousands make a living off of it. Its "gambling" is akin to playing the stock market.

2) Blackjack. With perfect strategy, depending on the game you play, the house edge can get as low as 0.5% or less. With efficient card counting strategies, a novice could turn this into a breakeven or even slightly profitable game. A select few with the mental fortitude, endurance, and bankroll to withstand the swings can make a hefty profit. Anyone can card count. It's fucking overrated. The problem with it is that it's a huge grind... work. It's like clocking in at a job. But for anyone with half a clue who doesn't want to count, blackjack is still a GOOD game. Just don't let the erroneous superstition affect your play. Playing blackjack on hunches while ignoring basic strategy can make this a worse game to play than nearly everything else on this list.

3) Craps, assuming you stay the hell away from anything in the middle. The pass line and don't pass bets have a house edge of 1.4%, however, if you take full odds, you can whittle the house edge down to close to zero if you can afford it. The swings and variance are massive, but the odds are fantastic on the basic bets. The place bets, field bet, etc are about as bad as playing Three Card Poker, while the bets the stick person advertises (the ones in the middle) are basically outright theft.

4) Baccarat. This game is a simulated competition between two sides, akin to a coinflip. I play this game for fun. There are two sides to bet on, banker or player. The drawing rules slightly favor banker, making it the better bet. However, BOTH bets are excellent from a casino standpoint. This is a high roller game for a reason. My best advice for this game is to ignore all of the superstition, all of the trend tracking, and annoyance at the mandatory commission and bet banker 100% of the time. Around a 1% house edge. Hard to beat.

5) Pai Gow Poker/Pai Gow Tiles. The odds aren't as good as the games above, but it involves strategy and utilizing your brain. It's a game for more intelligent people, and rewards setting hands intelligently. At a house edge of 2-3%, the game is not bad at all, considering every hand takes several minutes to play and almost half of hands are pushes. If you milk the casino out of free drinks and comps, you could economically see this game as having an edge for the player. You can lower the house edge substantially by opting to bank hands. Google it, it's worth your time if you play these games. Just stay away from the Fortune side bet or whatever the hell your casino offers. IT IS TERRIBLE.

6) Three Card Poker/Mississippi Stud/Caribbean Stud/Let it Ride/Flop Poker/Texas Hold'em Bonus/Ultimate Texas Hold'em/Crazy 4 Poker/Four Card Poker/sdkjhsdkjfhasdlkfhsadlkfhsdaklufask. These games are called "carnival games" and aren't taken seriously by the casino. They aren't the worst offenders, but their house edges are heavy and nobody wins long-term in any of them. They are a fun diversion, but exist for only that reason: to be a diversion.

7) Roulette/Sic Bo/Keno/Big Six: RUN LIKE HELL AWAY FROM THESE GAMES.

EDIT: On a last note, AVOID SIDE BETS wherever possible, unless you know the numbers you're up against and don't care. Nearly every blackjack side bet carries a MASSIVE house edge, especially ones that have longshot payout possibilities. The dragon bonus on Baccarat, the fortune bonus on Pai Gow Poker, the Pair Plus on TCP... they're all really, really bad. Inform yourself before you play.

My opinion about slots? Consistent manual labor, where the end outcome is for you to lose all your fucking money.

SOUNDS LIKE A GOOD TIME

Sit at the table and watch it for a long while. Absorb the action and pay attention to specific bets that are on the EDGES of the table. Stay the fuck away from the middle.

The most basic bet in craps, the pass line bet, is the most integral bet in the game. It's super easy. When the hockey-puck-looking-thing shows "off", put a bet on the layout where it says "pass". Now, watch the roll. If the shooter throws a 7 or 11, you just won even money. If they roll 2, 3, or 12, you've just lost. If they've rolled any other possible combination (4/5/6/8/9/10), this exact number needs to be rolled again before 7 hits in order to win. That's it.

Everything else in Craps is simply a proposition bet on outcomes of the roll of a dice. Learn the pass line, understand what it means to take odds on it, and absorb the game and atmosphere outside of that, and you'll probably win more money than anyone else at the table.

If you think that 0.03% less of a house edge is worth it at the expense of the entire table thinking you're a fucking prick, do it.

(I love betting the don't pass, especially when I am the shooter)