David Morey 
Most players want to know their odds of winning when they play casino games, so we’ll examine the concepts behind the games that pay the most in this genre. Luckily, many of these games are also available online.
Slots
Slot machines have become very popular due to their simple gameplay and ability to hit large jackpots. For beginners, classic slots with three reels and easy gameplay are perfect, even though they usually have lower prizes. However, the pros usually opt for progressive slots, which have huge and continuously growing jackpots by pooling money across many interconnected slot machines.
Regardless of your chosen type of slots, the most important metric you need to look for is the Return-to-Player (RTP) rate. An RTP rate states percentages of wagered money that slots pay back to players in the long run. According to gambling expert Khadij Bilal, Novomatic’s fanbase enjoys high RTP rates that average around 95% across all games they’ve developed for both land-based and online casinos.
Variance is another crucial factor to consider when playing slots. Low-variance slots usually pay out small jackpots frequently, whereas high-variance slots pay out larger sums sporadically.
Blackjack
Blackjack has a long-standing reputation as one of the best-paying games in the betting scene, from bitcoin casinos to in-person establishments, because of its favorable odds and low house edge. House edges are numbers that show the advantage the casino has against its patrons. Depending on the house rules, this number usually favors the casino by a slim 0.5% to 1% margin.
Blackjack odds favor players because they don’t compete with other players as their only opponent is the dealer. This gives patrons who play strategically a huge edge over the house, thus bringing down the odds of the casino winning.
One of the most commonly used strategies by blackjack players of all skill levels is very simple: It requires players to consistently make the best choices based on dealer up-cards and cards currently held by the player.
However, some of the favorite strategies among pros include avoiding tables that exclusively offer 6:5 games and instead going for tables that offer 3:2 payouts. Pros also look for tables with favorable rules, such as standing when they get hands with 17 values and above.
Baccarat
Baccarat has drawn many players not only because of the high stakes and sophistication associated with this game but also because of the simplicity of its rules. Generally, these rules involve patrons betting on two outcomes that depend on the banker’s and player’s hands.
Those who play this game aim to predict whether the player or the banker will get the closest to 9. In baccarat, the cards are dealt face up, with cards with numbers on them retaining their written values. Aces represent 1 point, and face cards are worth 0 points.
The simplicity of baccarat’s gameplay is what makes it one of the best-paying casino games. Along with the various betting options it offers, the primary option is the banker-player bet. In these bets, the banker has a slight edge because of the house commission, which is usually around 5% on winning bets.
This leaves the player’s bet at a payout of 1:1 with a house edge of 1.24%. The banker’s bet has the same payouts but a house edge of 1.06% minus the commission.
In addition to the main bets, baccarat offers side bets, such as the tie bet, which, depending on the casino, has 9:1 or 8:1 payout odds. Other side bet types are the pairs, which allow bettors to wager on whether the first two cards dealt to the banker or player will form a pair. These side bets can have payouts as high as 11:1, but this varies with each casino.
Video Poker
Another high-payout game is video poker, which is an interesting blend of skill and luck. It mixes characteristics of slot machines and poker. That’s because video poker doesn’t just require people to study the probabilities of winning the machine games; they can also influence their success by making strategic moves based on the cards they get.
Similarly to slot machines, video poker payouts depend on the types of games offered. Not all casinos have the same number of games, and land-based casinos may have fewer game types than online crypto casinos.
However, the types of high-paying video poker games that you can find at almost every casino include Joker Poker, which allows you to swap out a joker card for any card to make winning combinations. Double Bonus Poker is another game that you can find in most places. Its quirk is that it offers a bigger payout when players get four-of-a-kind hands and pays even more for those with aces.
Pai Gow Poker
Pai Gow Poker is another high-paying blended poker game. It’s a mix of both poker and a Chinese card game called Pai Gow. In Pai Gow Poker, all players must split the seven cards they get dealt at the beginning of the game into two hands. The high hand must have five cards, and the low hand must be assigned two cards.
The player is supposed to beat the dealer in both hands by following standard poker strategies in the high hand such as aiming for straights and flushes. The player aims to get higher-ranking cards and pairs in the low hand. That is why setting your hands right is so important in this game. You need to make sure that your high hand is very strong and leave whatever’s left for your low hand.
Pai Gow Poker can pay big because of its low house edges, usually around 2.84%, thus offering players a higher chance of making money the longer they play, especially if they play strategically. This is a huge plus, as the game’s pace is usually slow.
