Online vs live blackjack: less alike than they look.
The cards are the same, but the hour is not. Online, you play as fast as you click, at a table whose rules you chose. At a casino you play the pace of the table, at the rules on the felt, and the casino pays some of your losses back as comps. Here is what each difference is worth, priced by our engine.
A casino table is slow, and slow is cheap. At $10 a hand a full table deals about 52 hands an hour and costs $3.48 at our typical rules; the same rules online at 200 hands an hour cost $13.40. Comps can shrink the casino figure further.
The hour is set by the hands.
Every hand pays the house edge, so an hour costs the stake, times the hands, times the edge. A casino table waits for every player and the dealer; an online table waits only for you.
| Where you play | Hands an hour | House edge | An hour costs | Typical swing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A casino table to yourself | 209 | 0.67% | $14.00 | ±$165 |
| A casino table with three players | 105 | 0.67% | $7.04 | ±$117 |
| A full casino table, seven players | 52 | 0.67% | $3.48 | ±$82 |
| A live dealer table | about 60 | 0.71% | $4.26 | ±$88 |
| Online, 200 hands an hour | 200 | 0.67% | $13.40 | ±$161 |
| Online, 400 hands an hour | 400 | 0.67% | $26.80 | ±$228 |
Casino paces are the figures casinos plan staffing with. Online rows use our typical table’s rules, so only the pace differs; the live dealer row is a seven-seat table where a ten-up blackjack takes doubles and splits (our live dealer guide). The swing is one standard deviation of an hour’s result.
Read the table, not the venue.
A blackjack table’s price is set by its rules, not by where it stands. The same casino can run a table where the dealer stands on soft 17 and one that pays 6:5 for blackjack, and the second keeps more than four times as much of every bet.
Online, games post their rules in the help screen, and you can switch tables in seconds, so finding the best rules is easier than on a casino floor. The catch is that online games differ more: deck counts, soft 17, doubling, splitting and what a dealer blackjack takes all vary from game to game. Read them, then price them in our house edge calculator.
In a casino, read the felt: the blackjack payout and the soft-17 rule are printed on it. Our table selection guide covers what else to look for.
Six decks at the casino tables, with doubling after a split; eight at the live table, where the higher figure applies if a ten-up dealer blackjack takes doubles and splits too. Online RNG games: as posted, priced in the calculator.
The casino pays some of it back, if you are rated.
Give the casino your player’s card and it rates your play at a theoretical loss: your average bet, times the hours, times the hands, times the edge it assumes for blackjack. That assumption is often about 2%, three times what a basic-strategy player loses at our typical table, and the casino returns a share of it as comps.
- You expect to lose
- $40.20
- The casino’s rating
- $120.00
- Comps returned
- $24.00
- Your cost after comps
- $16.20
The comps repay 60% of what you expect to lose.
You bet $6,000 in 4 hours, 60 hands an hour, and expect to lose $40.20 at 0.67%. The casino rates you at 2.0%, a theoretical loss of $120.00, and returns 20% of it: $24.00 in comps.
The assumed edge and the share returned vary by casino, and comps usually come as rooms, food or free play, worth what you would have spent on them anyway.
Only a casino table can be counted.
A count pays only when the cards left are rich in tens and aces, which takes a shoe dealt deep. The share of rounds dealt at a true count of +2 or more, where the player starts to have the edge, in each place:
Casino table
Six decks, about three-quarters dealtThe count can work, and the casino watches for it: a bet that jumps when the count is high is the pattern it looks for. Making a count look like ordinary play is called cover.
Live dealer table
Eight decks, cut at about halfThe cards are real, but the shoe is shuffled before the counts that pay can build. Nobody needs cover where the count rarely moves.
Online RNG game
A fresh shuffle every handWhere the virtual shoe is reshuffled before every hand, the count starts at zero every time, so there is nothing to count. The game’s rules say whether it does.
Shares from 20,000 shuffled shoes, a round starting every five cards, using the Hi-Lo count. Our card counting guide covers how a count is kept and what it takes.
Questions about online and live blackjack.
Is online blackjack harder to win than in a casino?
Not per hand: a table’s edge comes from its rules, wherever it is. At our typical rules every hand costs 0.67% on average, online or in a casino. Online you play far more hands an hour, so an hour costs more: $13.40 at $10 a hand and 200 hands, against $3.48 at a full casino table.
How many hands an hour do you play in a casino?
About 209 with the table to yourself, 105 with three players and 52 at a full table of seven, by the figures casinos plan with. Online, as many as you can click: 200 an hour comes easily, and fast players manage far more.
Are casino comps worth it?
For a basic-strategy player they can be. Casinos often rate blackjack at about 2%, while you lose 0.67% at our typical table, so returning a fifth of the rating repays about 60% of your expected loss, and two-fifths more than all of it. Comps come as rooms, food or free play, worth what you would have spent anyway.
Can you count cards online?
Not at RNG games that reshuffle before every hand: the count never moves. Live dealer tables deal from real shoes, but cut an eight-deck shoe at about half, so a true count of +2 or more turns up on only 7.0% of rounds, against 15.6% at a six-deck casino shoe dealt to three-quarters.
Which has better rules, online or casino blackjack?
Neither as a rule. Both run tables from very good to poor: a casino table where the dealer stands on soft 17 keeps 0.46%, one that pays 6:5 keeps 2.03%. Online, it is easier to read the rules and move to a better game.
Is live dealer blackjack online or live?
Both, in a way: a real dealer and real cards, played from your screen. It deals at about the pace of a casino table and its rules are close to one: 0.61% to 0.71% at a common seven-seat table.
Count the hands, then the comps.
Three things that decide which game costs you less.
The rules set the price of a hand
Our typical rules keep 0.67% wherever the table is; a table paying 6:5 keeps 2.03%. Read the felt or the help screen before you sit down.
The pace sets the price of an hour
At $10 a hand a full casino table costs $3.48 an hour; online at 200 hands, $13.40.
Comps can pay most of it back
Rated at 2% with a fifth returned, a basic-strategy player gets back about 60% of their expected loss. Online bonuses do far less for blackjack.