For those that like to place a wager or two at a casino, there is a constant debate about whether or not doing so online is just as good as doing it in person. The answer is that it depends what you like to get out of your betting experience, given the fact that both offer certain benefits that the other can’t boast. One of the deciding factors for some punters will be the odds that you get on the games at each of them, but even that isn’t a particularly clear-cut thing to discuss. Regardless of the game you play, the odds aren’t always guaranteed.
Whereas online casinos have to offer a list of the Return to Player percentages that their slots offer, for example, physical casinos don’t have to do the same. This means that it can be difficult to identify which slots are the best odds and how they compare to the same game when it is offered online. The in-person payout is likely to be lower across the board because physical casinos have a captive audience, as opposed to online ones that need to appeal to punters more readily, but not all land-based casinos play by the same rules.
Slots
Let us start by looking at the most popular game, regardless of whether you find yourself in a physical casino or an online one. Thanks to the old-fashioned one-arm bandits, they have been on offer in casinos since the end of the 19th century, with their popularity only growing since then. Land-based slot machines are the things that take up the most physical space in casinos, mainly because they are the biggest money makers and are therefore the things that casino owners want to encourage you to play on.
Land Based Limited by Space
Whether you’re playing slots online or in person, the game works in much the same way and in many cases will actually be exactly the same game. Indeed, the biggest difference between them is that land-based casinos are limited by how much space there is assigned to them on the casino floor, where online casinos have no such limitations. Realistically, there are so many online slots that you can decide what sort of game you want to play, how the gameplay works and even how much each spin will cost you.
Online Slots Priced More Competitively
Because of this, online slots are priced a lot more competitively than land-based ones. The casino owners of online operations know that you can change the game that you play if you don’t like the Return to Player percentage on offer, so they will do what they can to encourage bettors to stick with them. In physical casinos, the choice of the game that you play is limited to the ones actually present, meaning that casino owners have an increased ability to lower the RTP%, knowing that most people will play on the slots regardless.
Land Based Casinos Set RTP
Game makers offer their wares to all casinos, with the casinos themselves choosing what the Return to Player percentage should be for a game. This means that you could play a game in one casino that offers an RTP% of, say, 97%, but another casino elsewhere in the country can offer the same game with a Return to Player figure of 92%. Meanwhile, the same game can be found only with an RTP% of 99%, causing all sorts of confusion for those that favour that game and always choose to play it wherever they are.
Table Games
When it comes to table games, land based casinos will usually offer the same odds as those online. This happens for the simple reason that the game in question has set payouts, such as the fact that the payout on roulette will always be 35 to 1 for a single number bet. Equally, the payout on Even bets are 1 to 1, a column is 2 to 1 and so on. These payouts can’t be changed, generally speaking, so it doesn’t matter where you go to play the game, they’re going to be the same. What won’t be the same is the actual game offered.
Odds Are the Same
Because land-based casinos know that the payout isn’t doing them any favours, what they look to do is offer more games that have worse odds. The odds of landing a single number on European roulette are 2.70%, whereas in American roulette they are 2.60%. That is because American roulette has two zeroes, whilst the recent spate of triple zero roulette tables lower the odds even further. French roulette, meanwhile, offers punters the la partage and en prison rules, reducing the House Edge to 1.35% on Even money bets.
Casinos Don’t Tend to Offer French Roulette
Of course, casinos are aware of this, so they don’t offer French roulette and instead allow their customers to choose between European and American versions of the game. In some instances, they don’t even do that and instead simply require you to play the American version, given that this will present them with the best possible payout. Online, of course, casinos know that you can choose from a variation of different games, so they will usually offer all three game types so as to do their best to keep your custom where they can.
Online Offers Better Choice
Though roulette is an obvious example of a table game that can be changed or altered in order to ensure that you’re offered the worst payouts available, it isn’t the only one. There are all sorts of different games that physical casinos will only offer you the worst version of, whereas online casinos know that they’ll have to be cleverer if they want to keep your custom. From blackjack to three-card poker, there are some versions of the table game that pay well and others that don’t. You can work out which ones physical casinos will opt for.
Making the Right Choice
If you’re torn between playing at a physical casino or playing at an online one, it is unlikely that the payout is going to be what sways you to choose one over the other. Instead, land-based casinos offer something that online ones will never really be able to: atmosphere. The key thing that is present in an actual real-life casino is other people. That is something that online casinos will never quite work out how to offer its users, so it makes sense than it might well be a deciding factor for people when choosing where to play their games.
Of course, the guaranteed presence of people might not actually be a vote-winner for you. The fact that other people are going to be there might be a reason that some people choose to stick with their online experience, alongside other factors, such as the more easily accessible bonuses that you find online. Regardless, only you know what it is that you like from your casino experience, so only you will know whether or not online is better than physical. The odds might be better online, but if you’re a social person then you might just be happy to pay the price.