There’s good blackjack all over Las Vegas. Unfortunately, the busiest casinos in Las Vegas often save the best games for the biggest bettors. For example, you’ll find a great double deck blackjack game at Aria with a minute house edge of 0.25%. Unfortunately, the minimum wager for this game is $100. The best blackjack game at Aria with a minimum wager under $25 is a blackjack switch game that has a house edge of 0.58000%. We can do better than that on the Vegas Strip. Or can we?
The mega-resorts and casinos on the Vegas Strip often skew to be luxury casinos catering to high rollers. The best games are reserved for those players. The low rollers are left to play whatever blackjack games fit their budget. The majority of low limit blackjack games pay 6:5 for a natural blackjack and have a higher house edge than desired from the game.
Las Vegas gambling writer John Mehaffey does a blackjack survey every year that details the rules for just about every blackjack game available in Las Vegas. It’s a great resource and we reference it fairly often. The information is especially useful when the research is fresh. Casinos may change the blackjack rules during the year.
The good news with this year’s survey of blackjack games on the Vegas Strip is that there are a lot playable blackjack games that pay 3:2 on a natural blackjack and allow doubling after cards are split. The bad news is that most of these games are only available for bettors playing green ($25) or black chips ($100).
I’ve gone through the data to find the best blackjack games for red chippers ($5 chips) that prefer to play hands that would rather play a game with a minimum wager below $25. For simplicity, we’ll only include traditional blackjack games dealt by a human. We won’t list any blackjack games with a house edge above 0.65%. Each of the games below pays 3:2 on a natural blackjack. Lastly, the best cheap blackjack games are sorted by minimum wager and house edge.
$5
Stratosphere: House Edge – 0.63873%
$10
Treasure Island: House Edge – 0.45688%
New York-New York: House Edge – 0.48263%
Treasure Island: House Edge – 0.48263%
Bally’s: House Edge – 0.56926%
Caesars Palace: House Edge – 0.56926%
The Cromwell: House Edge – 0.56926%
$15
Circus Circus: House Edge – 0.45688%
SLS: House Edge – 0.48263%
Harrah’s: House Edge – 0.55051%
Flamingo: House Edge – 0.56926%
Paris: House Edge – 0.56926%
Planet Hollywood: House Edge – 0.56926%
The Cromwell: House Edge – 0.60225%
Excalibur: House Edge – 0.64683%
Good blackjack games with a minimum bet below $25 aren’t available in every casino on the Vegas Strip. In fact, only 13 casinos on the Vegas Strip offer a playable 3:2 blackjack game for red chip bettors. Depending on how you count the casinos on the Vegas Strip this accounts for half, or less than half, of the casinos on the row of casinos.
When you leave the Vegas Strip you’ll find many casinos around town with playable blackjack games. It’s not all that difficult to find a game that pays 3:2 when you’re dealt a natural blackjack when you leave the Vegas Strip. You can find affordable and playable blackjack games all over town and in downtown Las Vegas.
Bookmark the blackjack survey as a reference for finding the best blackjack games on the Vegas Strip and beyond.
