Table Games

House v Player Banked Games

House banked games are games where players are betting against the casino (often called “the house”), rather than just against other players. This is common in casino games like blackjack, roulette, and baccarat, where the casino is directly involved through the dealer.

Player-banked games, on the other hand, are games where the house does not put up its own money. The venue simply provides the space or runs the game. This happens in charity lotteries, social games like poker where players bet against each other, and scratch-it lottery tickets, where the cost of the ticket already covers the prize money.

Types of Table Games

Baccarat: A card game where players bet on whether the “player” or “banker” hand will have a total closest to nine.

Blackjack: A card game where players compete against the dealer to drawa hand value as close to 21 as possible without exceeding it. Players decide whether to hit (pick another card up), stand (keep the hand they have) or double down (double the bet).

Poker: A group of card games that famously includes Texas Hold Em poker. The aim is to form the best hand  based on a set of card values and is notorious for the use of bluffing and intimidation strategies between players.

Craps: A dice game where players bet on the outcome of rolls, or series of rolls, of two dice.

Roulette: A game where players place bets on where a ball will land on a spinning wheel divided into numbered and coloured slots. Bets can be placed on individual numbers, groups of numbers or colours of the slot the ball lands on.

Playing the Game

Gambling Equipment

Casinos use special equipment to make gambling feel more like a game and less like spending real money. For example, players use chips instead of cash, with different colours showing different values. In Australia, their values are typically distinguished by colour, although differences exist between individual gaming venues. Slot machines also often use tokens or credits instead of coins. This can make it easier for players to lose track of how much money they are actually betting.

Winning (and Cheating)

Cheating has been around for as long as gambling itself, especially in casinos where large amounts of money are involved. Common tricks include dice tampering, marking or stacking cards, or working with dishonest dealers. More advanced methods have involved magnetic wheels or weighted balls in roulette games and even using counterfeit chips and tokens designed to trick counting machines and inflate earnings.

Casino games are largely luck-based, with winnings usually determined by random chance. However, success in many of the games involves a degree of skill and strategy, leading to the development of legitimate (if often frowned upon) systems of play.

Success in games like poker or blackjack often comes down to a player’s knowledge of the odds involved, whether that be the likelihood of specific cards being drawn, the money others are willing to bet, or, notoriously, a player’s ability to read an opponent. While these strategies are legitimate, casinos discourage their use and can remove players if they believe someone is gaining an unfair advantage such as through card counting, provided they do not act in a discriminatory way when doing so.