Blackjack with 6 for 5 payoff are a terrible trend for the blackjack player. No matter how expensive a casino is to run, there is no reason in the world to charge blackjack players a substantially inflated win rate by paying only 6/5 for blackjack instead of the standard 7.5 to 5, or 3 for 2. Refuse to play these games.

While it may be impossible to stop some casinos from offering this bad payoff, it is possible to inform enough players that this is a terrible game.

Blackjack is the most popular table game in North American casinos. Slots and video poker may get more total action, but players still love games with live dealers and like the interaction they get on table games. The most popular table games are blackjack, craps, roulette, 3-card-poker, Let-it-ride, Pai Gow poker, and baccarat. In an average casino, blackjack (also called 21) accounts for over half of the table games.

Forty years ago, Dr. Edward O. Thorp wrote the book, Beat The Dealer, and once it became a national best seller, the casinos of Las Vegas altered their blackjack rules (including the restriction of no splitting of aces) because they were worried that every player would be able to learn some basic rules and beat the game. Instead, the opposite happened. The game became much more popular than it ever had been, and players still managed to lose plenty of money at the game. Why change the payoffs now?
Don't Feel Sorry for the Casinos
In 2012, there were 37 casinos in Las Vegas that offered blackjack.

Those casinos had a total of 1,348 tables (told you it was wildly popular), and the casinos held 10.32 percent of the total amount of cash used to purchase chips to play the game on blackjack tables. That means the average player lost about $52 for every $500 in chips that they bought on the tables. But don't feel sorry for the casinos! On the list of the Top Five Casino Bets, blackjack is fifth, so there are four other games to play that have a smaller hold than 21! So, why the move to 6 for 5 for a blackjack? Because the casinos want even more of your cash!

On a standard blackjack game, every time you get dealt blackjack (which is a ten-value card and an ace on the first two cards), the house pays 3 chips for every 2 bet. If you wager $2, you get paid $3. If you wager $5, you get paid $7.50 and life is good. Life is bad if you play on the 6 for 5 blackjack tables!
How the Odds Work
Statistically, you will make blackjack 4.82 percent of the time. That's about five times in 100. If you wager $10 every hand and get five blackjacks, you are paid $15 X 5 = $75. However, if you are playing 6 for 5 blackjack, your payoff is just $12 X 5 = $60. It is costing you $15 per hour, or one and a half bets every hour to play the game!

If you assume that the average decent player bets $10 per hand, gets 100 hands per hour, and plays at a 1 percent disadvantage to the house, then the house wins one bet per hour playing the standard 7.5 to 5 blackjack payoff tables. If you play the 6 to 5 blackjack payoff tables, the house will win 2.5 bets from you per hour, or $25 per hour. That means the game is 150 percent worse than the standard game. Do you want to pay that price? Just say NO to 6 to 5 blackjack!

If you don't think that's a bad bet, imagine if the odds on roulette were 150 percent worse! Instead of about 5 percent for the house with zero and double zero pockets, let us say the odds were 12.5 percent and there were five zero pockets to lose on! Would you play that game? Probably not!

Where 6 to 5 Blackjack Rules

There are a lot of 6 to 5 blackjack games popping up. Even Harrah's in Laughlin has single-deck 6-5 blackjack payout games. No thanks. I'd much rather play at the Riverside and get the full 7.5 to 5! Playing in Vegas? Keep your eyes open!

That's pretty easy to do at several clubs that have "dancing" pits with girls in very small outfits, but not all of those blackjack tables offer full value. If you are downtown, you still get 3 to 2 for blackjacks at the D and their sister property the Golden Gate casino (with dancing girls), but across the street at Binion's, the tables have scantily-clad cowgirls, but blackjacks pay just 6 to 5. It's your choice. Play where it pays, and maybe the casinos will get the idea that cutting back on blackjack payoffs is bad business all around!