Casino Guides: table rules, house edges and the live floor, weighed

The edge is printed, the pace is not

Every table game prints its edge; none of them prints its pace. Roulette's single zero costs 2.7% of the stake, blackjack's rulesheet moves its edge in half-percent steps, baccarat's banker line takes its commission openly, and the live floor sets the tempo: dozens of hands an hour, each one a fresh stake box. The hour's true cost is edge multiplied by pace multiplied by stake, and the third number is the one players set themselves.

This series weighs {count} subjects across tables, studios and categories. Each guide reads the rulesheet the way a clerk reads a ledger: which rules help, which cost, which side bets charge a premium for a quick verdict. The live tables get their own arithmetic, where the pace turns small edges into steady tallies and the minimum stake box sets the admission price.

Reading the series by the table you sit at

Sit where the arithmetic suits you. the live floor weighed hand by hand prices the studio tables against their pace, and the whole floor weighed under two rulebooks sets the licensed and offshore rule sheets side by side.

The series' standing figure: at 60 hands an hour, a £2 minimum blackjack table turns over £120 an hour, and a 0.5% edge books 60p of it. The edge is the house's; the pace and the stake are the player's, and they are the levers that matter.