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Of course, it is possible to win at roulette, as it is at any other casino game, in the short-term. However, even if you play the European, single-zero version of roulette – which offers a significantly lower house edge than the double-zero, or triple-zero, American versions – the game is designed to give the casino an inherent advantage, so you will always lose in the long-term. Furthermore, the longer you play roulette, the more likely it is that the percentage return for the casino, and hence the percentage loss for you, the player, will approach the house edge. Casinos lack clocks and windows and often ply players with free alcoholic drinks, so that they play, badly, for as long as possible.

Mathematically, it is impossible to win at roulette in the long-term, so the best a player can do is reduce the house edge to a minimum, focus on outside bets, which pay only even money, or 1/1, but offer a near 50% chance of winning and manage their bankroll. A European roulette wheel, with a single green zero pocket, offers a house edge of 2.6%, but an additional green double-zero pocket increases the house edge to 5.2% and an additional green triple-zero increases the house edge to 7.69%, or one of the highest that you are likely to find in the casino, outside of some ‘sucker’ bets on craps or keno. Granted that the payouts for all bets, inside or outside, are identical in single, double and triple-zero roulette, it becomes clear that players of either American version immediately place themselves at a disadvantage when compared with players of the European version.

Pai Gow Poker is a low-risk variant of poker, loosely based on the traditional Chinese domino gambling game known as Pai Gow. Pai Gow Poker is played with a 53-card deck, including a joker, which can be used to complete a straight or a flush or, failing that, as an ace. Each player places one, and only one, bet on each hand, subject to table limits, and all the players plat against the same banker, or dealer, hand. Each player is dealt seven cards and must form two hands; a five-card hand, known as the back, big or high hand and a two-card hand, known as the front, small or low hand. Obviously, the only possibilities for the two-card hand are a pair or a high card and the high hand must outrank the low hand, according to standard poker rules.

The object of Pai Gow Poker is to beat the banker on both the high and low hands. If a player does so, he or she has a winning bet at even money, less 5% commission. If a player wins one hand and loses the other, his or her bet pushes and, if he or she loses and/or ties both hands, his or her bet loses. One of the oddities of Pai Gow poker is that, while standard poker rules apply for the most part, the ace-low, or ‘Wheel’, straight is the highest, rather than the lowest, possible straight.

A sucker bet is a bet that overwhelmingly favours the casino – that is, a bet with a huge house advantage, or house edge – by offering odds that are significantly lower than the true, mathematical odds of winning. Sucker bets are often created to fool, or hoodwink, inexperienced players into betting against the odds, although experienced players are often just as bad at evaluating true odds. In a single coin toss, the odds of heads or tails are, of course, even money, or 1/1, but in ten tosses of the same coin, the odds of five heads and five tails are 5/2 against, as counter-intuitive as it may seem.

Blackjack, for example, generally offers a house edge of 0.28%, but even something as apparently innocuous as taking ‘insurance’ against the dealer having blackjack when his upcard is an ace adds up to 7% to the house edge. Craps, too, offers ‘don’t pass/don’t come’ bets with a house edge of 1.36% and ‘pass/come’ bets with a house edge of 1.41%, but anyone bold, or foolhardy, enough to bet on ‘any seven’, with a house edge of 16.67%, has fallen victim to a sucker bet. Worse still is keno, which requires little thought or involvement, but is, nonetheless, an uncomplicated, relaxed form of gambling. Keno players may be less relaxed to learn that, at best, they are giving away a 25% edge to the house and, at worst, an eyewatering 29%.