Can You Make a Living With Online Casino Games?

Many gamblers dream of earning a living through their hobby. Some actually make these dreams a reality by conquering certain casino games.

For example, players can gain an edge through blackjack card counting or hole carding (works with several games). Of course, you must be in a land-based casino to pull off either of these advantage gambling techniques.

Is there anything you can do to beat online casino games? After all, winning at online casinos would allow you to make profits from home or on the go!

The following guide discusses which mobile casino games provide the best opportunity to win money. It also covers if it’s truly possible to make a living by playing at real money online casinos.

Which Online Casino Games Give You the Best Chance to Win?

The mobile gaming world features plenty of games that give you a strong chance to win. Here are the options that provide of the highest return to player (RTP).

Baccarat

Baccarat may look complicated on the surface due to its weird scoring rules. However, you need only worry about making one of the following three wagers:

• Banker bet – You receive a 1:1 payout if the banker beats the player.
• Player bet – You receive a 1:1 payout if the player beats the banker.
• Tie bet – You collect either an 8:1 or 9:1 payout if both hands tie.

The tie wager looks attractive due to its large potential payouts. However, it should be immediately discounted due to its extremely high house edge. It carries either a 4.85% or 14.36% house advantage.

The player bet is much friendlier due to its 98.76% RTP. But the banker wager is still your best option thanks to its 98.94% payback.

The 98.94% RTP still isn’t enough to overcome the casino’s advantage. It does, however, give you a chance to win with some luck on your side. Furthermore, you don’t even need to use complex strategy to achieve the highest payback.

Blackjack

Blackjacks RTP varies depending upon the rules involved. Assuming you find the right rules, then you’ll enjoy up to 99.7% RTP.

When looking for the best rules, you want to start with natural blackjack payouts. A 3:2 payout improves the RTP by 1.39% versus a 6:5 payout.

The number of decks involved also has a big impact on the payback. A single deck improves the RTP by 0.59% versus eight decks.

Other important rules include whether you’re allowed to split after doubling down, if the dealer hits or stands on soft 17, and what totals you can double down on.

You can visit an online blackjack game’s help screen and check out what rules are available. The same section may provide the RTP figure, which negates having to look through all of the rules.

Strategy is the other big step to achieving high blackjack payback. By using optimal blackjack strategy, you’ll achieve the highest RTP possible with a given game.

Even when you find the best online variations and use perfect strategy, you’ll be facing a 0.3% house edge. This is a very slim margin, though, that puts you on near-even footing with the casino.

Craps

Craps isn’t quite as popular in online casinos as it is in land-based establishments. It’s still worth considering, though, due to its incredibly high RTP.

The basic bets alone offer high payback. Pass line and don’t pass line feature 98.59% and 98.64% RTP, respectively.

But you can improve the payout percentages even more through odds. An odds bet goes behind your pass line or don’t pass line wager. It pays at true odds, meaning it doesn’t carry a house edge.

The online craps games that I’ve played either feature a maximum of 2x odds or 3x odds. Here’s a look at how much these bets will improve the payback when available:

• 1x odds – Pass line 99.15% RTP; don’t pass line 99.32% RTP
• 2x odds – Pass line 99.39%; don’t pass line 99.54%
• 3x odds – Pass line 99.53%; don’t pass line 99.64%

French Roulette

Online casinos can offer one or more types of roulette, including the American, European, and/or French variation. Each of these games differs by their wheel type and rules.

Here’s a brief summary of each variant:

• American Roulette – This version’s wheel features 38 pockets, including a single zero and double zero.
• European Roulette – This game’s wheel has 37 pockets, including a single zero.
• French Roulette – This variation is played on a European wheel and also has the la partage rule. La partage awards half of your money back if the ball lands on zero and you’ve placed an even-money wager.

American Roulette is the least desirable of these games. It only offers 94.74% RTP on account of the two house-friendly zero pockets (36/38).

European Roulette features 97.3% payback. It’s a better opportunity due to the fact that it only has a single zero pocket (36/37).

French Roulette is the best of these variations with 98.65% RTP. It combines the European wheel with the la partage rule to provide the best odds. All you must do is keep placing an even-money wager to enjoy 98.65% payback.

Some Online Slots

Slots aren’t typically viewed as the top online casino games in terms of RTP. However, they can pay well under the right circumstances.

In fact, you can find online slots that offer 99% RTP. This payout percentage is even better than online baccarat and French Roulette.

Of course, mobile slots do force you to deal with lots of volatility. The short-term RTP will vary wildly with any given game. Still, it’s nice to play a slot that offers upwards of 99% payback—even if you don’t see the benefits right away.

Some online progressive slots actually provide theoretical profits. These games see their jackpots grow so large that they eventually offer positive expected value (+EV) on each bet.

At what point do these games begin delivering theoretical profits? Unfortunately, you won’t be able to determine this amount.

Game developers would need to provide all of the background information associated with that game for you to know. Therefore, you just need to take a leap of faith.

But you might be able to make a reasonable guess based on how large a progressive jackpot has grown. If a jackpot’s starting value is $100,000 and it’s now worth $1 million, then it could very well be offering +EV bets.

Bonuses Can Improve Your Chances of Winning Even More

You can see that the games covered above already offer high payout percentages. But you can boost your winnings even further with the bonuses discussed below.

Types of Online Casino Bonuses

Gaming sites offer a variety of bonuses. Each of these deals differs based on its size and rules for earning bonus cash.

Here are the main types of offers that are available:

• Deposit bonus – This bonus is worth a match percentage of your deposit amount (100% match worth up to $500).
• No deposit bonus – You receive a bonus just for completing registration.
• Free spins – You get a certain amount of free spins for use on real-money slots.
• Cashback – The casino awards a certain percentage of your losses back over a specific time period (e.g. one week).

Deposit bonuses are generally the most lucrative offers. Some of these deals can be worth up to thousands of dollars.

By comparison, no deposit bonuses aren’t very large. They’re generally only worth between $10 and $25. The great news, though, is that they don’t force you to spend anything to qualify—you merely sign up.

Free spins can be part of either deposit or no deposit offers. They allow you to rack up serious winnings if you get hot with slot machines.

Meeting Terms and Conditions

No online casino will just hand you bonus winnings. Instead, they require you to satisfy terms and conditions before delivering the funds.

Common terms and conditions throughout the industry include:

• Playthrough – A multiple of the bonus (e.g. 40x) that must be wagered.
• Time limit on playthrough – Most casinos offer between 30 and 180 days to meet playthrough.
• Maximum bet – You can’t bet over a certain amount (e.g. $200) with an active bonus.
• Minimum cashout – You must have enough for a minimum withdrawal to get your bonus funds.
• Deposit restrictions – Neteller and Skrill deposits don’t typically qualify for bonuses.
• Game restrictions – Certain games (e.g. blackjack) don’t qualify for meeting playthrough.

Playthrough is especially important because it determines how much you’ll need to gamble before withdrawing bonus funds. Lower playthrough improves your chances at theoretical profits.

Here’s a comparison between offers to illustrate this point:

Bonus #1

• You qualify for a $100 bonus.
• Playthrough is 60x.
• 100 x 60 = $6,000 must be wagered.

Bonus #2

• You qualify for a $100 bonus.
• Playthrough is 40x.
• 100 x 40 = $4,000 must be wagered.

Playthrough it isn’t the only term that you’ll need to know. This being said, you should thoroughly read through the terms and conditions behind any offer.

Will You Ultimately Profit From Online Casino Games?

Few mobile gambling opportunities give you a chance to win guaranteed profits. Sports betting, daily fantasy sports, and Texas holdem are among the few exceptions.

Online casino games, in contrast, don’t provide an opportunity to win guaranteed money. Slots present the only case where you can attain theoretical profits.

As covered before, certain online progressive slots can offer profits when their jackpots grow large enough. However, you’d actually have to win the jackpot at some point to benefit.

The odds of you winning a massive progressive jackpot anytime soon are incredibly low. With that said, you can’t count on cashing in on potential profits anytime soon.

Games like blackjack, craps, and baccarat give you a reasonably strong chance to win. You’re almost at a 50/50 bet with the casino in these cases.

But while you can make money in the short term with these games, your prospects of making a living with them are slim. You must combine big bets with luck to earn long-term profits.

Conclusion

You can’t bank on winning with mobile casino games. After all, none of them are designed to offer guaranteed profits.

Progressive slots are the only games can provide a long-term advantage. Even then, the volatility could keep you waiting for years before the profits come through.

If your main goal is to win, then your best bet involves combining high-paying games with good bonuses. Add in a little luck and you could potentially win serious money.