When it comes to casinos, all kinds of different terms get thrown around. One of the most common ones you hear is “The House always wins”. This particular phrase gets repeated all the time on social media and you can even hear it as far as the Las Vegas Strip. What’s interesting, though, is that so many players still don’t understand what it actually means. 

What Does The House Always Wins Mean In Gambling?

Whether you play inside a land-based casino or an online sweepstakes casino where you can use a free bonus, “The House” refers to the casino itself. For example, if you visit Caesars Palace, they’re the house. It’s you, the player, against them. So, when people say “The House always wins”, what they’re basically saying is the casino always wins. 

It’s not exactly known who coined this phrase, either, but it goes as far back as the early 20th century in Las Vegas. It’s also been referred to in countless pop culture movies, too, such as in Oceans 11 (2001) when Danny Ocean says during the opening scene: “The house always wins. Play long enough, you never change the stakes, the house takes you. Unless, when that perfect hand comes along, you bet big... and then you take the house.”

From your average guy on the street to George Clooney himself, people have been uttering those four words for decades. The saying has even become so popular that some players outright swear by it. In their eyes, the casino always wins, even when you think you’re the one who’s winning. 

Does The House Always Win? 

The simple answer is no, the casinos don’t always win. If it did, nobody would ever play. But over the long term, the odds are in the casino’s favour, which is why they stay profitable. As an example, Wynn Resorts, the company behind the Wynn and Encore casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, raked in just over $500 million profit in 2024. One thing for sure is they’re crushing most players throughout every year, and that’s how they make their money. 

The reason why casinos are able to win more than they lose is because of something called the “house edge”. You might not know this, but every casino game you can think of has a built-in house edge, or advantage. Slots, roulette, blackjack and more all have it, giving the casinos an advantage over players right from the get go. Even if the edge is only small, like 5%, it’s still enough to ensure casinos make consistent money, no matter how good a player might be. 

Imagine you catch a flight to Las Vegas and grab a seat at a blackjack table. If you follow the perfect basic strategy, the house edge in blackjack can dip as low as 0.5%, meaning for every $100 you bet, the casino can only expect to keep around 50 cents. It’s why blackjack remains one of the player-favorite games, as it actually has one of the lowest house edges, giving players a much better shot at winning than if, say, they’re spinning the slot machines. 

So, should the house edge put you off playing inside casinos? Not necessarily. Sure, casinos have an advantage over you, but that doesn’t mean the games aren’t fun and that you can’t win. Plenty of people out there win big jackpots inside casinos and even make a living out of it, although these are generally professional or experienced players who’ve got their strategies locked down to a T. 

Can Casinos Ban You for Winning Too Much? 

Interestingly, if you’re one of the players who can overcome the house edge and beat casinos more than they beat you, some casinos can actually ban you from playing. No, that’s not a joke, either: this actually happens sometimes. Over the years, we’ve heard countless horror stories from professional players and high-stakes celebrities about how they’ve been banned from certain casinos just because they kept winning. 

Dana White, CEO of UFC, was famously banned from the Palms Casino for going on a $2m blackjack winning streak, while notorious influencer Dan Bilzerian claims to have been blacklisted from The Mirage and The Wynn following his consistent high-stakes gambling. And of course, thousands of everyday casual gamblers have their own stories of casinos either refusing to payout on big wins or suspending their accounts if they win too often. 

Again, this shouldn’t stop you from playing inside casinos, but it’s certainly something to keep in mind. “The House” already has an edge on you to start with, then, if you start beating the casinos anyway, there’s a good chance they’ll try to ban you. However, this is usually only if you’re winning big amounts of money, in the hundreds of thousands or millions. If you’re winning consistently year-by-year but in the lower amounts, you’ll generally fly under the radar and won’t be suspended or banned in any way. But if you’re consistently rocking up at casinos and betting millions of dollars, they’re going to have a problem with you, as you’re essentially taking away their profits. 

Casino Games with the Lowest House Edge

As mentioned a little earlier, blackjack is generally the casino game with the lowest house edge, dropping as low as 0.5% if you follow the right strategy. So, if you want to give yourself the best possible chance of actually winning, that’s the game to go with. Then, you also have baccarat, craps, video poker, and European roulette, all of which also have pretty low house edges. Yes, “The House” still has a technical advantage in these games, but it’s at least significantly lower than other popular casino games like slots. 

Summary 

Casino fanatic or not, you now know what “The House always wins” means and how you can navigate the “house edge” everybody talks about. In the casino world, there’s ultimately nothing you can do to reverse the built-in mathematical advantage that casinos have over you, as it’s just how it goes. But what you can do is pick low house edge games and follow proven casino game strategies. This way, it creates a much better chance of overcoming the house edge and walking away from the table a winner.