Does The High-Risk High Reward Adage Work At Bitcoin Casinos?

Do higher bets or bigger risk increase chances of winning a jackpot or beating the house? It depends on the type of game you are looking at. So, the short answer is yes and no, but mostly no. When it comes to Bitcoin casino games, it seems that unless you are playing at a zero-edge casino – which are mostly Ethereum-based – it works the same as with other online casino games. Let us explain.

High Risk High Reward Slots

In the case of slots, be them Bitcoin slots or regular ones, the chances of a jackpot are determined by the number of reels and pay-lines. In the case of 5 reels, 20 pay-lines, and the jackpot being activated by a single pay-line, the chance of winning is 1 out of 20x20x20x20x20 which means 1/3,200,000. How then can you increase your chances of winning?

Many slots do not offer the progressive jackpot unless you meet certain conditions. For example, if you are betting 1 dollar when the maximum bet is 5 and hit the jackpot, you may receive less than one fifth of the total jackpot. Some other games only offer certain types of jackpots (bonus games, etc.), when playing with the maximum bet. This means you effectively have zero chances of hitting the jackpot unless you are playing with the maximum bet.

High risk high reward is partially true when it comes to slots. Although betting more on each pay line on a single spin will not increase your odds, if you hit a jackpot on a higher bet you will get more rewards, and even trigger a progressive jackpot which is impossible otherwise. Finally, according to some research there is a correlation between higher denomination slots and lower house edge.

Lottery Rewards with a High-Risk Strategy

In the case of a lottery, you can increase your chances by participating more times, which is the only way you have to increase your exposure to the game. However, since lotteries offer miniscule chances of winning, it still may not mean much. Just imagine a lottery where the chance is 1 in 1,000,000,000 and you buy 1000 tickets, your chances of winning are one in a million; not significantly greater.

Other ways to increase your chances, therefore, is to do something that is counter-intuitive: participate in smaller lotteries or those in which have guaranteed winners. The prizes are bound to be smaller, but the price of the ticket is not substantially different, and the prizes tend to be smaller.

Do Other Casino Games Respond to the High-Risk High Reward Heuristic?

In the case of other casino games, it is really a matter of house edge, or the percentage of times in which the casino is guaranteed to win in the long run, and luck. This varies by game, regardless of whether you are playing with Bitcoin or not. Blackjack, for example, is one of the better ones where in certain conditions the player may even have an edge over the house.

To make the point, however, imagine a game of heads or tails that pays one to one. This has a 0% edge for the house or the player as the probability of getting a right answer is by definition 50/50. Now let’s take the two cases of six consecutive bets where the player consistently chooses heads (H) and will be paid 1:1. In case one, the outcome is HHTTHT, which results in the player being paid 1+1-1-1+1-1=0. In case two, the outcome is HHHHTT. In this case the player gets payed 1+1+1+1-1-1=2.  The sequence in both cases are just as likely to happen: each time the coin is flipped there is a 50% chance of the face landing H or T, giving a sequence of 6 results a ½ x ½ x ½ x ½ x ½ x ½ = 1/64 chance of occurring.

Here is where luck comes in: if you happen to be on scenario #1, and exit after the fourth bet, you would leave with 0 earnings. If you happen to find yourself on the way to scenario #2 and leave after the fourth bet, you may walk away with 4 times what you wagered. Many often attribute this to the size of the wager, when its really just poorly understood math. Here is another example that has nothing to do with wagers.

Best Way of Increasing your Odds on Bitcoin Games

So far, we have dispelled a common misconception, that betting more doesn’t necessarily give you a better pay off. It does give you a better chance in many cases, and it increases your chances of hitting bigger wins in some cases. The best way to increase your odds of winning is choosing a game with low house edge or implementing a strategy that will allow you to reduce it, as in roulette. Sometimes, you can also turn the house edge in your favor, like on blackjack.

Make sure, however, to look at how the games are set up as this changes the house edge and your chances of winning. Furthermore, when it comes to online gambling you can make sure that the house is being true to their advertised edge by choosing provably fair casinos, which are especially prevalent in the Bitcoin sphere.