In casino games where the house has an edge, you can approximate an hourly cost of play by multiplying your average bet times the number of bets you make in an hour by the house edge.

For example, a perfect strategy blackjack player is giving the house approximately a 0.5% edge. Assuming $5 per hand and 60 hands per hour, the cost to play blackjack amounts to 0.5% X $5 X 60 hand = $1.50 per hour.

If you assume that you get a free Heineken or two per hour, then you're making a profit playing $5 blackjack just from the comps. I'm not sure how accurate my 60 hands per hour estimate for blackjack is though. I've seen estimates of 100 hands per hour on blackjack, so that would make yourly cost more like $2.50 per hour.

Here's the real interesting game: slot machines. You can make up to 800 bets per hour on a slot machine. If you're playing $1 per bet, and the machine has 3% edge, you're looking at an hourly cost of $24. And a 97% payback on a slot machine is a good find too.

Food for thought.

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Randy