Underneath "house edge pai gow" lies a single number: the share of each stake a game keeps on average, known as the house edge. At table games it follows straight from the rules. A change in one payout or one dealer rule moves it, sometimes by more than the gap between two whole games. Knowing which rules matter lets a player compare tables in a few seconds and see what an hour of play is likely to cost.
The expected cost of play is the edge applied to the total amount staked, and the pace of a game decides how fast that total grows. A fast online table can deal several times more rounds per hour than a busy physical one, so a small edge applied quickly can cost more than a larger edge applied slowly. Multiplying the average stake by the rounds per hour and by the edge gives a fair estimate of what an hour at a given table is going to cost.
Roulette shows the effect of rules more plainly than any other game. A wheel with one green zero keeps about 2.7 percent of every bet, and adding a second zero raises that to about 5.3 percent without changing a single payout. Some tables with one zero return half of an even money bet when the ball lands on zero, which halves the edge on those bets. The layout looks alike in every version, so the number of zeros is worth checking before the first bet.
Video poker is unusual because its edge can be read straight from the pay table on the screen. Two machines with identical cards and rules can differ only in what a full house and a flush pay, and that difference alone can move the return by two or three points. A full pay table, played with the correct holds, returns close to everything staked over time. Machines with trimmed payouts look the same from a distance, so the numbers in the table are what tells them apart.
A natural paid six to five instead of three to two adds more than a full point, while fewer decks, doubling after splitting and surrender each trim the edge a little.
A wheel with one green zero keeps about 2.7 percent of each bet, and a second zero lifts that to about 5.3 percent while every payout stays identical.
The banker bet keeps a little over one percent after its commission, the player bet slightly more, and the tie keeps around fourteen percent despite its generous payout.
Machines with the same cards and rules can differ only in what a full house and a flush pay, and that gap alone can shift the return by two or three points.
In the rules of the table, which fix the edge before the first hand is dealt and usually take about a minute to read.
Multiply the average stake by the number of rounds per hour and then by the house edge; the result is a fair estimate of the expected loss for that hour.