How the Figures Are Built
One formula, applied nine times:
Stakes are set at ordinary levels for each game: $1.00 a spin on slots and video poker, $5 a spin at roulette, $10 a hand at blackjack. Speeds are the standard ones used throughout this site — 600 spins an hour on slots, 80 hands an hour at blackjack, 50 spins an hour at roulette. House edges come from the game rules, and every one of them is derived elsewhere on this site rather than asserted here.
Two hours a week is a deliberately modest assumption. It is less than most regular players do, and the figures scale linearly, so anyone playing four hours a week can double every number in the table below.
Two Hours a Week, for a Year
| How you spend the two hours | Edge | Per hour | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Video poker, full-pay, played correctly | 0.46% | $2.76 | $287 |
| French roulette, La Partage, even money | 1.35% | $3.38 | $351 |
| Blackjack, basic strategy, pays 3:2 | 0.50% | $4.00 | $416 |
| European roulette, no French rules | 2.70% | $6.75 | $702 |
| American roulette, double zero | 5.26% | $13.15 | $1,368 |
| Blackjack, basic strategy, pays 6:5 | 1.85% | $14.80 | $1,539 |
| Slot at 96%, 600 spins an hour | 4.00% | $24.00 | $2,496 |
| Slot at 92%, 600 spins an hour | 8.00% | $48.00 | $4,992 |
| Slot at 96%, turbo, 1,200 spins an hour | 4.00% | $48.00 | $4,992 |
The last two rows are worth pausing on. They cost the same and they get there by different routes — one by doubling the edge, the other by doubling the speed. The formula does not distinguish between them, and neither does your balance.
Seventeen Times, for the Same Hours
$287 against $4,992. Same two hours a week, same fifty-two weeks, same person. What separates them is not discipline, skill or luck — it is the game chosen, the rules attached to it, and whether a speed setting was left on.
The comparison that matters is not between rows, it is between a row and your own estimate. Most people, asked what their weekly casino habit costs per year, produce a number well below the relevant row. That gap is not a maths failure — it is that wins are remembered as events and losses as background, and the balance never presents a total.
Note also what is absent from this table: any row where the number is negative. There is no column of profits. Every figure is expected cost, and the variance around it is large — you will have years better than the figure and years much worse. The figure is what the habit costs on average, which is the only number that behaves predictably over 104 hours.
What to Do With This
Reality check: if seeing your row produced a jolt rather than a shrug, that reaction is worth more attention than the arithmetic. Cost is only one dimension of whether gambling is going well, and it is not the most important one. The Safer Play page lists support that is free, independent, and not run by any operator.
Play with the math on your side
SlotDrop's free tools show you the real house edge, EV and variance behind every bet — before you place it.
Open the Black Box →Reality check: no strategy on this page turns a negative-expectation game into a positive one. Strategy reduces how much the house takes and how fast your bankroll disappears — it does not guarantee profit. Only ever bet money you can afford to lose entirely.