One strange phenomenon that many people notice when they visit land-based casinos is the lack of low stakes casino games offered. Most people are confused by the relatively small amount of low stakes gaming tables - especially recreational players who are just looking to pass the time. And while the limited number of low stakes casino games can be frustrating, there's actually a pretty good reason why casinos do this.

Profit Potential

Casinos don't just blindly throw together a floor setup with random games; instead, they carefully plan out everything regarding the stakes and game types. This being the case, they offer what figures to bring in the most money. For example, running $5 blackjack games could fill an average of five seats per hour. Assuming every player was sticking to the table minimum and they all played 60 hands per hour, this would be $1,500 in total bets (60 hands x $5 x 5 players).

Now let's say that a $25 blackjack game only averaged two seats, and they played 75 hands per hour since there are less players involved. After doing the math (75 hands x $25 x 2 players), this would be $3,750 in total bets. Assuming the house edge was 1.5% for both the low and high stakes blackjack tables, the low stakes table would earn $22.50 in profit for the casino while the higher stakes would earn them $56.25.

Based on the numbers, it's obvious that the high stakes blackjack tables are more profitable than lower stakes games. And seeing as how land-based casinos have a lot of overhead costs and dealers to pay, they try to limit the amount of low stakes casino games if they're making more money with bigger limits.

Low Stakes Online Casino Games

Online casinos are a hotbed for low stakes games since they have limits much lower than land-based casinos. For example, most land-based casinos don't offer limits any lower than $5; but with online casinos, the smallest minimum bet is normally $1. 

The reason why is because online casinos don't have to pay dealers, and their software is relatively cheap to run in comparison to what goes into running land-based casinos. That said, if your local casino doesn't offer low stakes games, you should try online casinos.