• Casino & Gaming

Can You Still Find $5 Blackjack?

Most blackjack players don’t have thousands or even hundreds of dollars to risk. Therefore, they prefer playing lower stakes.

$5 blackjack tables have commonly been the gold standard for land-based casinos. They allow low-stakes players to last for a while, even when they don’t have much money.

Unfortunately, $5 blackjack has become increasingly less common. In fact, you may even wonder if these stakes even exist at brick and mortar casinos.

The following post discusses how $5 tables were the standard in decades’ past. It also covers if/where you can find such games today.

$5 Blackjack Was Once Rather Common

With all of the $10 and $25 blackjack tables seen today, you might feel like this is the way it has always been. However, $5 games were once the norm.

Blackjack rose to popularity in Las Vegas throughout the 1950s and ‘60s. In these days, anything other than a $5 table was out of the ordinary.

Things remained this way for the next few decades. It wasn’t until the 1990s and 2000s when $10 and $25 games became fashionable in casinos.

If you’re a low roller, you probably wish that the era of $5 blackjack would return. Unfortunately, these days are long past.

Casinos Raised Blackjack Stakes for Various Reasons

Land-based casinos didn’t raise minimum blackjack bets purely out of greed. Instead, they’ve increased stakes for multiple reasons, which you can check out below.

Inflation

Inflation ensures that a dollar today won’t be worth as much 10 years from now. Therefore, you can see why the average blackjack table no longer features $5 stakes.

Believe it or not, a $5 wager was actually somewhat significant back in the 1960s. Fast-forward today, and that same bet is worth $45 due to inflation (800%+).

All things considered, $25 stakes aren’t too outrageous when looking at the past. Blackjack tables will require $50 minimum bets someday, so you should enjoy the $10 to $25 average wagers while they last.

Lavish Resorts

Casinos have only gotten bigger and more extravagant over the past few decades. They’re no longer the same downtown Vegas joints that relied on $5 blackjack and cheap buffets to lure gamblers.

Instead, most gambling establishments are now owned by large corporations. They feature some of the most lavish resorts in the world.

Take the Venetian Las Vegas as an example. It features 4,050 hotel rooms, an indoor canal to simulate Venice’s canals, and the Grand Canal Shoppes.

Of course, casino resorts must pay for this extravagance somehow. $5 blackjack just doesn’t cut it for mega resorts.

Most Casinos Don’t Rely on Gambling Alone

Some casinos don’t care if they turn off low-stakes players. After all, the gaming world no longer relies solely on drawing a large volume of gamblers.

Instead, they can make money in a variety of ways. Casino resorts earn revenue through fine dining, shops, nightclubs, hotels, and other entertainment.

Of course, gaming is still a large source of revenue to these resorts. However, most casinos don’t see a pressing need to accommodate gamblers of all stakes.

Low Stakes Table Games Can Lose the Casino Money

Gambling establishments don’t just put out random slot machines and tables on their floors. They perform calculations to determine which games and stakes will be the most profitable.

Low-stakes blackjack can still bring profits under the right circumstances. Downtown Vegas casinos, for example, operate frugally and thus get away with offering cheap blackjack.

High-profile resorts with big expenses, though, will often lose money with $5 tables. They need to bring in major revenue from table games to cover their hefty expenses.

Are $5 Tables Still Available?

Yes, certain casinos still offer $5 blackjack games. Some even provide several tables with these ultra-cheap stakes.

However, you’re not going to find too many $5 tables outside of Las Vegas. Sin City is king for the largest variation of blackjack stakes.

In any case, you won’t have trouble finding $5 blackjack if you’re willing to visit different Vegas casinos. Some gaming destinations outside of Sin City also offer such tables, including Atlantic City and Reno.

As for the $2 games, you can find them in a few Vegas casinos. However, they typically feature unfavorable rules when compared to the average game.

Where Can You Find $5 Tables?

Here are some Vegas casinos with $5 minimum bets according to a recent blackjack survey:

• 4 Queens
• Aliante Casino
• Arizona Charlie’s Decatur
• Bally’s
• Bighorn
• Boulder Station
• California
• Cannery
• Club Fortune
• Eastside Cannery
• El Cortez
• Fiesta Henderson
• Fiesta Rancho
• Gold Coast
• Main Street Station
• Santa Fe Station
• Sunset Station

Again, you can also find these games throughout Las Vegas. Additionally, Atlantic City, Biloxi, Pennsylvania, Reno, and Tunica are good places to look.

Will $5 Games Ever Make a Comeback?

Not unless the dollar experiences massive deflation. $10 and $25 minimum bets are here to stay. $5 stakes, meanwhile, will remain more of an obscurity.

The main problem is that $5 isn’t worth what it was when blackjack started coming to prominence. Most casinos can’t make money with such small wagers.

The gaming industry has also changed greatly. Gambling is no longer the main draw to casino resorts. Instead, it’s just one of the ways that casinos make money.

Online Blackjack Is a Nice Fallback Plan

You can see that $5 tables aren’t exactly easy to find outside of Sin City. If you’re looking to play blackjack for cheap, you should definitely check out the online version for the following reasons.

You Only Have to Bet $1 to Play

Online casinos only require you to wager $1 to play real money blackjack. This minimum bet is cheaper than anything you’ll find in a land-based casino.

A $1 minimum bet helps you get plenty of entertainment out of even the smallest of bankrolls. Here’s an example on how long you could theoretically last with just $20:

• You bet a dollar per hand.
• You’re playing a game with a 0.5% house edge (99.5% RTP).
• You log 500 hands an hour.
• 500 x 1 x 0.005 = $2.50 in theoretical hourly losses
• 20 / 2.5 = 8
• Your bankroll will theoretically last for eight hours.

You Can Even Play for Free

Mobile casinos don’t force you to deposit. Instead, they allow you to play online blackjack completely free. Most only ask that you complete registration before playing.

Certain online gambling sites even let you play without registering for an account. In this case, you can select a blackjack game and it’ll load with no time wasted.

Free online blackjack is a good way to tune your skills before playing for real money. You might even get enough enjoyment out of the free version that you don’t feel the need to deposit.

The RTP Is Usually High

On average, mobile blackjack features higher return to player (RTP) than land-based tables. If you’re looking for the best chance to win, then online casinos are a great place to start.

Land-based casinos can also offer really high RTP. The trade-off, though, is that the stakes are always higher than a dollar.

Blackjack Bonuses Improve Your Bottom Line

Both online and Las Vegas casinos offer VIP rewards to blackjack players. However, only gambling sites provide deposit bonuses on top of loyalty rewards.

A deposit bonus offers a match percentage on your deposit mount. For example, an online casino might feature a 100% match bonus worth up to $200. If you deposit $200 under this deal, then you’ll be playing for a matching bonus.

Some online casinos also offer free bets for live dealer blackjack. For instance, you might receive a $25 bet for live blackjack after depositing.

Conclusion

Most blackjack tables require $10 or $25 minimum stakes. The $5 games, meanwhile, are mostly concentrated in Las Vegas and other large gambling destinations. Still, they only make up a small percentage of the Vegas blackjack tables.

The gaming world has largely moved beyond using $5 blackjack as a staple. Inflation and the resort-oriented business model are making low stakes less and less common.

Nevertheless, you can still enjoy $5 tables in some cases. Such games let you play cheaply and extend your bankroll much further.

Even if you can’t find $5 blackjack, the online version is always available. Mobile blackjack allows you to enjoy hands for just $1.