Checking Our Facts
An article about a casino game is only useful if its rules and numbers are right. This page explains where our facts come from, how we check them before publishing and what happens when a reader finds a mistake.
Where rules come from
The first source for any game is the game itself: the rules card at a table, the help screen of an online version, or the paytable printed on the layout. Because those differ between casinos, we describe the most common version and point out where tables vary, such as the soft-17 rule in blackjack, the commission in baccarat or the payouts for totals in sic bo. Where a rule is set by law rather than by the casino, such as a minimum age, we tell readers to check the rules where they live instead of stating one answer for everyone.
How we treat numbers
We do not quote statistics we cannot trace. The figures you will meet most often on this site are house edges, and those can be checked with arithmetic rather than taken on trust:
- Count the possible outcomes of the game, such as the 216 ways three dice can land or the cards left in a shoe.
- Work out the chance that a given bet wins.
- Compare what the bet pays with what a fair payout for that chance would be.
- The gap, averaged over every outcome, is the house edge.
Where the calculation needs a computer, as in blackjack, we use the values given in standard references and describe them as approximate. We avoid exact figures that depend on a particular casino's rules unless we name those rules.
What we leave out
- Market sizes, player numbers and growth figures without a clear, checkable origin.
- Quotes from unnamed insiders or experts.
- Claims that a method, pattern or system improves your chances.
- Any suggestion that a game or platform is a source of income.
Before an article goes live
A second member of the team reads every article with the writer's notes beside it. Each rule is compared with a rules source, each figure is recalculated or traced, and any sentence that could be read as a promise is rewritten. Our editorial standards describe the wider rules every article follows.
Corrections
If you spot an error, please tell us through the contact page, naming the article and the line. We check the report, fix the article if it is wrong and update its date. Our explanation of payouts and true odds, Odds Made Simple, shows the same working step by step for anyone who wants to check our numbers themselves.
From draft to page
How an article gets checked
Every guide passes through the same four steps before readers see it.
Rules from the source
The writer starts from a rules card, help screen or paytable, and notes where versions of the game differ.
Numbers worked out
Each house edge is recalculated from payouts and true odds, or taken from a standard reference and marked as approximate.
Fresh eyes on the draft
Another member of the team reads the draft as a newcomer would and flags anything vague or overconfident.
The cautious version
Wording that could sound like a promise is rewritten, and the reminder about age and local rules is added.
True at any casino
Things that hold true at every table
General points that apply whichever game you choose.
Every casino bet pays a little less than its true odds, and that gap is the house edge.
A house edge describes a very long run, not tonight's result.
Dice, cards and slot software have no memory of earlier rounds.
Side bets with large payouts usually carry the biggest edges on the table.
Faster games apply their edge more often per hour.
Rules and paytables vary between casinos, so the table in front of you is what counts.
Spotted a mistake?
A short note is enough.