European Blackjack

Like European Roulette, European Blackjack is a game that the internet has brought to the rest of the world. In most of the casinos outside of Europe and even in some casinos in places like the United Kingdom, it is quite common for the European variants of games to never be offered. This is because most of the time European variants of games offer better odds to the player and therefore it is not really in the best interests of offline casinos to offer those games to their customers.

In the online world however the competition is fierce and through offering European variants online, casinos hope to attract players by giving them better odds. The rules for European Blackjack are a little bit different than from most of the other games, most notably in the sense that only two decks are used and this in turn gives a much better odds advantage to the player (even though the house retains an overall advantage of around half a percentage point). The dealer is required to stand on all hands that are valued 17 or over and the player is only allowed to double when their starting hand value is nine, ten or eleven. There is additionally no double move available to the player after they have executed a split, no double-splitting and no surrender move at any time during the game. All of these rules might seem harsh to some of the players that are familiar with blackjack variants, but keeping in mind that the house edge overall is frequently under half a percentage point, you will realize that the odds for European Blackjack are actually better than they are for most of the other poker variants. This is why the game is so popular and this is why online casinos can get players by offering it. And online casinos have done a very good job of staying true to the principles of the European Blackjack variant, which is another point in their favor. Whether or not you have played European Blackjack before, giving it a shot in the online casino is definitely a good idea. Even if you end up not liking it, there are likely many other variants available right there for you to choose from, illustrating the great versatility of the average online casino.