If you are new to casino gaming, it can be very intimidating at first! Money coming and going, players cheering and high fiving, dealers dealing and casino workers darting back and forth, it can be a lot for someone that is not accustomed to the casino environment.
And while it can certainly be a bit overwhelming when you first walk in the door, once you start to figure out the lay of the land, casino gaming can be both profitable, and a lot of fun!
We here at TheSportsGeek can appreciate that not everybody lives in casinos like we do, and we are here to share our wealth of knowledge with you, so when it is your turn to get in on the action, you will know exactly where to go and what to do!
The games we are going to focus on are right in the sweet spot, as these are going to be the best casino games for beginners because they are the easiest casino games to learn.
With that said, let’s jump right into TheSportsGeek’s Top 7 Recommended Casino Games for Beginners, by starting with everyone’s favorite one-armed bandit, slot machines!
Slot Machines
Whether you are playing in an online casino, or in a brick and mortar establishment, slot machines are always going to be one of the easiest ways to get in on the action. Modern day slot machines have dumbed things down to the point where you put your money in, push a button, watch the reels spin, and see if you get paid.
If you go back in time to the slot machines that your grandpa used to play, those were old school reel machines where you put in a couple of coins, pulled the handle, and very little happened that could remotely be considered exciting.
There isn’t a game in the house that is going to be easier to learn or cheaper to play, that can offer as much fun, excitement, and potential jackpot winnings, as a slot machine.
That doesn’t mean that you can’t win, you absolutely can, but when you are playing a slot machine, it is either boom or bust, as you are either going to hit a jackpot, or you are likely going to lose your money. If I had to pick one single game type as being the easiest casino game for new players, I would start with slot machines, and that means that you should too!
Roulette
Roulette is a game that might look very intimidating to the untrained eye, as the layout is chalked full of numbers, colors, and many various ways to bet. But in reality, most of what you see on the felt is just noise, as this is actually one of the easiest casino games to learn!
For those of you that have never seen a roulette wheel, either in person or virtually, it is a big spinning wheel with a ball that spins around and lands in a numbered slot. Most roulette wheels are numbered 0-36, and particularly at lower limits, you will find that many wheels have a 00 slot, and sometimes even a 000 slot.
When you are making your bets, all you are doing is betting on where that spinning ball will land. There are lots of different options to bet, including picking the number, the color, the column, or the row. There are also bets like whether the number is odd or even, high or low, and you can even break down the numbers into thirds and bet on which group it will land on.
The most basic way to bet on a roulette spin is to pick a number and hope that it hits! What makes this bet so great, is that it is very easy to understand, and when it hits, it generates a jumbo payout of 35-1! Unlike a blackjack game where the best hand you can hit pays just 3-2 or 6-5.
Betting numbers can be fun, but they are high variance, as while it might seem easy to hit that single number you have bet, it is harder than it looks!
The casino understands that most players want to have better chances of winning, and you can see that reflected in the betting options, as a roulette wheel offers a bunch of different bets that are close to a coin flip, where you win nearly half of the time.
When you look at how easy this game is to learn, how many betting options that players have, and the potential for loads of excitement and big payouts, it is easy to see why roulette is one of the best casino games for beginners!
Keno
Most casino games are relatively new, as we have seen an explosion of gaming expansion across the world in the last 100 or so years, and with that expansion, we are constantly seeing new games developed and placed on the casino floor. New games can be a lot of fun, but sometimes the classics are classics for a reason, and there isn’t a casino game in the world that has been around longer than keno!
The reason that keno has stood the test of time, is because it is one of the easiest casino games to learn, making it one that you can play after just seconds of explanation.
There is a keno hopper that has 80 balls numbered from 1 to 80. Similar to a bingo game, balls are selected 1 at a time until 20 balls are drawn. As a player, you can bet as many balls as you like, between 1 and 20, and if the balls you bet are pulled, you win.
Depending on how many balls you choose to bet, you get paid out different odds based on how many of the balls you have selected are drawn. Most players will pick 5 or 6 balls, but you can play as many as 20, and the more balls you play, the bigger money that you can win!
At many casinos, you will see up to a $1 million dollar jackpot for hitting 20 out of 20 for just a $1 dollar bet. While that might seem too good to be true, when you see what the odds of hitting it actually are, you know why the casino can offer such outstanding odds. Odds of going a perfect 20 out of 20 are 3.5 quintillion to 1!
But that doesn’t mean keno can’t be a lot of fun and that you can’t still win a bunch of money, as even picking 10 out of 10 balls is going to pay you in upwards of $100,000 dollars!
The other great part about keno is that you can play for as little as $1 dollar a game, making it one of the most cost-effective ways to wade into the waters of casino gambling without going broke!
Sports Betting
If you haven’t been living under a rock in the last couple of years, you had to have noticed that legalized sports betting is everywhere right now!
Between states legalizing sports betting across the US and online operators expanding across the globe, your ability to bet on sports has never been more abundant. Sports betting is one of the best casino games for beginners, as if you are a sports fan, you already have basically all of the information that you need to make a bet and start winning.
There are lots of different ways to bet on games, but the most basic way to bet on a game is to bet on what is called the money line.
When you make a money line bet, all you are doing is picking which team or player is going to win, that’s it! For example, if you bet on the Green Bay Packers to win their game against the San Francisco 49ers, as long as the Packers win the game, your bet gets paid out.
There are thousands of ways you can bet on games that can get a lot more complicated, but if you are just trying to dip your toe into sports betting, then taking a game on the money line is the perfect place to start!
Some day you might start looking at point spreads, game totals, parlays, teasers, and all of the other various ways to bet on sports, but to start, getting action in on a sports bet is about as easy as it gets when it comes to casino gaming.
3 Card Poker
3 Card Poker is the world’s most popular poker derivative game. Poker derivative games first started to show up in casinos about 30 years ago with games like Caribbean Stud and Let It Ride paving the way.
Unlike traditional poker games that feature 5 or more cards, 3 Card Poker has dumbed that down to just 3 cards, which makes the action fast and the decisions easy.
The other thing I like about 3 Card Poker, particularly for players new to the casino environment, is that there are a couple of different ways you can bet the game. Once you get a hang of how the game goes, you will find that there are a bevy of different side bets that you can make, all of which give you a chance to win even more money!
If you like games that move quickly and payout big, 3 Card Poker needs to be a table that you give a try on your first trip to the casino!
Big 6 Wheel
If you have ever been in a casino, you likely have seen a Big 6 Wheel.
In most US versions of this game, you are going to bet on $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, or the wild card symbols. When you wager on one of those symbols, you get paid out at those odds.
The Big 6 Wheel also has some of the lowest limits you are ever going to find on the casino floor, as basically everywhere I have ever seen it, the minimum is just $1 per spin. Walk up, buy-in for as little as a buck, and let the big wheel decide your fate.
The Big 6 Wheel is essentially a roulette wheel with all of the confusing parts stripped away, and way fewer numbers to bet. We already talked about how simple roulette can be, and the Big 6 Wheel is a similar concept that is almost like the preschool version of a roulette wheel.
With payouts ranging up to as high as 40-1, the Big 6 Wheel also offers attractive payouts, and when it comes to the easiest casino games for beginners, the Big 6 Wheel is always going to be at, or near the top, of that list.
Online Poker
The last casino game we are going to talk about is online poker. I have been in the casino industry long enough to remember the days before online poker and when online poker first started to gain popularity, casino operators at the time worried that nobody would play poker in a casino anymore, as online poker was such a great alternative to the live game.
As online poker sites found that not only did online poker not hurt live poker, but that it actually helped it significantly! That is because online poker doesn’t have all of the expenses that live casino poker has, which gives online casinos the ability to spread much lower buy-in games.
When you don’t have to pay a dealer or a supervisor and the cards and chips are all digital, the online casinos found they could make money on games even with buy-ins as low as a penny! This created the perfect training ground for players that wanted to learn poker, but that didn’t want to pony up the big bucks to buy into a game at their local casino.
Overnight, the popularity of poker surged, as players were able to cut their teeth on the digital felt, rather than in card rooms that can certainly be intimidating for new players.
If you have ever wanted to learn the game, the options are nearly endless when it comes to online poker rooms and the games that they offer.
And who knows, maybe someday you will find yourself playing in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, vying for millions of dollars in prize money and the coveted gold bracelet awarded to the winner!
Wrap Up
Now that you have the information you need to walk into a brick and mortar casino or log on to an online casino, with some confidence, knowing which games to target, the time is right to get in on the action!
Thanks for reading and good luck on your first trip to the casino!
