Blackjack Rules Crown Casino Melbourne

• Blackjack Rules Crown Casino Melbourne Atlantic City
• Crown Casino Melbourne Blackjack Rules
• Las Vegas Casino Blackjack Rules

Aussies aren't as spoilt for choice when it comes to land-based casinos, so when we plan to make a visit to play blackjack we want to know which has the best rules and payouts. Crown Casino Melbourne and Star Casino Sydney are considered to be the two best brick-and-mortar casinos in Australia – but which one offers the best blackjack tables? We compare the two to determine which one is worth your time and money.

1. Under the new rules, Melbourne's Crown Casino will be able to accommodate up to 1000 patrons, and table games such as Blackjack and Baccarat will resume when the venue officially reopens on Wednesday.
2. Crown to Reopen Melbourne Casino Crown Resorts' Melbourne casino is planning to reopen its doors on Thursday, November 12 after months of closure. Vegas Slots Online reports that following the all-clear from health officials, the company will reopen its flagship casino while following strict public health advice.
3. Other Blackjack games at Crown Casino. You may find a few low-bet tables of Blackjack, but as a general rule you should expect to pay a minimum wager of $50 or more per hand. Crown Blackjack: This game varaint uses conventional Australian rules, with a 6/5 payout on natural blackjacks, no hole card for the house, and the dealer hitting all soft 17s. The house edge for Crown Blackjack is around 0.56 per cent.
4. It's challenging, exciting and easy to play. The object of the game is to beat the dealer by drawing cards with a combined total closer to 21 than the dealer's cards. Avoid going over 21 to stay in the game. A Blackjack is when the first two cards dealt to you are an Ace and a card with the value of ten.

Continuous Shuffling Machines (CSM's) are in use at some of the blackjack tables. There are other tables with the normal shute. THey have 8 decks in the shute for normal shute. Bear in mind, when the shute is cut, they cut at 2 decks from end. 6 decks in CSM's. Dealer does hit on soft 17. This real only came in within last year.

About Australian land-based casinos

There are only 12 land-based casinos in the whole of Australia, which is less than you'd find in the single Strip of Vegas, so Aussie players are quite limited when it comes to land-based venues.

The top two from the 12 include Crown Melbourne and Star Casino Sydney, and both offer a large variety of blackjack tables.

Crown Casino Melbourne was established in 1994 as a temporary casino but moved to its permanent residence of Southbank in Melbourne's CBD in 1997. Crown offers a 220,000 square feet gaming floor featuring around 399 table games, including a vast array of blackjack variants from Crown Blackjack to Crown Pontoon, as well as a variety of rule variations.

Similarly to the Crown Casino, Star Casino Sydney (formerly Star City Casino) opened a temporary casino in 1994, and then took up a permanent residence on Darling Harbour, in 1997.

Star Casino's gaming floor isn't as big as Crown Melbourne's, at 104,450 square feet, and only offers around 200 table games – half as many as Crown Melbourne offers – including a number of blackjack tables.

Crown Melbourne has a bigger gaming space and more blackjack tables, but this doesn't necessarily mean they've won the race – yet.

Star vs Crown Melbourne blackjack

We take a look at the table limits on offer at both venues and the rules available on their blackjack tables.

Blackjack table limits

• Sydney blackjack minimum: $10
• Melbourne blackjack minimum: $10

Both venues have quite a high minimum, but when compared with each other they are on equal ground.

We've taken the most common blackjack variants found at the two land-based casinos in order to compare them to determine which offers the best blackjack tables and lowest house edge.

Sydney Blackjack

• The dealer stands on any 17, hard or soft
• Double Down is available on nine, 10, or 11 on two cards only
• House edge: as low as 0.554% (with perfect basic strategy)

Sydney Pontoon

• The dealer hits on soft 17s and stands on hard 17s
• Double Down is available on any total, on any number of cards
• House edge: 0.42% (with perfect basic strategy)

Sydney Blackjack Challenge

• The dealer stands on all 17s
• Double Down on any hand total of two or three cards
• House edge: 2.53%

Crown Blackjack

• Dealer hits on soft 17s
• Double on 9, 10 or 11.
• House edge: 0.56%

Crown Pontoon

• Dealer hits on soft 17s
• Double Down is available on any number of cards
• House edge: 0.38%

Blackjack Plus

• Dealer stands on soft 17s
• Double Down is available on any hand of two or three cards
• House edge: 2.86%

As you can see both land-based casinos offer a title convenient for the house, Blackjack Challenge and Blackjack Plus, each with a very high house edge meaning players are more likely to lose. However, Blackjack Plus has the worst house edge of the two and has unfortunately taken over the majority of low limit tables, meaning Melbourne loses some points here.

Pontoon is also offered on low limit tables though, so it is recommended to stick to Pontoon over Blackjack Plus when looking for low table limits at Crown.

Additionally, Pontoon has the lowest house edge at both land-based casinos, so it really comes down to which casino offers the best Pontoon variant.

Sydney vs Melbourne Pontoon

Pontoon is considered to be the best blackjack option at land-based casinos due to the house edge.

Star Sydney's Pontoon title offers a house edge of 0.42%, while Melbourne offers as low as 0.38%. This is of course when the perfect strategy is in play.

Both titles are played with eight decks – each deck featuring 48 cards – but Sydney's version only allows one split, while Melbourne allows two.

Additionally, Sydney only offers a $50 Super bonus whereas Melbourne offers up to $5000.

Overall, if you are looking for the best Pontoon title out of the two land-based casinos based on the house edge, Crown Melbourne's Pontoon is a clear winner.

However, if you are after a standard blackjack title you might be better off going to Star Sydney when taking the above games' comparisons into consideration, as the Star offers a lower house edge when it comes to the standard blackjack tables.

Crown casinos in Australia are the wonderful casinos and entertainment venues having casino in Melbourne, Perth and now soon in Sydney. Crown Melbourne was opened in 1997, and is a large integrated resort and has Australia's largest casino, three hotels, function rooms, award winning restaurants and world-class shopping and entertainment facilities.

On 3 November 2014, the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR) amended the Melbourne Casino Licence to give effect to the agreement reached between Crown Melbourne and the Victorian State Government. Crown Melbourne is licensed to operate 2,628 gaming machines and 540 table games, with a casino licence that extends to 2050.

Crown Perth opened in 1985, and is Western Australia's premier integrated resort with world-class convention and gaming facilities, three hotels, the newly-opened Crown Towers (with 500 rooms), the award-winning Crown Metropol (with 397 rooms) and the award-winning Crown Promenade (with 291 rooms), spa, resort pools, restaurants and bars, nightclub and 2,300-seat theatre. Crown Perth is also a significant tourist attraction in Western Australia. Crown Perth is licensed to operate 2,500 electronic gaming machines and 350 table games.

Crown Sydney is another upcoming casino by Crown offering world class, luxury six-star hotel resort, which incorporates VIP gaming facilities, at Barangaroo South, Sydney.

Blackjack tables at Crown Melbourne

• The dealer stands on all 17s
• Double Down on any hand total of two or three cards
• House edge: 2.53%

Crown Blackjack

• Dealer hits on soft 17s
• Double on 9, 10 or 11.
• House edge: 0.56%

Crown Pontoon

• Dealer hits on soft 17s
• Double Down is available on any number of cards
• House edge: 0.38%

Blackjack Plus

• Dealer stands on soft 17s
• Double Down is available on any hand of two or three cards
• House edge: 2.86%

As you can see both land-based casinos offer a title convenient for the house, Blackjack Challenge and Blackjack Plus, each with a very high house edge meaning players are more likely to lose. However, Blackjack Plus has the worst house edge of the two and has unfortunately taken over the majority of low limit tables, meaning Melbourne loses some points here.

Pontoon is also offered on low limit tables though, so it is recommended to stick to Pontoon over Blackjack Plus when looking for low table limits at Crown.

Additionally, Pontoon has the lowest house edge at both land-based casinos, so it really comes down to which casino offers the best Pontoon variant.

Sydney vs Melbourne Pontoon

Pontoon is considered to be the best blackjack option at land-based casinos due to the house edge.

Star Sydney's Pontoon title offers a house edge of 0.42%, while Melbourne offers as low as 0.38%. This is of course when the perfect strategy is in play.

Both titles are played with eight decks – each deck featuring 48 cards – but Sydney's version only allows one split, while Melbourne allows two.

Additionally, Sydney only offers a $50 Super bonus whereas Melbourne offers up to $5000.

Overall, if you are looking for the best Pontoon title out of the two land-based casinos based on the house edge, Crown Melbourne's Pontoon is a clear winner.

However, if you are after a standard blackjack title you might be better off going to Star Sydney when taking the above games' comparisons into consideration, as the Star offers a lower house edge when it comes to the standard blackjack tables.

Crown casinos in Australia are the wonderful casinos and entertainment venues having casino in Melbourne, Perth and now soon in Sydney. Crown Melbourne was opened in 1997, and is a large integrated resort and has Australia's largest casino, three hotels, function rooms, award winning restaurants and world-class shopping and entertainment facilities.

On 3 November 2014, the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR) amended the Melbourne Casino Licence to give effect to the agreement reached between Crown Melbourne and the Victorian State Government. Crown Melbourne is licensed to operate 2,628 gaming machines and 540 table games, with a casino licence that extends to 2050.

Crown Perth opened in 1985, and is Western Australia's premier integrated resort with world-class convention and gaming facilities, three hotels, the newly-opened Crown Towers (with 500 rooms), the award-winning Crown Metropol (with 397 rooms) and the award-winning Crown Promenade (with 291 rooms), spa, resort pools, restaurants and bars, nightclub and 2,300-seat theatre. Crown Perth is also a significant tourist attraction in Western Australia. Crown Perth is licensed to operate 2,500 electronic gaming machines and 350 table games.

Crown Sydney is another upcoming casino by Crown offering world class, luxury six-star hotel resort, which incorporates VIP gaming facilities, at Barangaroo South, Sydney.

Blackjack tables at Crown Melbourne

Crown Casino has over 500 table games and 2,500+ pokie machines (including slots and video poker. Pokies machines betting limits start as low as one cent, with some VIP machines allowing bets of up to $5-$10 per spin. The major casino table games on offer include roulette, blackjack, craps, poker, pai gow, baccarat, casino war and sic bo, with other smaller gaming activities including the electronic version of roulette (Rapid Roulette), the big-wheel, tia to, and the electronic Vegas Star Roulette and Rapid Baccarat.

Blackjack Rules Crown Casino Melbourne Atlantic City

The casino area is huge with the numbers of Blackjack Tables as follows:

$10-$500: 16
$15-$700: 4
$25-$1000: 18
$50-$2000: 15
$100-$4000: 3

At first it would appear that Crown now has some of the best conditions for card counters with one and a half to two decks being cut from the 8 decks in the shoe, and not a continuous shuffling machine in sight. Although there are no $5 tables for blackjack you should have no trouble finding a $10 table at any time of the day, especially in the upstairs gaming floor where they actually advertise ‘$10 blackjack tables available 24hours'.

However, on these $10 tables the maximum bet per box is only $200, which makes for a very poor spread when those high true counts come in. When you do need to make those big bets, one way around this restriction is to bet the maximum on more than one playing box, as the $200 maximum applies per box, not per table. This means that you could actually bet up to $1400 on a high true count hand.

Back betting is allowed up to three hands per box. Knowledge of basic strategy of the general player is quite good so this could be a good strategy. Also Crown has a sidebet called Perfect Pairs. It is based on the first two cards that are dealt to your hand. A mixed pair pays 6 to 1, a same coloured pair pays 12 to 1 and a perfect pair (two cards are exactly alike including colour and suit) pays 25 to 1.

Crown Perth offers lower priced tables of Blackjack and Roulette and you can experience the thrill of playing tables games with more $2.50 Roulette and $5 Blackjack Plus. So this is another variant of Blackjack available to play and it is known as Blackjack Plus. Blackjack Plus tables began to appear at Crown around 2011, and have since replaced most low-to-medium limit 21 games on the casino floor.

The game rules of this game have plenty to benefit the player:

• Natural blackjack pays 3/2
• All 21 hands are paid out straight away
• All five-card hands under 21 are paid out straight away
• Dealer stands on soft 17
• Players can double down on any hand of two or three cards

For starters, the 3/2 payout on a natural 21 is a significant improvement on the 6/5 return found in many Australian blackjack games. The fact all 21s and five-and-under hands win immediately but all these player-friendly rules are made redundant by one thing that the dealer cannot bust with 22.

If you are thinking how does the 22 rule affect the house edge then note that the original Crown Blackjack game bore a theoretical return of around 99.44 per cent – i.e. playing with good strategy, and you could expect to regain about $99.44 of every $100 wagered. With Blackjack Plus, that figure sinks as low as 97.14 per cent when using a full shoe of eight standard decks. In the blackjack world, where the casino's mathematical advantage is often less than 0.50 per cent, a house edge of 2.86 per cent is extremely high.

Therefore if 1,000 punters gambled an average of $100 each, Crown could statistically expect to rake in over $28,000 –and that's assuming every player is clued up and using basic strategy, which is incredibly unlikely. In the old 6/5 blackjack, that figure would be under $6,000. Finally understand that, Blackjack Plus is a gross perversion of the game of 21 and should be avoided and so as you can't afford to bet $100 per hand, you may find that your options at Crown Casino are very limited.

Other Blackjack games at Crown Casino

You may find a few low-bet tables of Blackjack, but as a general rule you should expect to pay a minimum wager of $50 or more per hand.

Crown Blackjack: This game varaint uses conventional Australian rules, with a 6/5 payout on natural blackjacks, no hole card for the house, and the dealer hitting all soft 17s. The house edge for Crown Blackjack is around 0.56 per cent.

Vegas Blackjack: If you are one of the high rollers like in the Mahogany Room, you might just find a halfway decent Vegas Blackjack table. This is as close to Nevada rules as you will get in Melbourne. The dealer takes a hole card as is standard in the US, splits and doubles are allowed, and you have the option to surrender half your initial bet when the house's upcard shows 10 or Ace.

Crown Pontoon: As you know that this is distinctly Aussie blackjack variation, and probably your best chance of finding a low minimum bet limit outside Blackjack Plus. Crown Pontoon uses up to eight modified decks with all face-value Tens removed (i.e. there is no Ten of Clubs, Ten of Spades, Ten of Diamonds, or Ten of Hearts, for a total of 48 cards per deck). Naturals pay 3/2, and there are various bonus prizes for hands of 7 7 7 or 6 7 8 – including a Super Bonus of up to $5000. Crown also offers 6 to 5 Pontoon, with a decreased payoff for naturals.

Blackjack Sidebets in Crown Melbourne & Perth

Few of Crown's blackjack games will offer side bets. These wagers are independent of your initial blackjack bet, and can be made on a specific set of incidental outcomes that might occur within the player's hand.

Here are a few sidebet options you might find on any of the available 21 games at Southbank or Burswood. Note that these wagers come with a big house edge, so unless you are well versed the game or are sure shot lucky then only play this bet.

Crown Suits: Wins at 2 to 1 odds when your first two cards are of the same suit. If the dealer's card is also of the same suit as your first two cards, the wager pays 5 to 1. This is one of the more winnable blackjack side-wagers out there.

Perfect Pairs: Pays off when your first two cards turn up a pair. Exact payouts vary depending on the number of decks used and the specific form of 21 being played. In Crown Blackjack with eight decks, a mixed pair (different suits and colours) pays 6 to 1; a coloured pair (same colour, different suit) pays 12 to 1; and a perfect pair (same colour, same suit) pays 25 to 1. The house edge here is 4.1 per cent, but it can go as high as 12 per cent in Crown Pontoon.

Crown Casino Melbourne Blackjack Rules

Magnificent Sevens: One of the most tempting blackjack side-bets, with a maximum payout of 16,000 to 1 when you draw three Sevens in the same suit. You can also salute with off-suit Sevens (50 to 1) and suited Sevens (150 to 1) on your first two cards, as well as 7 7 7 in mixed suits (up to 950 to 1).

Las Vegas Casino Blackjack Rules

Blackpot: A semi-electronic blackjack variant, where players can place side-bets on a two-hand progressive jackpot using digital betting devices. If you draw a hand of 6 7 8 (pays 100 to 1) when playing the side-bet, you can then press the wager into the next hand and play for up to 20,000x your initial wager.

Crown Rewards for blackjack players

At Crown Casino there is loyalty rewards program which is free to sign up for either online or through the help desk at the casino which grants members points for every transaction made within the Crown Entertainment Complex in Melbourne and Crown Perth, if you play the games of Blackjack. You can use your card while playing blackjack at the tables, electronic blackjack or any other table game or pokies machine and you will gain points, which, when saved up enough, can be redeemed for freebies and experiences like get Crown gift cards, movie tickets, free parking, birthday offers, hotel discounts, grand final experiences and helicopter tours.