Trump Marina has joined the growing Atlantic City casino bandwagon, and gone a step further. The gaming hall started offering $1 blackjack tables in the last week or so.

   No, this isn’t the El Cortez in downtown Las Vegas or the $1 blackjack at the Sahara on the Strip. Like every other low-limit blackjack table in Atlantic City, there’s a catch. And that catch is in favor of the house.

   The catch – and guarantee of profit for the Marina – is a 25-cent “fee” to play each hand. It sounds like chump change, but it adds up quickly. The average blackjack dealer can sling out about 60 hands an hour. So a quarter a hand adds up to $15 per hour for the privilege of playing. And that’s not counting what you might lose in actual play.

   If you bet $1 per hand, that gives the house an automatic 25% edge on this game. If you go for broke and bet $2, it’s still a 12.5% house edge. Real bad odds. You’re better off playing slots.

   To give you an idea of how good an idea this is – for the casino, not the player – a Trump Marina executive told the local paper that the $1 tables collect an average of $1,100 per day, and about $1,500 per day on weekends. The average higher-stakes table wins $950 a day for the house.

   Yeah, the $1 game isn’t as volitile as a $10 table, but in the long run you’ll lose more money. You’ll only lose it slow and steady instead of sessions with big losses and big wins. Do your wallet a favor and stay away from this game.

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