Experienced sports gamblers will not need reminding of the importance of betting odds when deciding whether to take a chance, but unfortunately the relevance of favourable odds is not always appreciated when the decisions relate to playing online casino games. Clearly there are a lot of casino games on the online casino sites which are simply a matter of luck, but there are others where knowledge of the odds will greatly improve your chances of winning. The odds of winning when playing some casino games are of course obvious and easy to see. For instance when playing casino games such as roulette and some of the dice games the pay-out for a win is directly related to the odds of that number coming up, but there are also casino games where the odds are less obvious but very relevant. The casino game of Blackjack for example is typical of a game in which knowledge of the odds will always improve your chances of winning, but those odds are not obvious and require some thought before you start to play. The rules of Blackjack are very easy, and most of us will have played pontoon at some time in our childhood so the temptation to just play without any thought is strong and perhaps costly. What do you do when you have 16 for example, do you stay knowing that the dealer would have to draw a card on 16, or do you risk busting your hand. Did you know that in both cases there is a 40% chance that the next card will not bust the hand. What about the most likely total of two cards, were you aware that 20 is the most likely total because there are eleven combinations of cards which give this total, and do you bear this in mind when the dealer is showing a 10. Calculating these odds is not difficult but can be of great benefit to anyone trying their luck with blackjack, whether at an online casino or a real casino. One more thing, remember you simply have to beat the dealer and you do not always have to get 21 to do it.