Blackjack Payout: 3:2 vs 6:5, Insurance, Side Bets and Worked Examples

The standard blackjack payout is 1:1 for an ordinary winning hand and 3:2 for a natural blackjack (an ace plus a ten-value card as your first two cards). Bet £10 and win normally and you collect £10 profit; land a blackjack at a 3:2 table and you collect £15 profit. Insurance pays 2:1, a push returns your stake, and surrender gives back half your bet.

The catch is that not every table pays 3:2. Some pay 6:5 or even 1:1 on a blackjack, and that single change costs you more than every other rule on the table put together. Side bets pay big multiples but carry a far higher house edge than the main game.

This guide covers the full payout chart, how to read payout ratios, worked examples with real numbers, the true cost of 6:5 tables, whether insurance and even money are worth it, side bet pay tables, and the mistakes that quietly drain your bankroll.

Every payout below is quoted as profit on top of your returned stake. So “1:1” on a £10 bet means you get your £10 back plus £10 in winnings.

A doubled hand still pays 1:1, but on twice the stake. Split hands each pay 1:1 independently. If you split aces and draw a ten, the hand counts as 21, not a blackjack, so it pays 1:1 rather than 3:2 at almost every table.

If you need a refresher on how the game itself plays out, our guide to blackjack rules and basic strategy covers the basics.

A payout ratio tells you how much you win for each unit you stake. The number on the left is your profit; the number on the right is the stake that earns it.

• 3:2 — win £3 for every £2 staked, which is 1.5 times your bet.
• 6:5 — win £6 for every £5 staked, which is 1.2 times your bet.
• 2:1 — win £2 for every £1 staked, which is double your bet.
• 1:1 — win the same amount you staked (often called “even money”).

To work out any payout quickly, divide the left number by the right and multiply by your stake. For a £20 blackjack at 3:2: 3 ÷ 2 = 1.5, and 1.5 × £20 = £30 profit. At 6:5: 6 ÷ 5 = 1.2, and 1.2 × £20 = £24 profit.

If you are used to decimal odds, add 1 to the multiplier: 3:2 is equivalent to 2.50 and 6:5 to 2.20, as both figures include the returned stake.

On paper, £15 against £12 looks like a small gap. In practice, cutting the blackjack payout from 3:2 to 6:5 adds about 1.39 percentage points to the house edge. For context, a good-rules 3:2 game played with basic strategy typically has a house edge of around 0.5%, so the 6:5 rule can roughly triple what the casino expects to keep. A 1:1 blackjack payout is worse still, adding around 2.27 points.

Here is where the cost comes from. In a six-deck game you will be dealt a blackjack roughly once every 21 hands (just under 5% of the time). Each one is worth 0.3 units less at a 6:5 table.

Worked example: 500 hands at £10

• Total amount wagered: 500 × £10 = £5,000
• Expected blackjacks: around 23–24
• Lost value per blackjack at 6:5 instead of 3:2: £3
• Extra expected loss: roughly 1.39% × £5,000 ≈ £70

That £70 is on top of the house edge you were already facing. No other single rule change in a normal game comes close. For comparison, a dealer hitting soft 17 adds about 0.22%, and a ban on doubling after a split adds about 0.14%.

The 6:5 rule is also awkward for bet sizing: £5 pays a clean £6, but a £7 stake pays £8.40, so some tables round down or require bets in multiples of £5.

When the dealer shows an ace, you are offered insurance: a side bet of up to half your original stake that pays 2:1 if the dealer has blackjack. It sounds protective, but it is a separate wager on whether the hole card is a ten-value card.

For a 2:1 payout to break even, the dealer would need a blackjack one time in three (33.3%). In a six-deck shoe, with no tens in your own hand, 96 of the remaining 311 unseen cards are ten-value, which is about 30.9%. The expected result per £1 of insurance is:

(0.309 × £2) − (0.691 × £1) ≈ −£0.074

That is a house edge of roughly 7.4% on the insurance bet, many times worse than the main game.

Even money

If you hold a blackjack and the dealer shows an ace, you may be offered “even money”: a guaranteed 1:1 payout instead of risking a push. This is mathematically the same as taking insurance. On a £10 bet, even money pays a certain £10. Declining gives an expected profit of about £10.40 in a six-deck game, because you are paid £15 roughly 69% of the time and push the rest. The guaranteed option feels safe but is worth less on average.

Only card counters who know the remaining shoe is rich in tens have a reason to insure. Our Hi-Lo card counting guide explains how that works in land-based games; online RNG tables usually shuffle every hand, which makes counting ineffective.

These moves do not change the payout ratio, but they change how much money is at stake, which is why choosing the right spots matters.

• Double down: you add a second bet equal to the first and take exactly one card. A £10 hand becomes £20, and a win pays £20 profit at 1:1.
• Split: a pair becomes two separate hands, each with its own stake and each paid 1:1. Win one and lose the other and you break even.
• Split aces: most tables give you one card per ace, and a ten on a split ace pays 1:1, not 3:2.
• Surrender: where it is offered, you give up the hand and get half your stake back. It is a sensible move only with very weak hands, such as hard 16 against a dealer 10, according to basic strategy.

For which hands to double and split, see when to double down and split pairs. Soft totals behave differently because of the ace’s dual value, covered in what an ace is worth in blackjack.

Many online and live tables add optional side bets with large payouts. The headline multiples are attractive, but the house edge is much higher than the main game. The figures below are for common pay tables and vary by provider, so always check the paytable at your table.

A side bet that pays 25:1 is not “better value” than one that pays 9:1; what matters is how often it lands. If you enjoy side bets, keep them small relative to your main stake. Our guide to blackjack odds, house edge and RTP goes deeper into how these percentages are calculated.

1. Read the felt or table info. Online and live tables usually print “Blackjack pays 3 to 2” or “6 to 5” on the layout or in the game rules panel. If it is not shown, open the help or paytable screen.
2. Check the RTP figure. Reputable online blackjack games publish a theoretical return. A 3:2 game with standard rules usually sits around 99.5%; a noticeably lower figure often signals 6:5 or other restrictive rules.
3. Look at the other rules. Number of decks, whether the dealer stands or hits on soft 17, doubling restrictions and surrender all shift the edge.
4. Note variant rules. Some variants, such as Blackjack Switch, pay only 1:1 on a blackjack in exchange for other features. That is not automatically bad, but you should know the trade-off.
5. Check side bet pay tables separately. The same side bet name can carry different payouts at different casinos.

Our guide to choosing an online blackjack table covers what else to look for, and live dealer guides explain how live tables display their rules.

• Ignoring 6:5 signage. Playing perfect basic strategy at a 6:5 table still leaves you facing a far higher edge than a sloppy session at a 3:2 table would cost in strategy errors.
• Taking even money “to lock in a win”. It feels safe but is worth around 4% less per hand on average than declining.
• Insuring “good hands”. Insurance is a bet on the dealer’s hole card, not protection for your 20. Your hand’s strength does not change the 2:1 maths.
• Expecting 3:2 after splitting aces. Ace-ten on a split hand is 21 and pays 1:1.
• Judging side bets by the top payout. A 100:1 result that almost never lands does not offset the edge on every hand you pay into it.
• Assuming bonus play is the same. Many casino bonuses count blackjack at a reduced rate towards wagering, or exclude it. Check the terms first; our bonus terms guide explains contribution rates.

• A standard win pays 1:1, a natural blackjack should pay 3:2, insurance pays 2:1 and surrender returns half your stake.
• A 6:5 blackjack payout adds about 1.39% to the house edge, which is the costliest common rule change in the game.
• Insurance and even money carry a house edge of roughly 7% in multi-deck games; skip them unless you are counting cards.
• Side bets pay big multiples but typically have an edge of around 3–6% or more, compared with about 0.5% for a good main game.
• Always check the paytable and RTP before you sit down.

Even at the best 3:2 table, the house keeps an edge over time, so blackjack is entertainment, not a way to make money. Set a budget and a time limit before you play, never chase losses, and stop if it stops being fun. Gambling is for adults aged 18+ only; if you feel it is getting out of control, use the deposit limits and self-exclusion tools at your casino and seek support from a gambling help service. To compare blackjack with other table games, see our guide to the casino games with the best odds.