The rules

Game rules: casino games explained

Rules, terms and the arithmetic odds — with no promises of strategy. The house edge is part of the rules of the game and cannot be abolished by the way you play. Ten pages sit here: eight games and two formats in which several of those games appear.

By the Casinohafen deskUpdated: 2 October 2026Checked: September 2026

Game pages: 8
Format pages: 2
Maximum stake per spin: 1.00 €, staged up to 5 € since 07/2026
Minimum spin duration: 5 seconds

What a German rule page has to explain that an English one usually skips

If you learned these games outside Germany, the arithmetic is the same but the pace is not. German law reaches into the running of a virtual slot machine directly: at most one euro per spin — since 1 July 2026 the GGL has allowed staged increases to 3 and 5 euros — at least five seconds between spins, no autoplay, and no playing at two licensed operators at once. None of that changes the odds of a single spin; all of it changes how much money passes through the machine in an hour.

Those rules come from the Glücksspielstaatsvertrag, the treaty between the German states that has governed online gambling since 1 July 2021. Table games are not timed that way, so the legal section runs longer on the slot page.

Why we do not explain winning systems

Every betting system shifts the distribution of outcomes, not the expected value. So we write down how large the house edge is for each type of bet and leave the conclusion to the reader.

That decides the shape of every page here: bet types and their individual house edge come before variants, and common mistakes get a heading of their own, because in practice they cost more than the choice of system.

What each page contains

What is not here: the payout percentage of an individual title, or any suggestion of where to play.

The order of a round as it actually happens at the table or at the machine
Bet types with the house edge attached to each one, not a single averaged figure
Variants and how they differ arithmetically
Common mistakes and how to recognise them
The terms you will hear at the table, in both their German and English form

Why live casino and jackpots are listed here too

Live casino and jackpots are formats rather than rules, and in the navigation they belong to online casinos. They appear in this list anyway: the question that follows learning blackjack is usually how the same game runs with a human dealer.

The eight game pages are ordered alphabetically; ordering by popularity would build in a judgement that does not exist for a set of rules.

Frequently asked

Is there a casino game with no house edge?

No. The edge is built into the payout table. It varies a great deal between bet types, but it does not disappear for any of them.

Does the one-euro stake limit apply to every game?

It comes from the rules for virtual slot machines, together with the five-second minimum spin duration. Other game forms are governed by the conditions of the relevant licence.

Why are no payout percentages given for individual games?

Because they vary by title and configuration and are not available from a verifiable public source. We state the house edge that follows from the rules instead.

Are these rules different in a German Spielbank?

A Spielbank is a land-based casino licensed by its federal state rather than by the online treaty. The rules of the games are the same; the stake and pacing limits described here are not.

Sources

Glücksspielstaatsvertrag 2021 (German State Treaty on Gambling), rules for virtual slot machines: maximum stake, minimum spin duration, ban on autoplay and parallel play.
<a href="https://www.gluecksspiel-behoerde.de/de/fuer-spielende/informationen-fuer-spielende-faqs/faq-einzahlungslimit-und-hoechsteinsatz">GGL: FAQ on the deposit limit and maximum stake</a> (German)
<a href="https://www.check-dein-spiel.de">check-dein-spiel.de — federal counselling service, helpline 0800 1 372 700</a> (German)

Continue reading

Online casinos with a German licence: how the market is regulated