The "hold" is a very important concept in "gaming" to understand if you are a casino habitue.
The charts, (that I provided a link to), tabulate the gross amount of money won/lost at each game, and the number of tables.
The "hold" is revealing because it is NOT based on a mathematical concept or metric such as the "House Advantage". Instead, it is based upon "facts on the ground" - that means real life results. To put it another way, it illustrates exactly what, in fact, actually happened to the patron's money during the course of play. Patrons buy in at the tables and eventually they leave those tables. The percentage of that money that they leave behind (that they lose) is the crucial number. It is indisputably factual, as opposed to merely theoretical.
To illustrate, lets extrapolate to the logical extremes. We will imagine two games that are offered to the public. Call them Game A and Game B. They both look like fun and you have a pair of benjamins "burning a hole in your pocket", as my grandmother used to say. In English that means you are eager to drop your coin on the felt without thinking too much about it.
For this thought experiment, you are forearmed with only two facts; the table "hold" for the games. You were told that the numbers represent what portion of their money the players (who have gone before you) have lost. Table A has a hold of 16% and Table B has a hold of 48%. Say what ?. The second game "holds" TRIPLE that of the the first ? You are still undecided as to what to play. Table A looks a bit intimidating. It is a card game. People, (some of them at any rate), appear to be looking at the numbers on the cards and thinking. They look serious. Hmmm. You are here to drink for free and to have fun, not to think. Table B looks like a party in full sway. Lots of laughing and hollering. That game also has numbers, only they are not on cards, they are on a big colorful noisy funny-looking wheel. That wheel looks like fun. You remember seeing those at a State Fair when you were a kid. You remember that clack-clack-clack sound. It was like a loud version of the rat-a-tat-tat sound made by the playing card clothes-pinned to the wheel of your bike. Ahh. Nostalgia.
That little voice in your head clears its throat and tries to be heard over the half-drunk revelers.
"Those 16% and 48% "hold" figures are representative of what happens to the money that the players bring to the table."
You'll be damned if you are going to listen to the sound of common sense. You all but say out-loud: "Shut Up !"
The damn voice rises an octave and the volume rises as well.
The persistently strident little bastard is now speaking in a more succinct manner. Time to listen up.
Table A KEEPS one dollar in every six.
Table B KEEPS one dollar in every two.
Table A is a "Blackjack" game.
Table B is a "Big Six" wheel.
Which game is "better" ? Hmmm.
If our intrepid day-tripper had been told what the "house advantage" or "e.v." is on these games - he would still need to be able to infer or compute what it would mean to the crumpled bills in his wallet; presuming that he did not feel that he is "fated" to either win or lose and such has been pre-ordained. Has he checked his horoscope today?
If the game with the "better" [less disadvantageous] e.v. is played at an extremely fast pace he is likely to run through his bankroll very quickly, even if the table's "hold" is (relatively) low.
Is there a slow game? What if the game has an inordinate amount of tied bets ("pushes") e.g. "Pai Gow Poker" ? He might be able to stretch his gambling dollar pretty far before he needs to visit the A.T.M. or go home.
That makes "sense" if winning is not a primary concern, but "making his money last" is. A similar logic is employed by some worshippers at the altar of The Church of Slot Machines. They realize that they have very little chance of winning, but they have "some" chance of winning a "life-altering" amount of money, and they get to play at whatever pace they choose.
"Different strokes for Different Folks."
