You said that nobody would play a game with an EV of 1 cent an hour. I disagree I think a lot of people would play a game with an EV of 1 cent an hour they are called gamblers. Many people will play a game with a negative EV or the casino would not be in business and I would not have a job. The point is the Casino will win on all its combined play for the day 9 times out of 10 or maybe even more than that. My point is if the Casino is winning their customers must be losing and playing a negative ev game.
The rules that are in place are not poor rules for Tahoe but are not the best rules either. Are single deck games play 3 to 2 for a blackjack some places pay (6 to 5) but we restrict doubling down to 10-11 only and hit soft 17 for house advantage with basic stragedy play of .541% and that is before you take all the promotions into account. I asked the pit bosses what they assumed the house advantage was with normal play and they said 2% on average.
The Shoe game is not a bad game either all blackjacks on the shoe game pay 3 to 2 you are allowed to double on any two cards, you can resplit aces making up two four hands, and you can double down after a split on any pair except for aces and the dealer hits soft 17 giving the house an advantage of .568% with perfect basic stragedy before any promotions. Plus there are only 6 decks in our shoe instead of 8 like they have at some other places.