Five Las Vegas casinos to play Let It Ride

Let it Ride is a quirky table game that seems to play out in reverse. If you want to dig the history of this game then it all started in 1983, when a former truck driver John Breeding found himself increasingly intrigued by news stories about blackjack card counters beating the casinos. Breeding wanted to invent an automatic card shuffling the machine to help casinos protect their bottom line from card counters – while lining his own pockets in the process. Thus, Breeding spent the better part of a decade toying around with various prototypes until he perfected his Holy Grail – an automatic card shuffling machine that could be installed underneath any casino game table.

At the time, however, casinos were already getting ahead of the card counting curve by utilizing six- and eight-deck “shoes.” These multiple-deck shoes served their intended effect quite well, adding so many cards to the equation that counting became practically impossible in the casino setting.

But because his automatic shuffler was designed to randomize only one deck at a time, the multiple-deck shoes threatened to put Breeding’s new company Shuffle Master out of business before it even got off the ground. After consulting his wife, who challenged Breeding to create a single-deck table game that would make his shuffling machines more attractive to casino operators, the inventor put together his masterpiece – Let It Ride.

Let It Ride’s Pay Table

HAND	PAYOUT
Royal Flush	1,000 to 1
Straight Flush	200 to 1
Four of a Kind	50 to 1
Full House	11 to 1
Flush	8 to 1
Straight	5 to 1
Three of a Kind	3 to 1
Two Pair	2 to 1
Tens or Better	1 to 1
Anything Else	Loss

With the potential to turn a $15 minimum bet – really a $5 minimum, but with all three Ante bets allowed to “ride” – into $15,000 when the elusive Royal Flush shows its face, Let It Ride offers a distinct jackpot element that gamblers crave.

Table game enthusiasts also enjoyed the reverse-engineered gameplay. By requiring players to start out with three Ante bets, before deciding whether or not to let two of those wagers remain in play before the showdown, Let It Ride flipped the script from traditional table game betting.

Seemingly overnight, Let It Ride spread throughout Las Vegas casinos like a bona fide phenomenon. But this game was no fad, and nearly 25 years after making its debut, Let It Ride remains one of the more prevalent offerings in Las Vegas.

Let It Ride game’s house edge rate is of 3.50 percent and you’ll find a few optional side wagers that are true sucker bets, but those are always optional in Let It Ride. By sticking to the base game, even visitors to the Las Vegas Strip can enjoy Let It Ride as Breeding intended.

If you visit the sin city here are the five best casinos to play Let It Ride on the Las Vegas Strip.

1. Harrah’s Las Vegas Hotel and Casino

Harrah’s Las Vegas Hotel and Casino offers twice as many Let It Ride tables on the floor as any other casino in town. You’ll find four Let It Ride games running around the clock at Harrah’s, while no other gambling hall in the city has more than two. On all four games, players enjoy a comfortable $10 minimum bet, which will actually come to $30 given the three mandatory Ante bets. As you’ll be pulling two of the three bets back from the brink right around 75 percent of the time when using basic strategy guidelines.

As for the high rollers out there, Harrah’s maximum wager limit on Let It Ride stands at $300, which means your $900 three-way bet plus a Royal Flush deal would be good for $900,000 at 1,000 to 1 payout odds.

That’s not the only way to win a life-changing jackpot sum though, thanks to the “Millionaire Maker” progressive jackpot program organized by Harrah’s parent company Caesars Entertainment. By linking this game citywide it only increases all jackpots faster, resulting in millions of additional prize money awarded in Las Vegas. For an additional bet of only $5 on the Progressive side bet, landing any Royal Flush on the five-card deal is worth at least $1 million for the lucky winner. Of course, a Royal Flush will only be dealt on 1 in 649,740 deals according to statistical probability.

2. The Venetian and Palazzo

Lightning struck recently at the Venetian, a golden palace devoted to the canals of Venice which shares a sister casino in the Palazzo right next door. While playing Three Card Poker, a lucky visitor to the Venetian spiked a perfect Royal Flush to trigger a progressive jackpot of just over $1 million. And while Sean Barry of Ohio wasn’t playing Let It Ride, he very well could’ve won the same jackpot on the Venetian’s lone $5 minimum / $500 maximum table. The odds remain the same at 1 in 649,740 for a Royal Flush on all poker-based table games in which five-card Royal Flushes are required to trigger the reward.

According to the  Las Vegas Review Journal that the Venetian and Palazzo have minted five new millionaires thanks to their progressive jackpot promotion on table games like Let It Ride. Canadian tourist Kevin Ripski was another beneficiary of the Venetian/Palazzo progressive jackpot back in February of 2019. He was playing Caribbean Stud Poker, but as he told KTNV-13 News while celebrating his $1,114,079 jackpot for a Royal Flush, folks who enjoy Let It Ride would be well-served to put that extra $5 chip on the side bet before every hand they play:

3. Bally’s Las Vegas Hotel & Casino

Bally’s Las Vegas Hotel & Casino has two Let It Ride tables connected to the company’s Millionaire Maker progressive jackpot. This pair of games also uses the lowest minimum bet around of just $5, so recreational players can enjoy the action without worrying about exhausting their bankroll in a hurry. High rollers are in luck too, as the $500 maximum bet is second only to the $2,000 big bet table found at the Palazzo.

4. Paris Las Vegas

One more extravagant Caesars property where progressive jackpot hunters can grind Let It Ride in style, Paris has a pair of tables using the $5 / $500 limits – plus the Millionaire Maker opportunity.

5. MGM Grand

The MGM Resorts family of casinos along The Strip might not have a progressive jackpot attached to their table games, but at MGM Grand, the minimum bet on Let It Ride is $25. The maximum limit tops out at $500, so this game definitely isn’t for everybody, but if you want to press your luck and go for major base game scores for non-Royal Flush hands, the Let It Ride table at MGM Grand is for you.

So you see that Let It Ride is the most wanted game by both casinos and players because it straddles the middle ground perfectly. The house edge of 3.50 percent is high enough to warrant prominent placement on the gaming floor, while players have the option to reduce their risk whenever the cards fail to cooperate. Also with massive progressive jackpots now tied to the game at many of the major casino resorts, playing Let It Ride on the Las Vegas Strip is always a winning proposition. ( with inputs from best us casinos)