Is there a logical reason that casinos don’t offer solitaire? I’ve never seen it in a casino.
I’ve wondered this myself. When I play, I “pay” $52 for the deck, then every card that makes it to top row nets me $5.00.
The only thing I can think of is that, because you have to work through many hands to make a profit, they don’t want to take up the space, pay the dealer, etc., for just one guy to gamble. And, I’m sure the rule tweaking necessary would change it too much for the average person to enjoy.
You just haven’t been looking in the right places. Many casions have some variant of solitaire, usually Klondike. Typically, you buy the deck for $1 per card ($52) and the house pays out $5 for each card you play to the Aces.
It’s still there, but it isn’t that popular and the house can make a greater profit by using the dealer elsewhere.
So how does it work? The dealer just stands there and watches you play? This seems problematic; I can imagine a bored dealer not noticing cheats, especially if they employ a little sleight-of-hand. You’d think if a casino thought there was a market for solitaire, they’d just use a computerized version.
I’ve got a guaranteed-win system, as soon as they start offering Minesweeper,
Casinos have to balance what customers want versus what makes them money. If solitaire beat out other games in this battle, you can bet your butt it’d be there. In solitaire’s case, hands-per-hour is very likely the death knell. Blackjack, pai gow, etc. can be dealt much faster.
And if it’s like others have described, my guess it would be less popular with customers due to the high buy-in. Games where you can dribble in $5 or $10 at a time can entertain someone with $100 to blow for several hours. A game where you have to commit $52 just to get dealt in will turn off this sort of casual gamer. (It doesn’t matter that they can get that back as they play. It’s a different thing psychologically.)
That is indeed the problem. It tends to be rather labor intensive. One player and one dealer and one time through the deck. In addition, it is a relatively slow moving game. In the time a player gets through one game three or four hands of blackjack can be played by three or so players.
The last time I played it (admittedly years ago), no chance of a player using slight of hand since the player never touched the cards or at least no more than touched the cards to indicate which card he wanted moved or flipped. I do wonder about the possibilities of a computerized game though.
The obvious solution is to have video solitaire. Maybe they have it in Vegas, but I have never seen it anywhere else, which seems pretty silly to me. Is it a beatable game, if you get good enough at it? Maybe the difference between skilled players and average players is too great to make a profit.
I agree about the dealer put to better use in a different area.
I’m thinking of a computerized version, no dealer needed.
Maybe 10 cents/card making it in the $5.00 area. Much more enticing than $52.00 per game.
Whoa. That sounds like a good deal. I’m not that hot at Solitaire, but I’m betting I could do this. Are there special rules which prevent experts from clearing two or thre hundred a night?
Edit: By :“do this” I meant that I could keep my losses down to a tolerable rate.
Remember, the answer to almost any question beginning “Why don’t they…” is “Money.”
The variant known as Canfield started out as a casino game. Guess what the guy’s name was who owned the casino.
I’ve seen video solitaire in Vegas-it’s usually on those machines right by the Slots. I played a few years ago but can’t recall exactly how it worked. I know you paid a certain amt for the deck, then got money for each card you got on top…but there was something complicated about it, like different amts of money for different cards or the amt changed once you got to certain levels, can’t remember exactly. The weird thing was that when I play on my computer, I win all the time, but on that machine I lost miserably every time.
But I can’t imagine any casino having Solitaire tables. It would be awkward having a dealer stand there to watch you play.
The variation I use in the “Vegas” option, in which you pull three cards at a time, and can only use the top card. So if an ace is the third card pulled, you have to play the top two cards to make your way down to it.
This makes winning way harder…
Why go to Vegas or Atlantic City or some Mississippi steamboat to play solitaire, anyway? You don’t even have to leave home.
There are many casino games where if you play responsibly and know the odds you can lose money at a tolerable rate. 
Why go to the theater if you can watch it at home? Why go out to dinner if you can eat at home? Why go out for a drink if you can mix it at home?
It’s all about the atmosphere. Some people dig it, some don’t.
Only the rules of probability. But, you can try this yourself. As far as I know, Windows still comes with the Solitaire app. Open it and go to Game > Options and under Scoring, select Las Vegas.
My grandpa used to play solitaire at home…with real cards! When was the last time you saw someone doing that?
One of the 3 big casinos (I think it was Casino Magic) on the “strip” in Biloxi, Miss. (pre-Katrina) had a solitaire table. And a “Casino War” table which was a game we always called “Battle” as kids.
I watched the “Casino War” table long enough to see that the player made a bet for each hand, and there were multiple people playing. The dealer had one card and each player got a card. If the player got a higher card, they were paid, if not, the money was taken away. If there was a battle, the player had to put up another bet unit.