I play the game on the computer and have decided that the Las Vegas odds are way out of line or I am a really bad player. I don’t like the second alternative at all and favor the first.
In Las Vegas scoring you pay $1/card or $52 for the deck and get $5 for each card, starting with aces, that you put above the line. So far I must be at least $345,672 loser in two or three years of playing.
It looks to me like to make the game even the payoff should be $7 or $8 for each card above the line.