Continuing the hand improves the house's odds by about 0.2%. In perhaps the most significant shift, an increasing number of casinos don't allow the dealer to hold on 'soft 17,' the term for a 17-point hand that includes an ace. And almost every casino now uses multiple decks, stacking as many as eight in a single sleeve, which makes it harder for gamblers to keep track of which cards have been played. Instead of the traditional 3-to-2 payout ��� which means a player betting $20 would get $30 ��� some casinos are now paying 6-to-5, effectively reducing the payout by 20%. While the odds always favor the house, some casinos are changing the odds and payouts on table games to be even more in their favor. casinos in 2003, up from about $11 billion in 1993 ��� not that the casinos are passing much of that growth on to consumers. Visitors gambled and lost more than $27 billion at U.S. Maybe you've had a good night or two at the casino sometime in the past decade, but it's the house that has hit the jackpot. 'The house always wins, and it's now winning more.'