European vs American blackjack comes down to the dealer's second card. Everything else at the table can be identical. The table below compares the two as we model them.
| Point | American-style (comparison game) | European blackjack (reference) |
|---|
| Dealer's second card | Dealt face down, peeked under an ace or ten-value card | Not dealt until the players have acted |
| When a dealer natural appears | Before you act | After you act |
| Dealer at soft 17 | Hits | Stands |
| Doubled and split bets against a dealer natural | Never at risk, the game ends first | At risk, or returned under the original-bet-only reading |
| Insurance | Offered, settled after the peek | Offered, settled when the second card arrives |
| Decks | Six | Six |
| Natural | 3 to 2 | 3 to 2 |
Why the peek matters#
With a peek, the dealer's natural ends the round before you can put a second bet on the table. Every doubled or split bet is placed knowing the dealer does not have one. Without a peek, you place those bets blind to it. That is the whole cost of no hole card blackjack, and it explains where the strategy changes later on the page.
Is European blackjack better than American?#
On our numbers the answer has two parts. The all-bets reading gives 0.52% (European Blackjack, a dealer blackjack takes every bet. House edge per starting bet: the average loss per round as a share of the bet placed before the cards are dealt, doubles and splits included in the result. Rules: 6 decks, dealer stands on soft 17, no hole card, a dealer blackjack takes every bet including doubles and splits, blackjack pays 3:2, double on any first two cards, double after split, split up to 4 hands, aces are not resplit, one card to each split ace, no surrender. The player follows the printed strategy chart for these rules from a full shoe, and never takes insurance or even money.) and the original-bet-only reading gives 0.41% (European Blackjack, a dealer blackjack takes the original bet only. House edge per starting bet: the average loss per round as a share of the bet placed before the cards are dealt, doubles and splits included in the result. Rules: 6 decks, dealer stands on soft 17, no hole card, a dealer blackjack takes only the original bet, blackjack pays 3:2, double on any first two cards, double after split, split up to 4 hands, aces are not resplit, one card to each split ace, no surrender. The player follows the printed strategy chart for these rules from a full shoe, and never takes insurance or even money.), against 0.62% (Comparison rules: 6 decks, dealer hits soft 17, double after split, blackjack pays 3:2. House edge per starting bet: the average loss per round as a share of the bet placed before the cards are dealt, doubles and splits included in the result. Rules: 6 decks, dealer hits soft 17, dealer checks for blackjack with a hole card, blackjack pays 3:2, double on any first two cards, double after split, split up to 4 hands, aces are not resplit, one card to each split ace, no surrender. The player follows the printed strategy chart for these rules from a full shoe, and never takes insurance or even money.) for the American-style comparison. Both European figures sit below the comparison. But the comparison dealer hits soft 17 and the European dealer stands, so the gap mixes two rule differences and one figure cannot be credited to the missing hole card alone. Read the dealer's soft 17 line and the dealer-natural rule together before comparing any two tables.
The same idea shows up in other games here. Spanish 21 and Free Bet Blackjack each trade one rule for another, and the homepage lines them all up.
