Harrah’s Atlantic City Adds Surrender in Blackjack: Are More Player-Friendly Rules Coming?

^{The new surrender option at blackjack tables inside Harrah's Resort Atlantic City allows players to forfeit half their wager instead of playing out a weak hand. (Photo: Greg Vaughn / Alamy)}

Blackjack players in Atlantic City will now have another option to play the game with better odds at one casino. Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City is set to begin offering a surrender option at many of its blackjack tables this week, slightly improving the odds for gamblers.

The move comes as the casino industry becomes increasingly saturated in the New York and Philadelphia metro areas, with Resorts World New York City the latest venue to add table games this year.

When Giving Up Is the Best Option

If you’re unfamiliar with the surrender option, you’re not alone, as many casual blackjack players ignore it even when offered at a table or in online blackjack games. The version of the rule most frequently found at casinos, including Harrah’s, is known as late surrender. 

Under this version of the option, a player can choose to give up 50% of their initial wager after seeing their initial two-card hand. Because this is a “late” surrender, however, the player can only do so after the dealer checks for a blackjack themselves, so there’s no getting out of a player’s full bet if the dealer has a natural 21.

“To signal a Surrender, just draw a line with your index finger from left to right behind the wager in question,” Harrah’s explained in an announcement. “The dealer will then split your wager in half, and you get to keep half of your wager.”

Of course, giving up half your wager without having a chance to win is a substantial concession, one that’s only worth considering in the worst of all circumstances. According to basic strategy, if the dealer stands on a soft 17, surrender is only the mathematically correct option when the player has a 16 against a dealer 9, 10, or Ace, or a 15 against a dealer 10. There are a handful of other scenarios where surrendering makes sense if the dealer hits on a soft 17:

How Much Does It Matter?

For casual blackjack players, the option to surrender isn’t exactly a game-changer. Adding late surrender only reduces the house edge by 0.08% compared to a standard blackjack game: one that uses eight decks with the dealer standing on a soft 17. So might be more of a PR move from Harrah’s than something that will change the game at its tables.

The addition of surrender pales in comparison to the negative changes players have seen at blackjack tables in the past two decades. Most notably, visitors to Las Vegas, and even at casinos in other locations, now frequently see damaging 6:5 odds on blackjack rather than the traditional 3:2 payouts. The difference is enough to add a massive 1.39% to the house edge, a huge change, since “standard” rule sets typically result in lower edges of 0.5% to 1% for the casino. Even allowing the dealer to hit on soft 17 (adds 0.22%) or limiting splits to two hands (0.09%) hurt players more than late surrender helps them

For advantage players, those who play perfect basic strategy, and casino fans who use blackjack to grind out rewards, however, every little bit helps. And the improved rules do give players some hope that other casinos might follow suit.

But how far that trend will go remains to be seen. When the market largely accepts worsened rules like what’s happened in Las Vegas with 6:5 blackjack and roulette tables, there’s little incentive for anyone to buck the trend. Until that changes, players will have to celebrate small improvements or surrender to the higher house edges on many low-limit tables.