What is Insurance in Blackjack?

There are many essential blackjack terms that you need to understand before you play, including insurance. Blackjack insurance gives players a chance to hedge their bets, which is rare in casino games. Experienced bettors may take the option when the circumstances arise to limit their losses if they believe it’s their best course of action.

Most versions of online blackjack include insurance bets, but that doesn’t mean that buying insurance is the prudent move at every opportunity. Players should evaluate all the available information, including their own bankrolls, when insurance opportunities arise.

Understanding What Insurance is in Blackjack

Insurance is a side bet that allows you to protect yourself against the dealer having 21. In most blackjack games, players get the opportunity to buy insurance when the dealer’s up card (the card whose face is showing) is a 10, ace, jack, king, or queen

The dealer has half of what they need to land a natural blackjack (a score of 21 with the first two cards dealt) in those cases. Insurance is a bet that the dealer will indeed score that natural when they take their turn.

How Does Blackjack Insurance Work?

In most games, the dealer will ask you if you want to buy insurance. You can decline, and the game will proceed according to your original wager and per the normal blackjack house edge and odds.

Should you accept the chance to make a blackjack insurance side bet, that wager will resolve after the dealer reveals their downcard (the card not facing up). If that card is what the dealer needs for a natural, your insurance bet pays out; if the card doesn’t get the dealer to a natural, your insurance bet loses.

What is the Blackjack Insurance Payout?

A 2:1 payout in blackjack is standard for insurance bets. That means if your stake is $10, your return would be $30 if you win ($20 profit plus your original stake of $10 returned). 

This might not be as impressive as the 6 to 5 or 3 to 2 blackjack payout, but it still takes the sting out of a potential loss if you make the right call.

What’s the Difference Between Insurance and Even Money?

Some variants may offer a different type of blackjack “insurance” in the form of even money. This simply means that when you have blackjack and the dealer has an ace as their upcard, you can avoid the “risk” of a push and instead go for even money. In other words, a 1:1 payout.

The Math of Blackjack Insurance Explained

The insurance side bet costs half of your original stake in most blackjack titles, so if you put down $20 to buy into the game, buying insurance would cost you $10 more. One of the simplest blackjack rules of thumb is that anytime you increase your stake, you also elevate the need to win more frequently to cover that risk.

The odds of the dealer hitting a natural depend on what other cards have already been dealt, how many decks are used in the game you’re playing, and other rules around the best hand in blackjack. A simple example makes the decision easier.

Should You Take Insurance in Blackjack?

What’s most important to remember is that insurance doesn’t add to your original wager; it’s a separate side bet. At the same time, it does affect your overall position in the game, similar to the blackjack surrender rule.

Suppose you’ve staked $20 to your buy-in, the dealer’s upcard is an ace, and you’re in a good position as the last player to act before the dealer takes their turn. You take a look at the cards in your hand and the other cards on the table to note that most of them are of lower value, which tells you that there’s a stronger likelihood that the dealer’s downcard could be the 10, jack, king, or queen that they need for a natural.

In this scenario, buying insurance would cost you $10 in chips, escalating your overall stake to $30. That means you would need to win at least that much to break even on the hand.

Winning the insurance bet would get you there, but there’s the separate matter of your main bet in the game. If the dealer hits blackjack, the best you could do in that instance is force a push to get your stake back, and with low-value cards in your hand, the odds are stacked against that.

You could show a net profit of $10 if your insurance bet pays out ($30 from the blackjack insurance payout minus the $20 loss from your main bet), but you could also be out the whole $30 if the dealer’s down card isn’t a 10, jack, king, or queen. 

However, if you have blackjack, you may want to think twice about taking insurance because it lowers your overall win potential in the long term. This is because the odds of having blackjack (roughly 4.8%) are much lower than the odds of not having blackjack. Combine this with the payout odds for each win condition (an insurance bet pays out 1:1 while a blackjack win pays out 3:2), and mathematically it makes sense to avoid insurance if you have blackjack over multiple games. 

This is an example of how the cards and your position in the game dictate whether insurance makes sense, but there’s another important consideration.

Is Blackjack Insurance Worth It?

Another key component of playing blackjack with confidence is managing your bankroll. Continuing with the example, your budget can influence whether buying insurance is a wise move.

Blackjack strategies must prioritize your betting plan, meaning that if the $20 stake of your main bet was the last $20 you allocated for your session, taking out the insurance bet would mean that you’ve exceeded your limit. In that instance, you should stick to your budget regardless of how good the opportunity may seem.

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When you register for BetMGM, you can gain the experience necessary to become adept at quickly making decisions on blackjack insurance and all other aspects of the game. Choosing BetMGM is like “taking out insurance” against having an inferior blackjack experience.