The dealer turns over an ace and offers insurance. You can decline, or place an extra bet that the hidden card will complete a blackjack. This is blackjack insurance: an optional side bet, usually capped at half your original stake. It pays 2:1 for a dealer blackjack. Otherwise, that extra stake is gone and your main hand continues.
The name can be misleading: insurance only covers that opening dealer blackjack. You can still lose both bets. Here is how the cost, payout and even-money option fit together.
How does insurance work in blackjack?
When the dealer shows an ace, a ten, jack, queen or king as their face-down card would complete a natural blackjack. This hidden card is also called the hole card. The insurance side bet wins if it is worth ten. Your own hand can be strong or weak; the insurance result depends on the dealer’s opening two cards.
The usual maximum insurance bet is half of your original wager. Some games offer a fixed half-stake option, so check the amount shown before accepting. A £10 main bet with £5 insurance puts £15 at stake altogether.
The decision comes before the dealer checks for blackjack. If there is no blackjack, the insurance bet is lost before the rest of the hand continues. A dealer who later draws to 21 does not make the insurance win.
What do 2:1 payout odds mean?
At 2 to 1, a winning £5 insurance bet earns £10 profit, and the £5 stake is returned as well: £15 comes back from that bet. On an ordinary hand, the £10 profit offsets the £10 lost on your main wager.
This is the arrangement described in the All Bets Blackjack rules hosted by the Nevada Gaming Control Board. It is an example of the standard insurance payout; use your own table’s rules for its exact options.
A £10 hand with £5 insurance
Suppose your opening cards are a ten and a seven, while the dealer shows an ace. You have £10 on your hand and take £5 insurance. The table below shows the possible results, assuming no extra wagers or special payouts.
| Result | Money returned from both bets | Overall profit or loss |
|---|---|---|
| Dealer has blackjack | £15 | £0 — break even |
| No dealer blackjack; your hand wins | £20 | £5 profit |
| No dealer blackjack; your hand pushes | £10 | £5 loss |
| No dealer blackjack; your hand loses | £0 | £15 loss |
All four rows start with the same £15 outlay. A push returns your £10 main stake, but it does not refund the £5 insurance. Even a winning main hand leaves you £5 worse off than the same result without insurance.
If your own opening hand is blackjack, the calculation changes. That is where even money comes in.
Is blackjack insurance worth it?
At a 2:1 payout, insurance needs to win more than one time in three to have a positive expected return. Winning once in three bets only breaks even: one £5 bet wins £10 profit, while the other two lose £5 each.
A standard deck has 16 cards worth ten: four tens, four jacks, four queens and four kings. Those are the cards that would make insurance win against the dealer’s ace. To work out the actual chance, though, you need to know how many are left among the unseen cards.
Insurance odds and house edge
For a simple calculation, set aside an ace from a full deck. Of the 51 cards left, 16 would win the insurance bet and 35 would lose it. With a 2:1 payout, that works out to an average loss of about 5.88p per £1 of insurance staked, or 5.88%. We have not removed any player cards in this example; a dealt hand needs its own calculation.
There is no single insurance house edge for every game. The 2:1 payout stays the same, but the chance of winning depends on which cards remain. Recent losses alone are no reason to expect the next insurance bet to win.
Basic blackjack strategy normally tells you to decline the insurance option. It assumes you are not tracking the remaining cards. Having a good hand does not make insurance better value, and having a poor hand does not turn it into a way to recover losses.
Even money when you have blackjack
Even money may be offered when you have a natural blackjack and the dealer shows an ace. You accept a guaranteed 1:1 win on that hand instead of waiting to see whether the dealer also has blackjack.
On a £10 bet at a table paying 3:2, declining the offer leaves two possible results: £15 profit if the dealer has no blackjack, or a push if you both have it. Taking even money settles the hand for £10 profit.
Why it matches taking insurance at 3:2
With a £10 natural and £5 insurance, the arithmetic produces the same £10 profit either way:
- The dealer has blackjack: your main hand pushes and the insurance earns £10 profit.
- The dealer has no blackjack: your natural earns £15 profit, but the insurance loses £5.
The trade-off is certainty on this hand in exchange for giving up the larger 3:2 win when the dealer misses blackjack. The familiar insurance equivalence assumes a 3:2 natural and a push when both sides have blackjack. It does not carry over unchanged to a 6:5 table.
Insurance in online blackjack
At a live blackjack table or in an online casino game, check the extra stake, the insurance payout and the payout for your own blackjack. If even money appears, it refers to settling a natural; it is not an offer to cash out any hand at a profit.
Table variants can change the surrounding rules. Our live blackjack guide compares the main table formats and explains rules such as 3:2 versus 6:5 payouts. Those differences matter beyond the brief insurance decision.
Blackjack insurance FAQs
Can you lose your main bet and insurance?
Yes. Say you have 17 and the dealer starts with an ace and a seven. The £5 insurance loses because the dealer has no blackjack. If you stand on 17, the dealer’s 18 also beats your £10 main bet. You lose £15 altogether.
Does insurance pay if the dealer draws to 21?
No. Insurance wins on the dealer’s opening blackjack: an ace and a ten-value card. A total of 21 reached with three or more cards does not qualify.
Do you have to take insurance against an ace?
No. It is optional. Declining it leaves your original hand in play under the table’s normal rules, without adding an insurance stake.
Is even money the same as insurance?
It gives the same net result as full half-stake insurance when you have blackjack at a 3:2 table and both naturals would push. Even money settles for 1:1 profit; taking insurance reaches that result through two separate bets.
Greg has been writing about online gambling and casino games since 2015, contributing to both national and international outlets. Over the years, he’s covered everything from industry trends to regulatory updates, always keeping a close eye on how the sector changes. His interest in gambling isn’t just professional—it’s personal, which is why he stays on top of the latest news and shifts in the market.
Fact checked by: Daniel – Casino expert. Last fact-checked: September 16, 2026.