Excalibur opened in 1990 as MGM Resorts' family-budget south-Strip anchor — the castle facade with the multicolored turrets, the Tournament of Kings dinner-and-jousting show, the 4,000-room volume play, and the $79 mid-week rack rate. The property pioneered the family-friendly Vegas era of the early 1990s alongside Treasure Island's pirate battle and the original MGM Grand's Wizard of Oz theming. Three decades later the medieval theme is mostly intact, the family-budget orientation is the still-published positioning, and the casino floor runs as a high-volume budget property within MGM Resorts. The blackjack rule card reflects that posture: 6:5 floor-wide, no published $25+ 3:2 game on the main floor.
The honest framing for Excalibur blackjack is this — the property is not a blackjack destination. Cross the pedestrian bridge to New York-New York or walk five minutes down the Strip to Park MGM and the same MGM Rewards tier-credit ledger applies at a $25 3:2 table. The medieval theme is fun; the rule card is not.
The published Excalibur rules
Per the verified rules database, Excalibur main-floor tables run a 6:5 floor-wide budget ruleset:
- 6 decks from a shoe
- Dealer hits soft 17 (H17)
- Double after split allowed (DAS)
- Late surrender NOT offered
- Blackjack pays 6:5 across visible tables (no $25+ 3:2 game published on the main floor)
The verified rules note reads: 'Budget property — most visible blackjack tables are 6:5. House edge well above 1%; not a recommended blackjack destination.' That is the database talking, not editorial — the verified data feed flagged Excalibur as a property where the 6:5 game is the floor default and the player should not expect to find a $25+ 3:2 table on the main pit.
House edge and EV per hour
6:5 H17 6D DAS no-LS game: house edge approximately 2.11%. The 6:5 payout strips approximately 1.39 percentage points from the player's edge compared to the equivalent 3:2 game — that single rule change is the difference between a 0.72% standard MGM Strip game and a 2.11% Excalibur game. At 80 hands per hour:
- $25 average bet: -$42.20 per hour, -$126.60 per 3-hour session
- $50 average bet: -$84.40 per hour, -$253.20 per 3-hour session
- $100 average bet: -$168.80 per hour, -$506.40 per 3-hour session
Compare to the equivalent 3:2 H17 6D DAS game at a standard MGM Strip property at the same stakes — $14.40 / $28.80 / $57.60 per hour respectively. The 6:5 rule change costs roughly three times as much per hour at every bet level. A weekend gambler playing eight hours of $50 blackjack at Excalibur surrenders approximately $675 to the rule difference alone, before any variance, before any tipping, before any food and beverage. That same eight hours at a 3:2 table across the street costs approximately $230 to the rule baseline.
How this stacks up vs the textbook baseline
1.61 percentage points worse than the 0.50% textbook reference, and 1.39 percentage points worse than the standard MGM Strip 0.72% main floor. The 6:5 game is the single most expensive structural rule change in blackjack, and Excalibur publishes it as the floor default. There is no quiet $25 3:2 table tucked at the back of the pit; the property's pricing posture is built around the 6:5 game running at $5-$15 minimums to support the family-budget walk-in volume.
Why people still play here
The honest answer is the table minimums. Excalibur's $5-$15 6:5 floor lets a player at the bottom of the bankroll range sit and play, where a $25 3:2 table at NYNY or Park MGM would price them out. For a player whose total session bankroll is $80 and whose goal is two hours of entertainment, the 6:5 game at $5 minimum is structurally accessible in a way that a $25 minimum is not. The math still says 6:5 costs more per dollar wagered — but the dollar-wagered count at $5 minimum is lower than at $25 minimum, and the total session cost may be lower in absolute dollars at a $5 6:5 game than at a $25 3:2 game for a player who would otherwise be priced out.
The other structural reason: MGM Rewards tier credit accumulates at Excalibur on the same ledger as Bellagio, ARIA, MGM Grand, and the premium-tier flagships. A player splitting trips between the budget tier and the premium tier can route some volume through Excalibur and have the credits count toward premium-tier status. The credits accumulate; the comp velocity does not — Excalibur sits in MGM Rewards standard tier at the low end, with reinvestment running materially below the premium-tier 25%-40% norm. The room product is a budget tier — the Resort Tower rooms run small, dated, and priced accordingly; the comp inventory at the property converts at low per-night value compared to the premium flagships, but the absolute rack rate is low enough that comp inventory may be neutral to negative value compared to simply paying cash.
The non-gaming amenity story is the property's strongest case for visiting. Tournament of Kings — the medieval-themed dinner-and-jousting show — has run continuously since the property opened and is a budget-tier family entertainment value. The wedding chapel runs a high-volume budget tier in the Las Vegas wedding market. The buffet (when operating) and the food-court-style dining at the property converts well to MGM Rewards dining credits redeemed at the property's tier. These are the reasons to walk in the door; the blackjack pit is not.
The honest recommendation: walk to NYNY or Park MGM
The single highest-value piece of practical advice for a player who wants to play blackjack at the south-end Strip is this: do not sit at Excalibur. Walk across the pedestrian bridge to New York-New York, or down the Strip to Park MGM, and play the standard MGM 3:2 H17 6D DAS game at $25 minimum. Same MGM Rewards tier-credit ledger; one-third the per-hour cost. The walk is roughly five minutes. The MGM Rewards card scans the same way at every property in the portfolio.
If the bankroll truly does not support a $25 minimum, the alternative is not to play more carefully at Excalibur's 6:5 game — it is to walk further, to a $10 or $15 3:2 table at one of the downtown properties (the Plaza, Four Queens, El Cortez) or to scale down the session length and play fewer hours at the $25 minimum across the Strip. Variance reduction through shorter sessions at a fair game outperforms variance reduction through longer sessions at a 6:5 game on any honest EV math. The 6:5 game has no winning posture for the basic-strategy player; the only mathematically defensible reason to sit at a 6:5 table is the inability to relocate, and Excalibur's pedestrian-bridge geometry makes relocation trivially easy.
Where to sit at Excalibur (if you must)
If the player has decided to sit at Excalibur for theme-tourism reasons, the seat-finding posture is to minimize hands per hour rather than to optimize seat selection. Sit at a full table (a six-or-seven-spot table running at full capacity will play approximately 55-65 hands per hour vs the 80-90-hand pace of a heads-up or two-player table); this reduces hourly EV cost by roughly 25% at the same bet level. Tip the dealer modestly to slow the pace further if the table is empty. Drink one comped soda or one $0 cocktail and leave after a defined number of hands rather than a defined number of minutes. The framework here is damage limitation, not advantage play.