What is the difference between Edge and Expected Value?

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I hear all the time that most blackjack games in a casino have ~2% "edge". Does this mean the house wins 51% or 52% of all hands? And is expected value just a semantically different thing or does it actually give different information about a particular wager?

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A 2% edge usually refers to an average payout of 98% of any bet. Which is exactly what an EV of 0.98 would mean.

If we're assuming simple win/lose double your bet, then you would win 49 out of 100 bets, returning 98 bets, and losing 2%. So the casino wins 51% to get this 2% edge.