The article implies that the 0.25 house edge was calculated before the rebates were considered, still leaving the ~0.08 house edge as a mystery. The quote below

The article implies that the 0.25 house edge was calculated before the rebates were considered, still leaving the ~0.08 house edge as a mystery. The quote below follows the quote from my original comment. The author of the article may have made a mistake, though. When Johnson and the Trop finally agreed, he had whittled the house edge down to one-fourth of 1 percent, by his figuring. In effect, he was playing a 50-50 game against the house, and with the discount, he was risking only 80 cents of every dollar he played.