Is online casino blackjack rigged
New casino sites to play real money
Here’s an example to show just how profitable online blackjack is with a fair game. The news of a casino caught cheating will spread like wildfire through the internet community and players will never trust the casino again.
Can live dealer blackjack games be rigged?
One of the biggest fears casino players have is being cheated by the casino.
I’ve talked to dozens of live casino players who constantly talk about how they’ve been cheated by the casino. This number is low compared to the number of online players who claim they’ve been cheated by an internet casino.
The only question I get more than is online blackjack rigged is if online poker is rigged?
Of course it’s an entirely different subject for another day, but I feel a lot safer playing blackjack than poker when it comes to being cheated.
On this page I cover many of the common cheating claims, show you a few ways that cheating could actually occur, a few real issues online blackjack players may face, and discuss a few individual casinos.
As I explain in greater detail below, the best way to know you’re playing a fair game and not being cheated is play at an established and trusted online casino. Ones with a long track record of honest play and customer service are the place you want to play.
The two I can recommend off the top of my head are guts casino live blackjack and 5 dimes real dealer blackjack. Both of these companies have been offering online gambling for years and I’ve played at both of them for real money in the past.
So, is blackjack rigged at casinos?
Claims of cheating
The same arguments and claims are made about live dealer blackjack as video blackjack. So the following claims are in reference to both of the following questions.
Is video blackjack rigged?
Is live dealer blackjack rigged?
The most frequent claim that I read about blackjack being rigged is that a player has lost 5 straight hands, or 7 straight hands, or 10 straight hands. The person complaining states that the game must be rigged because they lost so many straight hands as if that fact alone proved something.
What these players don’t seem to understand is how probabilities and statistics work.
While you won’t lose 10 hands in a row very often, it can and will happen. Just because something is rare doesn’t mean that when it happened the casino is cheating or the game is rigged.
The odds of losing 8 hands in a row are only 1 in 173 so you’ll have long losing streaks.
On the other side you’ll occasionally have long winning streaks too. But most players quickly forget the winning streaks and scream bloody murder when the casino wins a few hands in a row.
The next complaint I see kind of falls under the same type of thing. Players say that a certain casino’s blackjack game is tighter than others and if the player gets a good hand like a pair of face cards the dealer gets the same hand or a blackjack more often than normal.
The funny thing is I’ve seen a player complain that casino A is tighter than casino B and then seen a different player complain that casino B was tighter than casino A.
The fact is these complainers are simply making statements based on guesses and what they think they see over a few hundred hands at best.
What you never see is anyone that has actually tracked the hundreds of thousands of hands needed to make a real determination of blackjack cheating.
I believe there are two reasons for this. The first reason is the general player is too lazy to actually do the work required to track that many hands. The second reason is if anyone does track the hands they find out that the games are in actuality fair so they stop complaining.
How it could happen
The easiest way for an online casino to rig a live dealer blackjack game is by removing some aces or face cards from the shoe.
Because most live dealer games use a 6 or 8 deck shoe and don’t go pat 50% penetration it’d be quite difficult for the average player to determine this was happening.
But a player who took the time to track enough hands would be able to see it in the statistics eventually. I’d want at least 25,000 hands to start making any accusations, and 100,000 would be better.
The only other feasible way is to use a stacked shoe, but the problem with this is in most games they have no way of knowing for sure how many seats will be filled at any time throughout the shoe. With a stacked shoe the casino needs to know how many players will be playing each round, and even then the players don’t always make the same decisions so it alters the outcomes.
Why it doesn’t happen
Of course I can’t guarantee that you’ll never find an online casino that cheats or a live dealer blackjack game that bends the rules, but for the most part it just doesn’t happen with the best online casinos.
If an online casino or blackjack game is caught cheating it will cost the company millions of dollars, even if they can stay in business.
The news of a casino caught cheating will spread like wildfire through the internet community and players will never trust the casino again.
Online blackjack games don’t have to cheat in order to turn a long term profit.
Even the blackjack games that have the lowest house edge have a half percent edge over the player. And the only way a player can play at the lowest house edge is by playing perfect strategy.
Most blackjack players don’t use perfect strategy, so they give the house an additional edge.
I don’t have the exact numbers that online blackjack games operate at profit wise, but even if it’s as low as 1% overall they make money hand over fist. And the truth is that the overall house edge is probably closer to 2% than 1%.
Here’s an example to show just how profitable online blackjack is with a fair game.
If the average live dealer table has five players each betting an average of $25 per hand and the game deals 50 hands per hour the total amount wagered on the table per hour is $6,250. At 1% this is an hourly profit of $62.50 per table.
But the numbers in the example are quite conservative.
If the edge is 2% the hourly profit is $125. If the average wager is $50 with a 2% edge the profit is $250.
Remember this example just covers live dealer play. While some live dealers can deal more than 50 hands per hour, if you play on one of the software driven blackjack games you can easily play 100 hands per hour or more.
The other thing that most online blackjack players do is keep playing until they lose their entire deposit. While this is simply the average house edge grinding their bankroll down, it’s what makes blackjack even more profitable for the casino.
Most players who have a decent run and get ahead at the blackjack tables keep playing and eventually the percentages catch up with them.
In the short run the casino house edge at any blackjack table fluctuates a great deal, but as long as the casino has a big enough bankroll to ride out the short term they’re guaranteed a profit unless players figure out a way to alter the odds.
Some players can gain an edge against the casino in live play in a land based casino, but they can’t while playing live dealer blackjack online.
So is online blackjack rigged?
The bottom line is the casinos have no reason to cheat online blackjack players. In the long term it’s more profitable to deal a fair game than run the risk of being caught cheating.
I want to finish this section with a quote from a bodog representative about blackjack.
“at the end of the day all casino games, blackjack included, have a house edge. We have no reason to alter the game in anyway. All you need to do is walk down the strip in vegas and you have all the proof you need that offering a fair and honest game of blackjack is just simply good business.”
Individual casinos
Over the past several months I’ve received questions about different online casinos. These questions include the following.
Is bovada blackjack rigged or is bodog rigged?
Is myvegas blackjack rigged or is betonline blackjack rigged?
For the same reasons I’ve already covered above I don’t believe any of these casinos offer rigged blackjack games or any other games.
I don’t have as much personal experience with the second pair as with bodog and bovada, but I trust all of their blackjack games 100%. My personal experience with the bodog brands is so good that I’ve played for real money with them for over 10 years and will continue to do so.
Real problems
As you can see you don’t have to worry about live dealer blackjack games being rigged as long as you play at established and trusted online casinos.
A few real problems blackjack players face is the ability to get money into and out of online casinos. Of course this depends a great deal on where you live, but it’s always nice to feel safe in the thought you can easily and safely take your money out of the casino when you hit a nice win.
If you can open a popular online wallet like skrill or neteller it’s the best way to quickly and safely move money around with online casinos. If you can’t, have a conversation with the support department before you make a deposit to find out the best way for players in your country to make a withdrawal.
August 10, 2011 - offer valid as of date published. T&cs apply.
Rigged online blackjack
Can online blackjack be rigged?
"has anyone actually won money playing online blackjack?"
"the dealer gets twice the blackjacks as the player, 8 in 100 hands, and the dealer always wins more doubles."
"it would be more likely that I would get hit by lightning than suffer the results I did."
The preceding statements were taken from message boards which specialize in online gambling discussions. While many players believe just the opposite, a growing minority are convinced that online blackjack is indeed rigged by the house.
The question this article tries to answer is, "how likely is it that online blackjack is rigged?"
The answer to this question, like almost all questions, is, "it depends." or "sometimes."
Take, for example, a scam in england which cost an online gambling operation $1.6 million dollars before a rigged blackjack game was discovered, and it's easy to see why many players are so suspicious.
Couple that with the fact that online wagering, once thought of in the same seedy vein as online pornography, has achieved a level of mainstream popularity which attracts thousands of new players daily, often providing easy targets for the unscrupulous and the downright immoral, and you have a situation rife with mistrust and paranoia.
Customers who complain about online blackjack being rigged have four main concerns:
1. Refusal to pay out winnings
Perhaps the worst violation, there is nothing more frustrating than actually beating the house advantage and then finding that your chosen online casino will not pay. And since it is not a land-based business, your odds of recovering the money are very slim.
2. Lengthy delays before winnings are paid out
Almost as annoying as #1, but at least you eventually get what is coming to you.
3. Closures with no warning, without refunding deposited funds
This is a problem almost exclusive to fly-by-night operations and casinos established solely to scam the customer. This problem will almost never be encountered if you choose to gamble at a reputable casino with a solid business history.
4. Use of rigged software, with outcomes not randomly generated
Perhaps even more insidious than not paying out winnings is an online blackjack game which cheats you out of the chance to make a profit in the first place. This subject is often the most passionately debated, because it's almost impossible for the average internet player to prove it one way or another.
While such crooked software does exist, many blackjack players are just too eager to cry foul when they suffer a bad run, thus casting doubt on the industry as a whole and furthering the overall sense of paranoia. While these concerns might sometimes be real and valid, many gamblers simply ignore the most basic fact of gambling which is constantly staring them in the face.
Every casino in the world, whether it's online or land-based, offers games which give the house an edge (strangely, few people ever complain about losing the lottery, a game where the house, in this case the government, has a huge advantage over the player). No matter what you do, you generally can't beat that edge.
Casinos will always make money. Gamblers, as a general rule, will usually lose money. And the longer you play, the more likely it is that the house edge will catch up to you. That's how it works.
If it didn't, casinos would have gone the way of the dodo a long time ago. But despite this fact, many players continue to claim that online black jack games are rigged, usually citing certain software manufacturers as the real culprits.
Most software makers charge an internet casino between $10,000 and $250,000 to develop a web-based casino, and often the software companies get as much as 30% of the gaming win generated by the site.
With that kind of money on the line, it's small wonder that someone who just lost $1,000 at on line blackjack might grow suspicious.
An authority site in this industry, has said, "online casinos are fair and honest for the most part. If you stick to the big four software manufacturers (boss media, cryptologic, microgaming, and world gaming) you shouldn't have to worry about the fairness of the games themselves - the only thing you need to look into is their reputation for support and prompt payments."
An internet gambling expert who reviews e-casinos says, "cryptologic offers about a 98 % return on video poker and blackjack, but, of course, the rules are such that the casino's odds may be a bit higher due to player mistakes. If you want better odds than what the major software-makers offer, you have to venture a bit off the beaten path, but if you do that you risk security."
Considering the above statement, it should then come as little surprise that the problems have occurred almost exclusively at unlicensed and/or unregulated online casinos (it is thought that there are 200+ online casinos operating illegally today).
Casinos licensed by a responsible government are regularly audited and seem to have as few problems as regulated land-based casinos, and the odds they offer are similar.
When considering online blackjack casinos, try looking for the following marks of quality:
1. Software
Reliable and proven software backend that generates random numbers. Probabilities cannot be manipulated by the software backend.
2. Business practice
Operators have shown a history of stable business operations. No prior fraud convictions, bankruptcies, etc.
3. Fair play
Look for companies who openly advertise payouts and are audited by a reputable, independent organization. Bonus winners should also be openly advertised to show that reliable payouts have been made.
Anyone, particularly the software developer, can claim any payout percentage they want. Without independent auditing (from a reputable firm like price waterhouse coopers, for example) these numbers mean absolutely nothing.
4. Quick and reliable payout process
Operators must have some type of payment processing that allows for reasonably quick payouts.
5. Playability
Software should be reliable and able to retain the game state in case of dropped connections.
6. Customer support
Any casino you want to play at should have a toll-free call center and prompt email support. The customer service staff should demonstrate a firm understanding of the product.
7. Disclosure
Virtual black jack casinos should demonstrate full disclosure in releasing details regarding payouts, policies, insurance, etc.
So is online blackjack rigged?
In a sense, all casino games are rigged by paying out at different odds than the true odds. In other words, all casino games have a house edge that is unbeatable.
But usually when someone asks about online casino being rigged, their concern is with whether or not they're getting the same house edge that they would have playing a non-virtual, or brick and mortar version of the game in a land-based casino.
Most of the time, if you're playing at a reputable casino, you will be receiving a fair game, because there is little motivation for an internet casino to cheat with their software. The house edge is already built into the game, so there is no need to cheat in order to win in the long run.
In fact, most online casino operators have plenty of incentive NOT to rig their software. If they get caught, they go out of business, and then their profit margins become 0.
Can online blackjack be rigged?
After a losing streak, you might be wondering “can online blackjack be rigged?” it’s a good question. If you play at a physical casino, you can see the dealer and the deck of cards on the table. You can be fairly sure there is nothing shady going on. However, when you play online blackjack, there’s no such table. The dealer is a computer program made up of hundreds of lines of code that makes no sense to the average person. In this situation, most people can’t really answer the question, “is online blackjack rigged or not?“. Therefore, let’s dig into the subject and find out!
How does video blackjack work?
At the heart of all online casino games is a computer program called “random number generator”. This program creates a random number. This number is used for various purposes depending on the game. For card games like online poker and video blackjack, it determines what card shows up next. For slot machines, it determines what symbol each reel stop at.
However, these random number generators aren’t perfectly random. Online casinos will tune the output of the program so that instead of having an equal chance of winning and losing money, you have a slightly higher chance of losing. It’s is called the house edge.
House edge and video blackjack odds
The house edge can be represented by looking at the “return to player”, or RTP, value. This value tells you what percentage of your original deposit you can expect to get back.
For example, assume the RTP for a particular game is 95%. Then the house edge for this game is 5%. It means that if you keep playing the game over and over again, you will eventually end up at 95% of the money you have wagered. The casino holds 5% as their profits. This may sound unfair at first, but it is how all casinos stay in business.
Picking a reliable online casino
The house edge at online casinos is a lot lower than at physical casinos. So, it is easier to make money when playing table games online, including blackjack. However, the risks at an online casino are much higher.
If you go to a famous casino, like las vegas, you can be assured that all the casinos are legitimate and fair. If a casino got a reputation for being unfair, it would lose its customers and be investigated. However, there are a lot more online casinos, based on different jurisdictions all over the world. It’s a lot harder to regulate them, so the risk of falling victim to a shady casino is higher.
The best way to avoid shady casinos is to look for certifications. There are independent organizations such as TST, who will check if the video blackjack odds are fair or not. Also, try to play at casinos that get their games from reputable software developers like netent, microgaming, realtime gaming, etc. It’s even harder for casinos to cheat at live blackjack than video blackjack, so play live games if you can.
Conclusion
Cheating is not exclusive to video blackjack. Some physical casinos will also cheat at blackjack by having dealers counting cards, having non-standard decks, improperly shuffling, and so on. Dealers who do this are very experienced at hiding it, so even if you’re at the blackjack table, you might not realize it.
In video blackjack, you are guaranteed far higher winnings. Since there is no dealer, a few losses in a row might feel like malice rather than bad luck. However, good online casinos rely on their reputation to maintain a customer base. So they will have fair games that are certified independently. If you still feel you’re losing too often, try looking up our how to play blackjack section for some tips!
Is online blackjack rigged or fair? Safe methods finding the best games
Many new players who are considering playing blackjack at an online casino site will wonder whether the games are actually fair. Since a number of players will have already played blackjack at a land casino, they will want to know how to find the best blackjack games online that offer fair chances at winning and verified payouts. There are many things to consider when looking for games and with a bit of knowledge and some tips, any player can quickly learn that online blackjack is a fair game that can be enjoyed at some of the top rated casino sites in the industry.
How RNG come into play
When choosing an online casino to play blackjack, one thing players should ensure is that the RNG is tested on a routine basis. The random number generator is used to determine the outcome of games and to deal random cards when the games start. Most online casinos will regularly test the software that is being used to ensure that the RNG is operating properly. Always make sure these tests are performed on a regular basis when choosing blackjack sites and games. Third party groups will be responsible for the testing of the games, one of which is TST. This company tests for compliance and evaluates the RNG as well as the payouts and reports.
Software developers of games
With many leading software developers in the industry, players will have numerous choices when choosing blackjack sites and games. Each software provider will offer different game variations that will have various rules and presentations. Players should take some time to review the top software names before making a selection. One will find that playtech and microgaming casinos offer the largest selection of blackjack games online and both of these companies have a superb reputation for fair games, honest payouts and astounding game design.
Third party accreditations
When a casino site is accredited by a third party company, it will ensure that the site is operating legally and ethically and meets all industry standards. Ecogra is one company to watch for and this independent organisation oversees the proper operation of many of the leading online casinos in the industry. With an ecogra accredited casino site, the games are tested routinely, payout percentages are verified and players will receive extra layers of protection. Accredited casinos will only use software that has been audited by a third party, ensuring the fairness of games and the safety of players.
Online casino feedback
Casino feedback can be a great way for players to determine whether a site is legitimate and is offering the best blackjack games. With feedback, one can learn of another player’s experience and can also learn of the different game variations that are offered. The overall reputation of an online casino is their key to success, so players will find that most sites will be offering tested games for verified payouts and will also never risk their reputation in the industry by rigging any games. Players should take some time to check casino forums, review sites and blogs to learn as much as they can about a site as well as the software and games that are used and offered. At casino review sites, players can find out about many top rated casino sites and can access an internally generated list of recommended blackjack sites.
Casino licensing
The licensing of an online casino is extremely important when players are planning to play any real money games online. There are many different jurisdictions that license online casinos and to ensure safety and fair games, players should turn their attention to those that hold a UK or EU license. The reason is because these two jurisdictions have the most regulations and demand that online casinos meet industry standards. When choosing a site for blackjack, never play at any casino that is not licensed and regulated and try to stick to these with the UK and EU licensing in place.
Is online blackjack rigged?
Online blackjack games are not rigged. These games are the next best thing to sitting in a land based casino and when playing at a reliable and trusted site, players can be sue the games are fair and honest. By choosing licensed casinos that use the best software, players can enjoy amazing blackjack variations and have exceptional chances at winning. Always choose an accredited casino site for the best blackjack games.
Are online casinos rigged?
A common question amongst both new and experienced players is whether or not online casinos are 'rigged' or fixed in some way. This is also a question that gets asked about once every other day on yahoo answers. So we thought it was high time to answer it.
Before we start, we should point out that by their very nature all casinos games have a payout that is lower than the theoretical 'full odds' of the game (resulting in the 'house edge'). This fact is no secret and one that is not hidden by the casinos - it is also how casinos, both online and brick and mortar, stay in business. This topic has already been covered in the previous article, which you can read here.
With this in mind, when we talk about a casino being 'rigged' we mean one which operates outside of the laws of probability - ie: the outcomes of a game, rather than the payouts, are not as we would expect. For example, if you were to roll a dice 100 times and each time the dice rolled a '6', there is a strong chance that the dice is fixed in some way.
So what about online casinos? Most people that complain about the legitimacy of an online casino do so after a string of losses - either a large number of spins on a slot machine without a significant win, or a run of loses at the blackjack or roulette table. But do these loses related to some kind of manipulation of the game?
For roulette, many players scream 'fraud' when faced with a run of 10 reds in a row whilst they're betting on black - but does this point to a fixed game, a statistical anomaly or a relatively common occurrence? The odds of losing 10 bets on black in a row, which includes both spins that are 'red' as well as spinning the green zero, can be calculated as follows:
The probability of losing one spin is 19/37 - there are 37 numbers on a single zero roulette wheel and 19 of them would result in you losing your 'black' bet (18 reds + 1 green zero).
The probability of losing two spins in a row can be calculated by taking the odds of losing one spin and multiplying it against itself:
19/37 x 19/37 = 1 in 3.79 (or P = 0.26)
Similarly the probability of losing 10 spins in a row can be calculated by taking the odds of losing one spin and multiplying it by itself 9 times, which is written as:
19/37 ^ 10 = 1 in 784 (or P = 0.0013)
To put this in perspective, this means that if you were to spin the roulette wheel ten times in a row and then repeated this set of 10 spins another 783 times (for a total of 784), you would expect one of those spin sets to be all losses.
A one in 784 occurance isn't really that rare at all, in fact you have much better odds of facing a run of 10 consecutive losses at the roulette wheel than you do of correctly picking 4 numbers on the lottery (1 in 1,032).
Please note: the odds quoted above are for a full set of 10 spins before any of the spins have occurred. If you have already spun to nine losses, the probability of losing the next spin is 19/37. Chance has no memory and the numbers that have come up previously have absolutely no influence on the next number. If you need this principle explained, read this article.
If players were faced with such a run at a brick and mortar casino, they would likely accept it as 'bad luck'. But because an online casino is essentially a graphical representation of a computer generated random number, people tend to be a bit quicker to jump to the conclusion that a game is fixed.
In reality, the games at a reputable online casino are exactly the same as the ones you would find at a brick and mortar casino. In fact many online casinos actually offer a higher payout percentages (RTP) than their land based brothers - a perk that can be offered thanks to the reduced overheads of not needing to have a physical presence.
A final point to consider is that casinos (both online and offline) do not need to be rigged to ensure themselves a long term profit - this is acheived by the house edge. What a casino does need is volume - the more bets a casino takes, the more profit they will make. A casino where everybody loses simply isn't fun - and if the gaming experienced offered by a casino isn't fun, most players wont return. In this respect, a fair game is much better for business.
Obviously we are not saying that all online casinos are 100% honest - there are people in the world that have questionable morals and there is a chance that some of these people probably do run rigged online casinos. But if you stick to reputable licensed online casinos you can ensure that you're getting a fair game.
The following simple advice should help you find a safe, trustworthy online casino:
- Stick to large well known brands that are regulated in the UK such as bet365.
- Play at casinos powered by trusted online casino software, such as microgaming or netent.
- Look for proof of third party audits of a casinos payouts and random number generators.
- Use guides, such as the one found on this site, to get recommendations of reputable online casinos.
Finally, remember that casino gambling is a form of entertainment that comes with a cost. In the long run, the house really does always win - so play for the thrill and enjoyment, but never bet with any money that you can't afford to lose.
Blackjack online. Random or rigged
Gobucs
Dormant account
Ugaboga
Casino addict
Dormant account
Gobucs, how can you verify that you've actually played millions of hands?
I have seen the pattern you mention with small samples, but have also received emails from casino support defending their RNG. Their explanations seem to make sense. Still there are plenty of players who join as new players, deposit $50 to start and walk away with $1500 cashouts. Yet I wonder the overall results of high stakes players who actually recorded all their results in a database/spread sheet of sorts.
Can you elaborate more on that front?
It also seems that $1-5 bets are more easily won in free mode. But increase to $100+ and suddenly the dealer "coincidentally" beats your KK with blackjack.
Slotswizard
Dormant account
I understand your frustration, but I really think most of it boils down to perception.
I cannot count how many times I thought to myself "self, that felt rigged!" but then I go back and analyze the game logs only to find that the results are surprisingly in line with expectation. I remember at a rival casino after a streak of seemingly bad luck, I went and checked the logs. The total return was 99.92%, well in line with expectations. Results with microgaming casinos are similar.
I would recommend restricting your play to casinos that offer you access to your game logs from within the software, without having to jump through hoops of fire to get them. This includes rival and microgaming. I'm not sure about others.
Also, call it quits while you're ahead. After a good run, don't start thinking that you can bet bigger and bigger and never experience an equal and opposite downturn in your luck. Because you will, eventually, and that's got nothing to do with being rigged and everything to do with the combination of variance and the house edge.
When all else fails and you need some humor, read my new blackjack rules.
Banned user - repetitive violations of
As well if you chart your play, not by return percentage, but by hands won, lost, or tied - and your 'big bet' sample is large enough - you should see very similar win/lose/push ratio.
But if you chart 10,000 $1,2,5 hands and only 50-100 $100-$300 hands, there can be a large skew, because the big bet sample will not be big enough to truly compare.
Eliot jacobson
Dormant account
When I audit blackjack at on-line casinos, I look for wins/losses/pushes, and also fairness of first card, second card, draw cards, number of hands of each value for the player and dealer, and a host of other metrics (unmentioned to protect the security of the audits).
The monthly audit logs I see may have 500,000 to 1,000,000 hands at some casinos. Even then, I will see RTP's (return to player) between 95% and 102% with a lot of variation in between.
If the THEO (theoretical return to the player) of a blackjack game is 99.5%, I would not expect a reasonable convergence to that number with a simulation of fewer than 100 million hands. Most software programs that model blackjack to obtain numbers accurate to *two* decimal digits, will run for 1 billion hands (or more). For example, see www.Qfit.Com . The long run is *REALLY LONG* for blackjack.
Based on my personal experience auditing online blackjack, for both casino clients and for players who doubt their fairness, in every case the game offered has been fair. Still, I remain vigilant in my audits. Likewise, you should be vigilant and cautious in your play, but also take into account the incredible variance that happens in these games.
Aka23
Dormant account
In the case of party casino, the fairness has been questioned by players quite a few times. In the warning on my site, I list the following dealer upcard stats. The chance of this distribution occurring randomly is quite low. I've also noticed the issue that you mentioned with bet raises, although I didn't attempt enough raises to confirm that it was more than random chance.
Dealer 2 -- 234
dealer 3 -- 177
dealer 4 -- 128
dealer 5 -- 323
dealer 6 -- 178
dealer 7 -- 261
dealer 8 -- 323
dealer 9 -- 321
dealer T -- 355
dealer J -- 291
dealer Q -- 332
dealer K -- 305
dealer A -- 285
Having said that, many players do well with this software (former iglobalmedia) and have results near expectations. Bodog and villento use different software, and I am not aware of similar issues with their softwares.
Eliot jacobson
Dormant account
In the case of party casino .
Dealer 2 -- 234
dealer 3 -- 177
dealer 4 -- 128
dealer 5 -- 323
dealer 6 -- 178
dealer 7 -- 261
dealer 8 -- 323
dealer 9 -- 321
dealer T -- 355
dealer J -- 291
dealer Q -- 332
dealer K -- 305
dealer A -- 285
If these numbers are accurate, the odds are roughly 1 in 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000 that this (or a worse result) will occur purely by chance. (1.2094E-40).
I have no way of verifying your numbers, I am just telling you the results of a simple chi-squared test.
Eliot jacobson
Dormant account
Party gaming quick blackjack audit
Based on the post by aka23, I decided to log on to my party gaming account and play blackjack to investigate "first card" bias.
I played their blackjack - single player (las vegas downtown blackjack) game, in practice mode, flat betting $1 per hand. My play started at 6:05 PM and lasted until 7:20 PM. During this time I played 489 hands and recorded the dealer up-card for each of these hands. These results were:
2 -- 32
3 -- 41
4 -- 36
5 -- 31
6 -- 30
7 -- 36
8 -- 41
9 -- 38
T -- 50
J -- 40
Q -- 38
K -- 36
A -- 40
These results are statistically normal. The expected number for each card was 37.62. The chi-squared statistic is 8.75, which means these results are effectively random. I find no "first card" bias in this game, as I played it, at party gaming casino.
Aka23
Dormant account
$1000 over the course of this wagering, then analyzed the game logs and posted the upcard data. He probably still has the game logs, so he may be able to send them to you. I'll PM you contact data.
Gobucs
Dormant account
Scuba44
Dormant account
I've noticed the same pattern & black fridays
Hello gobucs,
I've noticed the same pattern with bodog and grand prive casinos. However, I have no evidence to indicate rigging on higher bets, and the mathematics is beyond my limited understanding. I have noticed another disturbing pattern in these casinos. When I build up my stake with small blackjack bets from saturday through thursday, I usually lose it all back to the casino when I play on fridays making bigger bets. Ergo-I don't play on fridays anymore. I'm beginning to feel that I only should play blackjack at live tables which, obviously, is so much less accessible and convenient for me.
Eliot jacobson
Dormant account
When I audit, I filter the overall data into a separate file containing wagers above x (x varies from time to time) and run my audit tests on that file in addition to the overall file. This technique is part of the "vast unknown" of my audits, and I don't want to give up any more about it.
There is no statistical evidence that online casino blackjack software favors wins at the lower levels or losses at the higher levels for the major software providers.
I wish I could tell you more, but I have seen my share of big players win big.
Lots0
Banned user - troll posts - flaming
I sat in harrah's casino (reno) one night and watched a blackjack dealer pull 16 21's in less than 30 minutes.
Funny, but no one watching or playing even suggested that the dealer or the casino were cheating.
I think it had something to do with the random nature of the cards.
Jas2587
Ueber meister
What i don't understand is if you think they
are cheating you why do you continue to
feed them your money??
I play mostly slots if I dont hit good by the 10th spin I switch games
ive played tx hold em an came in 1st several times
no I will not name the site as it is not a casino
it is a pay to play yearly but that is beside the point
If I am losing I get out while I still have cash
Westland bowl
Tin foil hat club member
In september, I re-started playing blackjack online after a year off except for one deposit in january that quickly evaporated. Out of a total of $400 in deposits, I've withdrawn about $3,000 and still have $500 left to wager with. I mostly play vegas strip blackjack which the wizard of odds state should have a win percentage of 43.31%. I keep my results on a spreadsheet of hands played, wins, losses and pushes. I also calculate the percentage won for that session, a 5-session moving average of win percentage, a 10-session moving average, and a 50-session moving average. I also break up the sessions into 35-hand units for a more even look at what is happening.
If the win-percentage averages are high, like 46% or higher over the past 5 or more sessions, I know I'm bound for a low-win-percentage session(s). I assume the casino doesn't want to get too out-of-bounds with their win percentage (obviously!) so I play cautiously at that time. Well, it's best to play cautiously at ALL times!
Since re-starting, I've played over 8,000 hands and the win percentage since starting is 43.50%. At one time the win percentage was almost 49% for the 10-session average and 45.50% for the 50-session average. Very high numbers. Subsequent to that, the next 50+ sessions were below 43% (on average) in order to bring back the overall percentage since starting back to the norm 43.31%.
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ok. Some online casinos I've deposited with start out being very aggressive with low win-percentages. I can only speculate why. But I'm sure if you complain, they would say that you started out on the low-end of variance. In any case, the overall wins and cards drawn will eventually pull to the definition of fair randomness. However, I'm not willing to wait until I've played 100 million hands to determine if I would continue to play at that casino.
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third point. I do believe that the win percentage and cards drawn are fairly random. However, I also believe the casino software "learns" your style of play. I tend to up my bet after a win rather than martingale after each loss. After winning and withdrawing over $1000, I started to see more LOSING double-downs and splits after a win. It appeared it learned that I up my bets after a win soooo. Ta da! In response, I shifted my strategy to wait until a get TWO wins in a row, then up my bet. I avoided many losing dd's and splits but after a while, I started to get losing dd/splits after the double wins. So I learned to shift how I play depending on what I observed happening more often.
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my forth point has to do with the insidious nature of greed which caused me a lot more gambling losses than anything a reputable casino could do. But this post is already too long.
Can online blackjack be rigged?
After a losing streak, you might be wondering “can online blackjack be rigged?” it’s a good question. If you play at a physical casino, you can see the dealer and the deck of cards on the table. You can be fairly sure there is nothing shady going on. However, when you play online blackjack, there’s no such table. The dealer is a computer program made up of hundreds of lines of code that makes no sense to the average person. In this situation, most people can’t really answer the question, “is online blackjack rigged or not?“. Therefore, let’s dig into the subject and find out!
How does video blackjack work?
At the heart of all online casino games is a computer program called “random number generator”. This program creates a random number. This number is used for various purposes depending on the game. For card games like online poker and video blackjack, it determines what card shows up next. For slot machines, it determines what symbol each reel stop at.
However, these random number generators aren’t perfectly random. Online casinos will tune the output of the program so that instead of having an equal chance of winning and losing money, you have a slightly higher chance of losing. It’s is called the house edge.
House edge and video blackjack odds
The house edge can be represented by looking at the “return to player”, or RTP, value. This value tells you what percentage of your original deposit you can expect to get back.
For example, assume the RTP for a particular game is 95%. Then the house edge for this game is 5%. It means that if you keep playing the game over and over again, you will eventually end up at 95% of the money you have wagered. The casino holds 5% as their profits. This may sound unfair at first, but it is how all casinos stay in business.
Picking a reliable online casino
The house edge at online casinos is a lot lower than at physical casinos. So, it is easier to make money when playing table games online, including blackjack. However, the risks at an online casino are much higher.
If you go to a famous casino, like las vegas, you can be assured that all the casinos are legitimate and fair. If a casino got a reputation for being unfair, it would lose its customers and be investigated. However, there are a lot more online casinos, based on different jurisdictions all over the world. It’s a lot harder to regulate them, so the risk of falling victim to a shady casino is higher.
The best way to avoid shady casinos is to look for certifications. There are independent organizations such as TST, who will check if the video blackjack odds are fair or not. Also, try to play at casinos that get their games from reputable software developers like netent, microgaming, realtime gaming, etc. It’s even harder for casinos to cheat at live blackjack than video blackjack, so play live games if you can.
Conclusion
Cheating is not exclusive to video blackjack. Some physical casinos will also cheat at blackjack by having dealers counting cards, having non-standard decks, improperly shuffling, and so on. Dealers who do this are very experienced at hiding it, so even if you’re at the blackjack table, you might not realize it.
In video blackjack, you are guaranteed far higher winnings. Since there is no dealer, a few losses in a row might feel like malice rather than bad luck. However, good online casinos rely on their reputation to maintain a customer base. So they will have fair games that are certified independently. If you still feel you’re losing too often, try looking up our how to play blackjack section for some tips!
How rigged is online blackjack?
How rigged is online blackjack?
I have a strange feeling the house always seems to get the best hands, abnormally more than the player.
It's extremely difficult to tell, but yes, some do cheat. Either by messing with the software, or by making up excuses to not pay you. It happens. Be careful.
I get asked this all the time. It's 100% not rigged.
A rigged blackjack game has the odds in it's favor. Over time, they win. Mathematics dictates this, and is undeniable.
You statement is based on variance. If you flipped a coin, and it came up heads 14 times in a row, you would no doubt believe the coin to be magic.
In big enough sample sets, you will see all manner of abnormal-looking variances. Rest assured, this is how it works.
Of course, that's just the math aspect of it. If math isn't your game, look at it logically.
You have a very, VERY lucrative business that is guaranteed to make you a healthy profit. The ONLY way you can mess it up would be by cheating. It would be like poisoning your only golden goose.
Fair enough, thanks for the response.
Would you have any advice for an amateur blackjack player to have a better chance?
I mean I use logic when hitting, splitting, doubling according to the typical mathematical odds. But would you have any further advice?
Playing online blackjack that is.
I have a long history of both playing online blackjack and auditing blackjack hand histories. I have setup chi-square/p-value tests for all of my hand histories which are provided to me by the gaming company. I have audited over 1 million online blackjack hands, and I can say that given a certain sample size, it will always run true as far as win/loss/push. A common minimum sample size to achieve these guaranteed results is usually 10,000 hands at a minimum. As you can imagine, inside of a 10,000 hand sample size you can have some jaw dropping variance that cannot be survived by most, mainly because our bet sizing varies, and our starting buy-in amounts do not account for variance over a sample size that large. Usually the player plays many sessions to make up 10,000 hands, not one single session.
Having said this, I would not be surprised if there is logic built into the software to be "session aware". Meaning, know the starting bet amount, starting buy-in, monitor bet size changes, and adjust house edge in certain situations. There are many many situations I have seen (usually in the form of seemingly impossible consecutive draws/streaks) which would baffle even the most highly-educated statistician. Put more simply, if someone somehow published the source code to a popular online casino blackjack client, and it was just straight-forward RNG/P-RNG card drawing algorithms, I would honestly be surprised.
As mentioned in the comments already, anything provable about a "rigged" game would be massively damaging to the casino, so if there is something afoot, its not going to be easy to prove.
Is online blackjack/roulette rigged?
This has to be one of the most common questions we get asked here at online bookies and it’s one that we can confidently answer.
No. Online blackjack and roulette are not rigged. Assuming you’re playing at a licensed bookmaker .
However, the games are set up in the house’s favour, which is something that you need to remember. For example, if you could bet on something that had a 50/50 outcome, like a coin toss, then the true odds for that bet would be even money or 2.00. A casino isn’t going to offer you this price as they need to make a profit, so they offer you slightly less than even money; the odds might be more like 1.95.
Whatever you are betting on, the bookmaker or casino creates the odds in their favour. Always. Think of it as the price you have to pay to use their service.
But is rigging possible?
It’s all well and good for us to sit here and say that the games aren’t rigged, but technically, they could be if the developers wanted to build them that way. You see, they are set up and run using computers which work with complicated algorithms. These algorithms create random patterns of outcomes for each game.
If a company were to tamper with these algorithms, they could either decrease the stated payout for the game or they could unfairly weight it to pay out in fewer situations.
However, this would be highly illegal and no reputable bookie would risk their license or business for the sake of a few extra quid.
How are games tested?
The games are made by specialist game developers who license their games to the casinos. Once these deals have been signed off the casino can host the games on their own platform.
This saves the casino both time and money. If you look at some of the bigger casinos you will see that they have hundreds of games to choose from and the time it would take to create just one of these games, let alone maintaining and update it, would be a huge weight around the casino’s neck.
The ability to sub-contract in their game library also allows them to choose from a much wider range of games than they would if they were making them all in-house. Many casinos use several different game developers to power their casino, creating much more diversity and interest for players. This is why you will see the same games at difference casinos – they are using the same developers.
You still haven’t mentioned testing
It’s the game developers who are responsible for making their games fair. They handle all of the development, coding, design, etc., so the casino couldn’t change the algorithms even if it wanted to.
There are a number of independent testing companies and regulatory bodies that test new games for fairness and ensure everything is as it should be. The key word here is ‘independent’, so they have no affiliation to any casino or gaming company.
They put the games through their paces over millions and millions of spins/hands and won’t sign off on a game unless it meets the requirements.
The largest of these is ecogra (ecommerce and online gambling regulation and assurance) who are a UK-based panel acting as a regulatory body for online gambling sites. The company have been around since 2003 and have carried out testing on thousands of casinos and casino games.
Ecogra can also be alerted by players if they notice something suspicious going on. They also have a huge database of certificates that you can access to check on any games or casinos that you want to use.
Even though they are based in the UK, they are recognised globally as a leading company within the industry.
Other regulatory bodies include:
- Itech labs
- TST (technical systems testing)
- GLI (gaming laboratories international)
- Gaming associates
- Nmi
- BMM testlabs
- SQS
Random number generators (rngs)
The easiest way to think of an RNG is to use a game like roulette. A roulette wheel contains the numbers 0-36, and if this wheel were to spin at an incredibly fast rate of 100 rotations every second, there would be no way of knowing what number it was going to stop on or even make out any of the numbers as it spins.
The RNG works in the same way. The cycle continues to spin and instantly stops as you press the ‘bet’ or ‘spin’ button on your casino game. The graphic will keep spinning but the outcome has already been decided.
In reality, it works with a combination of random numbers and algorithms that are programmed into that machine. The RNG will cycle through these random numbers several times every millisecond until you tell it to stop by hitting the button.
The RNG is clever in that it’s able to take into account any return to player rates that the game developer wants to include. This is essentially how much a player can expect to get back from any unit of 100 (so £1, or £100) over a huge sample of spins.
House edge
The house edge is essentially the mathematical advantage that the casino has over the player for each game.
The house is going to have an edge with all casino games, but they do alter quite a lot from one game to another. We mentioned earlier that if there was a coin toss, the house wouldn’t offer true odds of even money for that bet, but instead a reduced price at around 1.95 – this is the house edge.
When it comes to roulette and blackjack, the two games have very different house edge percentages. Roulette comes in three main variants, and each has a different house edge:
- America = 5.26% to 7.89%
- European = 2.70%
- French = 2.70%
As you can see, the casino has a much bigger edge with american roulette than it does with european or french. This is because an extra green number is used in american roulette, ‘00’ or double-zero, yet the payouts for each bet remain the same across all three variants. This creates extra opportunities for the house to win from american roulette and increases their edge.
Blackjack has one of the lowest house edges that you can get at just 0.28% for vegas rules games. This is because you can apply a ‘perfect’ betting strategy to blackjack and increase or decrease your stake amount to reflect times when cards statistically might or might not be in your favour.
How do you explain odd results?
These freak occurrences tend to be when people start to cry foul and claim that games are rigged. This is actually called variance.
Variance is ever present in casino games but is highlighted by seemingly non-random instances. For example, the odds of a zero landing in roulette is 1 in 37 attempts given that there are 37 numbers. But this doesn’t mean that zero will land 1 in every 37 spins, does it?
It could be that 1,000 spins are made and zero never occurs, but then it lands on 20 out of the next 50 spins. This would mean that zero has landed 20 times in 1050 spins, which is the same as 1 in 52.5 spins, which isn’t far out, and if you played a much larger sample of spins it would level out even closer.
When people see these seemingly impossible patterns it’s because of short term variance and comes down to luck and timing. Nothing more.
Still not convinced?
These are real games being played on physical machines by a human dealer. They are filmed and streamed live to your computer or mobile from various different camera angles. It’s like playing at an actual casino but from the comfort of your own home.
Live casino games are played manually so do not use rngs and are totally down to the luck of the draw. The results could be just as erratic or seemingly ‘rigged’, but they would at least offer you peace of mind if you don’t trust computers to work with algorithms, or if you are sceptical of online gambling in general.
Are online casinos fair or are they rigged?
One of the biggest concerns that many online casino players experience when playing at online casinos or else visiting a brick and mortar casino, is whether the casino or the casino games like slots and blackjack they are playing function in a fair manner.
If players suss that a casino is being disadvantageous by reducing any chances of winning, then many casinos would have closed by now. That being said, we know too well that over a lengthy period of time, the house edge comes to play. The longer you play, the more likely the casino will make a profit.
Let’s delve deeper into the subject.
Are online casinos rigged?
While you might be in it with the aim of winning some money, online casinos’ main goal is to make a neat profit from customers who love to gamble online. Laws and regulations are in place with the aim of making sure that online casinos operate in a fair and legal manner.
Every now and again, a gambler suspects that casino games or the casino itself is rigged. There are other theories being raised by gamblers. Such as if you play for longer periods of time you will strike it lucky or perhaps, that casinos are constantly trying to lure new players with enticing jackpots but without dropping.
However, the one major complaint that we hear all the time is that players can never win. While there is the house edge (aka house advantage) in place, it is impossible that players never win as otherwise casinos would go bust.
Since casino games apply random number generators to their casino games, every spin or bet is random and has the same odds as your previous or future bets. You need to keep in mind that luck plays an important role in casinos games and that you also need to take account of your own bad decisions especially when you are playing table games.
Your bad decisions can cause you loss after loss.
How are online casinos fair and trustworthy?
We are definitely not implying that all online casinos out there are safe and trustworthy. On the contrary, you should always look out for signs that a casino is indeed secure and trustworthy.
When a casino applies for a gambling license, it undergoes several tests and scrutiny by licensing bodies. They are in fact, constantly being monitored and audited to make sure that players are not treated unfairly in any way, manner, or form.
Since they are constantly dealing with gambling authorities and the government, there are rules and regulations in place to ensure fairness.
Independent testing: the good news for you as a player is that each online casino undergoes rigorous testing to ensure that it is just. All casino games use the service of a random number generator that ensures that each bet is independent from the other and that they essentially carry the same odds as the next one.
Trust value: if an online casino is listed on gamblingmetropolis, you can rest assured that it is trustworthy. We try and test each online casino we promote to ensure that they are of the highest standards. If it is here, it means it is dependable and reliable.
How to know if an online casino is safe?
Don’t just sign up to any old online casino. If you are going to part from your personal and financial information, you want to make sure that it is trustworthy and secure.
For starters, look for casinos that are licensed by leading jurisdictions, such as malta, gibraltar and the united kingdom. There is a reason for this. Such gaming jurisdictions enforce upon casinos specific gaming requirements to make sure that each player has the same chance.
One of these gaming requirements is the RNG amongst many other security features. These are all in place before the casino ever goes live or adds its first slot game. Look towards the bottom of your online casino’s page to see if one of the aforementioned reputable organisations is listed, or if it has received any e-gaming awards from renowned organisations.
Another way to know if an online casino is safe, is to read casino reviews online and to see what other players have said about their experience. Remember, that if you don’t research the casino properly, you will be gambling away your personal and financial information, so it’s best to run your research beforehand.
Additionally, go over the casino’s security policies and read the terms and conditions of casinos, to see what would happen to your personal information once you have signed up. Are they passing information to any third parties?
After you have done all your research and feel safe in the knowledge that the online casino of your choice is secure, it might be worth looking into their game selection as well as bonus structure. Do you want to sit down to play at a casino with a very limited selection of games? Are the games of low or high variance?
Sign up for a casino bonus offer
You don’t have to look far to find a great selection of new casinos or a selection of casino welcome packages, as we have done all the research for you.
So, let's see, what we have: the main concern people have about playing at casinos, online or not, is the fear that the games may be rigged in the favour of the house. This is a more real fear online as you don't know the operators. Find out whether or not live dealer casinos could possibly cheat at blackjack by rigging the deck if they wanted to. At is online casino blackjack rigged
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