How To Differentiate Fair Casinos From Rigged Ones
If you have ever gambled, you know that there are times when you seem to have a losing streak you can’t shake. While most experienced gamblers know that neither a winning, nor a losing streak will last forever, it still feels jarring to go through and you may start wondering if the slot machine is rigged, or if the person who keeps winning in backgammon is actually a bot meant to drive you insane with their “good luck”! Over the years there has been suspicions that casino games are rigged and players have theorized about the many ways casinos could ensure players always get the short end of the stick.
The truth however, is that while casinos are businesses that need an advantage or an “edge” to remain in business, a house edge, does not imply that a game is rigged. Over the years, there has been some examples of rigged games and since then, laws and regulations have been enacted to ensure licensed, legitimate casinos, can not set players up to fail. In this article, we will go over how you can tell if a casino is manipulating their games, so you can ensure that you are playing in fair casinos, and not fake casinos.
A Crash Course on Probabilities
Think of this guide as your beginners' guide to gamble. So, let’s start with the basics. Probability is essentially measuring how likely something is to happen. In sports betting, since there are so many variables in an event, it is difficult to measure the exact likelihood of any outcome. Bookmakers can’t tell you the probability with 100% accuracy either. They are ultimately based on the bookies' judgment of what they believe will happen, modified to ensure that there is a margin built in for them.
In casino games however, that changes for multiple reasons. Every slot machine for example, gives the casino a mathematical advantage. However, this does not rule out the possibility of hitting the jackpot. Different games have different odds associated with them, for example the odds of winning a jackpot prize in slots is much less than the odds of winning in a game of roulette.
You generally have the best likelihood of winning in table games in fair casinos. With games such as poker where your skills have an impact on the outcome, you are always able to trust that there will be no manipulation of the outcome of your game. Games such as roulette, blackjack and Craps are known to have the best odds for players since they are nearly 50/50. That being said, there will be some shady casinos out there that will tilt the scales in their favor so you can never walk away with winnings.
Spotting a Rigged Casino
Before we get into this part, I would like to ensure you that there are far more legitimate online casinos than there are cheating ones. Sadly, there are greedy, rogue casinos that aren’t happy with keeping the house edge and letting players win fair and square. You can however spot and avoid these casinos fairly easily. Here’s how:
No Transparency
If you are on a casino with no valid license displayed on their homepage, with no legit software providers such as Evolution, NetEnt, Micorgaming, etc., and with vague rules and too-good-to-be-true bonuses, odds are, they are not a legitimate site.
Bad Reviews
A simple search on casinos to avoid will yield a list of blacklisted and fake casinos. You can always look at sites like casino.guru, can we sorted by sites with worst reputation. Casino.org and askgamblers.com have a list of blacklisted sites that are updated frequently. Do your research and you will be fine.
Complicated or Impossible Payouts
Most fair casinos have a comprehensive terms and conditions document that you can read to know exactly how and when you can cash out from their site. In a rigged casino, even if you beat the terrible odds, they have manipulated against you and make some money, they will make it impossible to cash out by freezing your account or asking you to jump through a million hoops to cash out.
What To Do If a Casino Is Rigged?
The truth is that rigged casinos are not as common as you may suspect. Even forums that investigate such claims from users often see the disgruntled player fold when the smallest scrutiny is done on their claim. That being said if you are playing on an unlicensed site and you suspect that there is foul play taking place, remove all identifying information that you can from your user profile including any payment method added to the site, and close your account immediately. It is highly unlikely that you will be able to cash out the amount left on your account, so if you can, cut your losses and walk away. You can always report the casino to sites such as the ones mentioned above so others can be warned. Read more about online casino safety here.
Conclusion
It is true that we all look for patterns to make sense of the world, and so when we encounter anything that we deem as a pattern we take note. We especially notice that if our opponent gets doubles 6 times in a row in a Backgammon game or the number 7 appears 5 times in a row when playing roulette. Although these occurrences are improbable, they are not impossible even in fair casinos. In roulette for example, each spin of the roulette wheel is treated as a separate event, which implies that prior outcomes have no impact on future outcomes.
So although a rigged system at an unlicensed online casino isn't impossible, it's very unlikely. Even in that case, you are now better equipped to spot them.
About The Author: John Duncan is a web operation executive at CannonBet. Born and raised in the cybersecurity world. He authors guides on cybersecurity and safety and loves sharing the best practices. You can contact the author via email.