Are Online Casinos Fair
Are Online Casinos Fair
Are online casino fair? Is one of the most popular casino questions. One thing that can discourage new players from checking out online casinos is a fear that their games are fixed. There are many ways that you can double check the fairness of a site, as the UK market for casinos is highly regulated and secure. 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.
Do you know how many cybercrimes happen every day? Apparently, it’s more than 40,000. But how many of those are gambling?
No idea. But anyone with experience in this industry KNOWS shenanigans happen. You don’t have to look any further than Casinomeister’s Rogue Pit for proof.
Players are being ripped off right and left. That doesn’t exactly instill a ton of confidence in online casinos, does it?
Here’s just a smidgen of the scams casinos pull:
- Canceling player winnings.
- Confiscating player winnings.
- Casino ignoring player support requests.
- Hidden terms.
- Slow or no pay.
Don’t worry – there are plenty of legit casinos you can join. You can look at any one of our top site lists to see that. But what if you want to find a casino on your own? An honest and safe casino you could trust with your hard earned money.
The game is extremely fair for the player at this point– in fact the player would wipe out a casino by winning 2% more times then the casino. Of course the casino isn’t stupid, they are after all in business to make money not give it away. There are millions of people in the world who enjoy playing casino games. But one of the most pressing concerns of these casino players while playing at online casinos or land-based casinos is whether these casinos operate fairly or not.
What signals or signs would you look for?
5 Safeguards That Should Point You to a Legit Casino
Here are 5 different safeguards you can look for that should point you to a fair and secure casino online.
Casinos use 128 or 256-bit encryption.
Both of these turn whatever personal and financial data you send to the casino into strings of unbreakable code.
How secure are they? Well, it’s the same level of protection your bank uses.
You can tell your casino is using some form of encryption by looking at your toolbar. If it says https in front of the website name, they have a SSL certificate, which means your information is encrypted.
2. Random Number Generators
Are Online Casinos Fairy
A random number generator is an algorithm casinos use to deal the games.
Casino algorithms don’t need any outside input to run. Instead, they use a seed number. When combined with the algorithm, you get results that are seemingly random.
Both the algorithm and seed number are unknown. It’s the only way to prevent the algorithm from becoming hackable.
The reason being is because algorithms (combined with seed numbers) are essentially mathematical formulas. And 2+2 always equals 4. Which is why algorithms are hackable IF you know what algorithm and seed is being used.
But there’s another safeguard at work here: 3rd party companies whose sole focus is to test casino RNGs and software for fairness. Probably the most well-known company is Technical Systems Testing (TST), now owned by Gaming Laboratories International (GLI).
They test all sorts of important things. For example:
- Random Number Generator (RNG) evaluations
- Game and mathematics evaluations
- Ongoing RNG or game payout verification and reporting
- Live dealer, sportsbook or betting exchange evaluations
- Lottery and pari-mutuel system evaluations
- Poker system audits
- Penetration testing and full security audits
If the casino passes, they get a little badge they can place on their website. Companies like TST usually post the latest information about each company on their website, too. This includes if they passed and what their payout percentage is.
Privacy policies are important because they tell you how the casino plans to use your information.
Do they plan to sell your information (name, email, phone number) to other companies? Rent it out? None of the above?
The privacy policy will tell you this. But you got to read it.
This is important because if you agree and sign up, and the casino decides they’re going to sell or rent out your information, you might be able to take (legal) action. You’ll want to chat with a lawyer to know for sure.
By sticking to casinos that state they will not sell or rent your information, you keep your information secure from less than stellar companies. Or, just companies interested in harassing you.
You can usually find a company’s privacy policy at the bottom of their website.
4. Gaming Licenses
Offline casinos have to go through a rigorous process before they can open their doors to the public. Part of that process is getting their license from the local or state gaming authority.
These gaming authorities or commissions make sure the casino is legit and above board before they give them their license. Then they continue to check on them over the coming months and years to ensure they still deserve it.
They look for all sorts of things – player complaints, bug-free software, random games, player exclusion options, and so on.
If they pass, they get (to keep) their license. But if they fail?
They lose their license, which means they can’t do business anymore.
This is a quick and easy way for you to determine if a casino is fair and secure. But there’s one thing to keep in mind.
Online gaming authorities, commissions and licensors are different than those offline. Some of them are more lax than others, which means the casinos they oversee have more margin for error. It’s a good idea to know who those commissions are, so you can either avoid or keep a watchful eye on the casinos they’re supposed to be keeping in line.
Most online casinos post who issued their license at the bottom of their website. Some gaming authorities also post who they’ve given a license to – or taken a license away from – on their website.
Terms and conditions are sort of like a privacy policy. The casino’s telling you how they operate their casino. The rules everyone has to follow.
These pages make it very clear what the rules are for things like welcome bonuses, cash out policies, and what happens if you hit a huge jackpot.
You want to read these very carefully. In fact, I’d go as far as to take a screenshot – and I’ll tell you why.
One of the nasty things rogue casinos do is change their terms and conditions on the fly. Usually so it sides with whatever decision they make in a casino vs. player dispute.
For example, say you take advantage of a deposit bonus and clear the rollover requirements. Then you go to cash out and the casino tells you that you can’t.
What some of these casinos will do is tweak the terms to benefit them. They’ll say you played the wrong games or didn’t play enough. Then they cancel your bonus money and winnings.
Often, the problem here is the casinos don’t have the money to pay you. Or, they don’t want to. So, they’ll tweak the term.
And in many cases you’ll be lucky to get your original bankroll back – let alone any bonus money.
Having read the terms and conditions – and preferably saving a screenshot – may not get your money or bonus money back (offshore sites are harder to fight due to current laws), but you can harm their reputation and do other players a favor by warning them of the casino you’re having problems with.
The terms and conditions can be found at the bottom of every casino’s website.
Conclusion: Safeguards are Nice, But This is More Effective
Let’s be clear about something – safeguards are nice. But they are in no way a guarantee the room you play at or plan to join is a legit one. Instead, think of these safeguards as minimum table stakes.
If your casino doesn’t have these safeguards, skip them and play elsewhere. There’s no shortage of better options online.
Okay …but if safeguards aren’t a guarantee a room is legit, what else can you do or look for?
I think the more effective approach is to become a member of a casino community forum or two. A place where others who play online come to talk strategy – and more importantly – of their experiences at different casinos.
This will help you in many ways, but the most important is this:
Are Online Casinos Fair
You’ll be one of the first to hear about a casino that is no longer fair or secure. One player complaining usually means nothing. But when there’s smoke there’s usually a fire. And if one complaint turns into two, and two into three, you know there’s something up – and you’ll be one of the first to hear about it.
So, use these safeguards as a barrier to entry – to ensure casinos are doing the bare minimum for fairness and security.
But, if you truly want to know if a casino is on the up-and-up – if they’re truly a fair, secure and legit casino – your best bet is to join an online community.
By Henry Tamburin
When I was a youngster, I used to think it was unfair when teachers gave me homework. When I was a teenager and missed curfew, I thought it was very unfair when my mother “grounded” me. But asI grew older and wiser I realized a lot of things in this world ain’t fair including the games I play in casinos.
I know that the casinos must have some sort of an advantage over players in order to pay their bills and generate the capital they need to build those gambling palaces that we love to visit.But the casino’s advantage is unfortunately a big mystery to most players. It certainly was to me until I finally figured out how they win and why I lose. But nowadays most casino players don’tcare about casino advantages or unfair games. They are just satisfied with having fun and letting Lady Luck determine their fate. If that’s your modus operand when you gamble then stop readingthis article right now. However, if you're tired of being the patsy that always contributes your hard earned cash to the casinos' coiffers and wants to do something about it, then read on, forthere is a light at the end of the tunnel (or in your case cash in your pockets at the end of your casino visits).
Knowing a little about how the casinos create their unfair games to begin with is the first step you must take to become a smarter player. By smarter I mean learning which games and bets arehighly unfair and then avoiding them while at the same time learning how to turn an unfair game into a nearly fair game.
There are three different ways that a casino creates unfair games. One way is to create playing rules that favor the casino so that they win more decisions than the player. For example, atypical craps player that makes a total of 1,980 pass line bets stands to win 976 times while the casino stands to win 1,004 times. The casino rules for the pass line obviously favor the casinowinning more times than the player. This is what creates the unfair game. Pretty simple huh?
It’s the same concept as if I let you play a game in which I have a bowl containing 50 black white marbles and 50 black ones. You get to pick a marble at random and of you pick a white marbleyou win. What are the odds of picking white? Since there are equal number of white and black marbles, the odds are 50-50 and the game is fair. I shouldn’t quit my day job if I offered this gameto you. However, if I placed only 40 white and 50 black marbles in the bowl, it’s clear that this game now becomes unfair for you and I can tell my boss what he can do with this job.
Let’s look at a totally different way casinos create an unfair game. This is the most common way and it has to do with the amount the casinos pay players when they win a bet.
Suppose I flip a coin and if you lose you pay me a dollar and when you win I pay you 95 cents. Is this game fair? Even though the odds of winning is 50-50 the game is unfair becauseinstead of paying you $1 when you win, you get paid only 95 cents. You are short changed 50 cents every time you win. After 100 flips you would stand to win half of them at 95 cents winper flip. The other 50 coin flips you stand to lose $1 per flip. If you do the math, you would stand to lose $2.50 after the 100 coin flips. Quite an unfair game.
The same concept – known as paying less then true odds - is used by casinos when you win a bet at say roulette, the Big Six Wheel, most craps bets, video poker, and even the slots. For example,take the infamous bet on Any 7 (known as Big Red to the craps affieciendos). You plop your chips on Any 7 on the layout and if the next roll is a 7 you win. If it’s not you lose. Pretty easybet to make but also a very devastating one for your bankroll. The reason is because the casinos are giving you a reduced payoff. The odds of rolling the 7 is 30-to-6 or 5-to-1. The casinopayoff isn’t at the true odds of 5-to-1 but rather at the reduced odds of 4-to-1. Get it??
Another way to think about how the casino’s create their unfair game is to just remember they that really make their profits not from player losses but rather from the money that players win,because winnings are paid out at less then true odds. As Frank Scoblete puts it; “You have a partner when you win – the casino”.
The third relatively easy way that casino’s create an unfair game is by simply charging you a fee when you win a bet (what a novel idea). Going back to the bowl of marbles analogy, supposethere are an equal number of white and black marbles. If you lose a pick, you lose a dollar. If you win a pick I pay you a dollar but I charge you a 5% fee (that’s a nickel). I created anunfair game by charging a fee or commission every time you win a bet. That’s how I created the unfair game.
A winning bank bet in baccarat falls under the “you pay the commission when you win”. In fact if you bet on the bank hand you would win more times then the casino wins. For every 100 bankhand decisions that result in a win or loss, you stand to win on average about 51% of the time and the casino wins 49% of the time. The game is extremely fair for the player at this point– infact the player would wipe out a casino by winning 2% more times then the casino. Of course the casino isn’t stupid, they are after all in business to make money not give it away. So tocompensate for the edge a player has by winning more times then the the casino, they smartly impose a 5% commission every time you bet on the bank hand and it wins. I know it’s not fair butthat’s how the casinos do it.
What about playing the slots, the most popular game in a casino? How does the casino create the unfair slot machine? Trust me when I tell you that they don’t do it by having someone in abackroom throw a switch that prevents players from winning jackpots. In fact with slots it’s easy to create an unfair game. The casino just programs the slot computer to keep whateverpercentage that the casino feels like keeping by paying winning combinations at less then the true odds (sound familiar). Sure it’s a lot more complicated with the microchips now being used incasinos with virtual symbols on each reel. But the concept is the same. Pay less then the true odds and you’ve created an unfair game.
In casino jargon the difference between the true odds and the odds paid is called the casino’s advantage. This can be calculated for every game and bet in a casino including those bets in whichthe casino charges a commission or wins more decisions. By ranking the casino’s edge for every bet it’s easy to determine which games and bets are unfair and by how much. And now the caveat.You can become an instantly smarter player by promising to do this on your future casino trips
Don’t make any bet in a casino where the casino’s edge is greater than 1.5%.
Wow that didn’t hurt did it? It all boils down to this. We know the casino offers unfair games but we can control how much unfairness we are willing to let the casinos have. By making thefollowing recommended bets, you will, in essence, be letting the other guys pay the bulk of the casino overhead while you pay next to nothing. What this all boils down to is the following. Onlyplay the following casino games and only make the recommended bets listed.
Blackjack with perfect basic playing strategy
Video poker on full-pay machines with optimum playing strategy
Pass line and don’t pass in craps
Bank and player bet in baccarat (or mini-baccarat)
Pass line and don’t pass line with odds
Fair Go Casino Coupons
Place bet on 6 and 8 craps
Slot machines which have a sign guaranteeing at least a 99% or higher payback.
Are Online Casinos Fair Trade
What’s your reward for making only the above bets? For blackjack and video poker you’ll turn an unfair game into a nearly fair game (with the possibility of turning it into an unfair gamefor the casinos to boot). For the other recommended games and bets, you’ll still be playing an unfair game but not by much. Look at it this way - it’s your best gamble in a casino.
Henry Tamburin is the author of the best-selling book, Blackjack: Take The Money and Run, editor of the Blackjack Insider e-Newsletter, and Lead Instructor for the Golden Touch Blackjackcourse featuring Speed Count. For a FREE 3-month subscription to his blackjack newsletter with full membership privileges, visitwww.bjinsider.com/free. For details on the Golden Touch Blackjack course visitwww.goldentouchblackjack.comor call 866/WIN-BJ21. For a free copy of his casino gambling catalog featuring over 50 products call 888/353-3234 or visit the Internetstore atwww.smartgaming.com
Are Online Casinos Fair