Imperial Casino: Roulette table indicates win, yet bet is lost

[ines555]

Howdy strangers,

Recently I depposited 200 dolaar to Imperial Casino after having received a promotional e-mail which offered a breathtaking 50% reload bonus. I bet the full amount on roulette, and successfully doubled my balance to a staggering 600 dolaar.

Since I have mouths to feed, however, I decided to try my luck and double my balance again, after all thus far I had a roaringly good time at the table.

My last bet of $600 was placed on Black, I pressed spin and the wheel was suddenly in motion. I stood up and anticipated the outcome of the bet. The gambling gods appeared to be in my favor and my mindspin seemed to have predicted the outcome well, as the ball came to rest in the 11, Black slot!

But, of course it was not meant to be. The displayed winning number was, contradictory to the displayed position of the ball, 36, Red, which lies adjacent to 11. Please look at the following screenshot which captured this dazzling predicament:



Needless to say, I e-mailed support and explained what happened, while also referring them to the screenshot. Their first response was as expected and I was hopeful this matter would be resolved without having to call upon Chuck Norris :

We apologize for the inconvenience this issue has caused. At this
point, we are uncertain as to what the problem may be, therefore we have
escalated your case to be reviewed by our technical team and will
proactively contact you once a response is received. Please be advised
that it may take longer than the average 48 hours to receive a response.

Things turned for the worse with their second response, which hinted at me having a windows95 operated PC with 2mb memory, as well as a ancient Monster3d videocard.

Thank you for your patience as we have been looking into the issue you
are having with our casino. It seems to be an issue with the video card
you have in your computer, which is displaying the results incorrectly.

That said, we are continuing to work with our technical team to get a
solution to this issue for you, and we will of course keep you posted.

Finally, they proposed that it was a mere graphical error:

We apologize the misunderstanding, however the latest information we
have from our Casino Technical support team is that we have not been
able to reproduce the graphics display issue and are continuing to look
into this matter. According to the last report, the outcome (of your
bet) is unaffected; it is simply a matter of graphics not displaying
correctly.

Now, of course this is open to debate. Their first hypothesis that I have stolen a PC from the salvation army is faulty since I had already placed a bet earlier on the roulette table, and also in the past. I have never encountered a problem of this sort.

Second, they say that the graphics did not display correctly. But: shouldn't the graphics seen on the roulette table be leading for the outcome of the bet? Surely, it can't be the other way around. Imagine standing by a roulette table in a actual casino where this exact situation would occur, and the croupier would announce the wrong winning number, and that the roulette table 'didn't show the number correctly'. I know this is far fetched and not applicable online, but what's the point of a online casino if you cannot trust/rely on the displayed results? Then you might as well take the displayed roulette table away.

Bottomline: I feel cheated and I would to see my winnings added to my account, as I think it is no more than justified.

[maphesto]

Then you might as well take the displayed roulette table away.

Yes!

The outcome of the game had decided 36 at the same time you hit the spin button. The wheel is just for the look (eye candy).

The correct thing here is to give you the bet back, clearly there is a malfunction.

[SlotMonster]

I see two possible situations:

1. You bet on black, RNG produced "11", and it appeared on the reel, but at the top right software showed incorrect number "36".
2. You bet on black, RNG produced "36", but on the reel appeared "11" and at the top right is shown correct number "36".

In case "1" they shoud pay you in full.
In case "2" they shoud give your bet back.

But noone could know 100% for sure which number was proceeded by RNG.

[winbig]

Maybe you could post the screen shot here, too?

[ines555]

Maybe you could post the screen shot here, too?

It's in the OP, but I guess you can't see it. Here's a direct link: http://i46.tinypic.com/symb1g.jpg

[Mr_Zoidberg]

Lesson learned: Don't risk money on software dating back to the nineties

[maphesto]

Lesson learned: Don't risk money on software dating back to the nineties

That roulette game is just a few months old. The auto spin function wasn`t there before aug 2009.

[ines555]

Imperial Casino refunded my bet and explained to me by email that they had experienced some minor technical difficulties due to a recent update of their software. Needless to say, I am more than satisfied with their solution.

[maphesto]

Needless to say, I am more than satisfied with their solution.

It`s as they have invented the ultimate solution to not let the player win the large sum when betting on red/black.

The best solution for them in this case would be like giving you all the money and letting you know that "you can trust us and our software".

But if they do that and next player who notices this failure has bet 200$ on number 23 and the wheel shows 23..they really are in the jam.

I wonder how many times this has happened without the player notices it. I have used their auto spin function several times(at Everest) and I don`t watch the wheel every time.

I want some more explanation from them before I play roulette there again.

[ines555]

It`s as they have invented the ultimate solution to not let the player win the large sum when betting on red/black.

The best solution for them in this case would be like giving you all the money and letting you know that "you can trust us and our software".

But if they do that and next player who notices this failure has bet 200$ on number 23 and the wheel shows 23..they really are in the jam.

I wonder how many times this has happened without the player notices it. I have used their auto spin function several times(at Everest) and I don`t watch the wheel every time.

I want some more explanation from them before I play roulette there again.

This is their full response:

I would like to inform you that following your report of a graphics
display error experienced during a Roulette game played January 14, we
have gone ahead and refunded your $600 wager, crediting these chips to
your real money account.

We apologize for the inconvenience and disappointment that arose as a
result of this issue. In October 2009, we released an updated version
of all of our Roulette games. The game was extensively tested prior to
the release. Since October, our players have wagered on over 2.5
million games of Roulette, and the situation you experienced is one of
only four instances where this problem has occurred on our site.

Unfortunately reproducing this problem has proven to be extremely
difficult, which is why you were not provided a definite answer as to
the precise cause of the display issue.

However, our casino development team is doing everything they can to get
to the root of the issue. In your case, our Random Number Generator
produced ?36? (the number posted on the top right board), but the wheel
incorrectly showed ?11.? It?s clear that the problem lies with the
spinning animation. The development team believes this may be a rare
problem with the animation not synchronizing properly with the proper
outcome. As you can see, "11" is one slot down from "36". Our
team continues to investigate to see if it is a particular graphics
card or memory issue that is the root of the problem or not.

We hope you will continue enjoying your play at Imperial Casino and
trust that we are here to help you whenever you have concerns.

That being said, should you have any questions, please do not hesitate
to contact us.