The truth about online games????

[toofast4u]

This industry seems to be saturated with complaints regarding the fairness of games and who you can trust, and I would like to know some inside information.

Blackjack is probably the most popular internet game and it is the game that most people bitch about the most on the internet. There are a few things I would like to know about the software for some of these companies such as microgaming, cryptologic and bossmedia.

First, in the game of blackjack when is the card you recieve determined?? Is there a certain # of cards in a queue or is the card determined exaclty when you press the hit button?? The reason I ask is you can tell if you could have made a different move and had a different outcome, which would make the game a fair game. Such as if the dealer hits your 12 with a 10 card, if you would have stayed, would the dealer have gotten the same 10, or would they have gotten a different card?

Secondly, I have heard someone in this forum state that most online casinos use 'Player Profiling' to determine what the player is going to do, does this mean you betting patterns are being monitored to determine the best time to start a negative streak?? For example you a have been winning for 2 hours and you are on a great winning streak and you keep betting the same amount, but all of the sudden you lose nearly every hand that you play, what happens then?? Does someone hit a button labeled win/lose?? It seems that in most online casinos at first you can win a little, but as soon as you start feeling comfortable and bet more money the house gets hot and you can't win to save your life. I can remember several times in cryptologic casinos and Bossmedia casinos when I would lose 17+ hands in a row, mostly from bust hands and the delaer getting 21's or BJ. Does the software have some sort of back door that allows the operator to manipulate the odds??

Some inside information would be helpful in this, after all, if it wasn't for us as the players online gaming wouldn't even exist, and I think that the industry would grow much more if people had real proof that they are not being screwed by some computer program. In a land based casino, the cards are right in front of you, and even though there are ways for even a land based casino to cheat, it is easier to check out and prove. But when the dealer is a computer that is 1500 miles away, its diffiuclt to tell what truly going on. If you are pre-determined to lose or win every time, then its not even gambling in my book, thats just giving your money away.

Lastly, if you have proof that a casino is cheating, what can be done about it???

[al102]

That's why I stop playing online gambling.

I believed that I bet with someone who stared at my cards with his fingers move between the buttons marked "DEAD" or "ALIVE"

[jetset]

The questions you pose have gone through many online gamblers' minds, toofast4u, and your post will almost certainly result in some well aired personal opinions regarding the honesty of various software company products being posted again.

Most of these opinions are based on more playing experience and gambling knowledge than I can muster and I shall therefore leave the stage to them.

But if you have been cheated, or preferably BEFORE you play when you should do some research, I would suggest to you that the Online Players' Association is a useful ally.

The volunteer advisers in the Association are always prepared to evaluate a complaint and if it is valid handle the mediation with the casino for you. The requirement is that you should have tried unsuccessfully to resolve the issue direct with the casino yourself before submitting a complaint.

The service is free, and the recovery rate is impressive, with just over $500 000 being recovered to date. Something like ninety percent of complaints are resolved within a week, I'm told although more difficult cases that require extended debate and pressure can drag on for weeks and even months. The Association not only has good contacts, but the strength-in-unity of its membership to use as clout with the more questionable operations.

Many posters here are members, and the Casinomeister himself is a volunteer adviser.

Capability to detect cheater casinos in the future will possibly be enhanced through unannounced and practical playing tests, the results of which can be interpreted by a Truegambler software program called Online Casino Analyser. This is presently undergoing extensive testing for accuracy and reliability. I don't know when that will be launched, but it certainly seems to have good potential and will perhaps help to assuage fears in some cases.

Of course The Wizard of Odds and The Gamemaster both continue to give great service in this area with their highly experienced tests and fearless reports.

[dave_r]

I am confident the Online Casino Anylizer progam at www.truegambler.com is for real. His software has collected data for both Microgaming single line JoB Video Poker as well as Microgaming BJ.

The Video Poker stats are due for release Jan 13,2003. The BJ stats will be released sometime in February, 2003.

If his stats are indicative of a fair game for both VP and BJ, I will stop my monthly rants about Microgaming, and will assume that everything that happened to myself and my friends was due to very hard luck.

However, if he makes a "preliminary" report that the games may be rigged, than it will serve as a lesson to all -- that in order for players to be confident in any online gambling software, a regulatory agency connected to a legitimate government needs to make surprise BACK-OFFICE audits on a regular basis.

[jpm]

I still agree with you dave that there is something very wrong with microgaming's BJ game. It almost never loses.

[toofast4u]

is that program availalbe to individual players?? Does it work with all casinos??? Its a really good idea to have some sort of program that tells you as the player if you are playing a fair game or not. The assurance that most of these places give us regarding 3rd party reviews does not give me much peace of mind. It would be nice to have hard proof against these casinos that are cheating players, then we could maybe take some action against them

[jetset]

Truegambler will be releasing the first results of several million hands of gambling analysed by the OCA come January 13th according to advance media publicity. The conclusions should make interesting reading.

[mary]

Toofast, the True Gambler software depends on input from hundreds of players. It will analyze your play in the final version; right now they are in beta.

I went through the websites of several online casino software makers, and they are very careful about how they describe odds and fairness with their games. Very few specify that the card games must act like card games, as you (and Nevada regulations) require.

Microgaming does. Access Gaming does as well. If you are not in North America, you can play in the casinos licensed on the Isle of Man; those are connected with very large land operations and are likely to be fair.

www.playmgmmirage.com
www.hardrockcasino.com
www.clubfiore.com

www.lasseters.com is the only online casino "grandfathered in" to be legal and regulated by the Northern Territory of Australia. Their blackjack and baccarat are dealt from "infinite decks"--a single deck of 52 cards shuffled after every card is dealt. According to the Wizard of Odds, this results in a good percentage for players.

www.crowngames.com is owned by Kerry Packer's land company. Eight deck shoe for blackjack. It is the only online casino to date licensed and hosted on the island of Vanuatu.

www.drho.com uses videocasts of live dealers from a studio on Antigua. Real cards.

Be sure to read the Meister's Rogue list; many of those are casinos who were caught being mathematically...creative.

[cathin]

I firmly believe that the software has to be programmed in the dealers favor and "reacts" to your bets AND your balance (notice how long it takes to get another winning hand after you increase your bet, how rapidly you lose during that last $5/10 and how you can never win on a bonus?) BJ is a losing proposition - better to take it to a land based casino (for table games) -matter of fact, isn't BJ suppose to have the best odds of all casino games? In all fairness though, land based machines are also "programmed" for certain payouts, and get "cold" once they've paid out. I'm still convinced though that there's a little guy hitting a win/lose button somewhere upstairs - which would explain why every time my fiance came near me when I'm at a hot machine at Atlantic City, I start LOSING and when I send him AWAY I start winning again! Hmmm, maybe he's just Bad Luck... (LOL)

[klausakselsen]

Hi everybody,

Let's get the truth out there: Are the games fixed or not? Do the casinos make 'player profiling', etc.? I'm sure some do, but then again, I don't have certain knowledge about. Many of the casinos I've played at lately seems to have very unfair odds at the BJ tables, Inter Casino included, so..... There must be some people who used to work in the online casino industry and therefore able to leak some truth to the rest of us about odds and so on. I strongly encourage them to come forward and make contributions to this debate...PLEASE, we need this information....

Best regards and lucky gambling