Casino Complaint BOVADA - Locking Jackpots, taking profit for themselves, cheating the players

[RolfMoister]

Hello.

This is a complaint regarding the casino sites Bovada.lv.
I have contacted their rep, we continued to talk over email and after looking into this issue they see nothing wrong.

I have been looking at the Bovada site for maybe half a year now and I've found an extremely strange pattern.

There are some specific games on Bovada where they have locked the jackpot and then keeping the extra money for themselves.

I bet there are several jackpots that are locked but I looked into two games in specific.
Before I continue I want you to understand that they got different jackpot levels depending on betsize or which platform you use.
There are three different platforms: Android, Ipad and PC.

Now, the first game:
1. At The Copa - This game is locked on all levels on PC.

2. Good Girl Bad Girl: This game has two jackpots per bet level, one good and one bad.
Here I will show you the hit frequency of Good 0.02 USD: casinolistings.com/jackpots/betsoft/good-girl-jackpot Get's taken pretty often.
Then we have the hit frequency of Bad 0.02 USD: casinolistings.com/jackpots/betsoft/good-girl-jackpot. Also get's taken pretty often.

We see here that the Bad version of the jackpot get's taken on about the double size of the good.

Now, let's check the hit frequency of the level 0.10 USD:
Good 0.10 USD: casinolistings.com/jackpots/betsoft/good-girl-jackpot 442 USD
Bad 0.10 USD: casinolistings.com/jackpots/betsoft/bad-girl-jackpot- 391675 USD

Remember, if we check the graphs for this game on all different levels, the bad jackpot should be taken on approximately the double value.
Here it is insane, no one has ever won the jackpot.

This is a state of clear misconfiguration or scam from the casino part.

Players are playing with a belief of that the jackpot is winable when it is not. It is not fair, and it should not going on.

Here's an easier overview:

Good girl:
0.02: Winable
0.05: Winable
0.10: Winable
0.25: Winable
0.50: Winable
1.00: Winable

Bad Girl:
0.02: Winable
0.05: Locked
0.10: Locked
0.25: Locked
0.50: Winable
1.00: Locked

Here is the latest answer from Bovada:

Hello,

We'd like to start off by apologizing for the delay of our response, and we appreciate your patience.

We’ve reviewed the information you provided and can understand how it may look odd or even concerning, when jackpots for certain games or levels have hit multiple times over a specific time frame, and others have not hit at all. We can assure you that this has nothing to do with any misconfiguration of the games or the integrity of our website, but rather, the unpredictable nature of the Casino.

Our slots games work exactly the same way as with a land based casino. Our Random Number Generator (RNG), has been fully certified, and ensures all of our games are completely random. As a result, there is no guarantee of when or how often a jackpot might hit.

In addition, a slot like ‘Good Girl, Bad Girl’ as an example, requires players to choose either ‘Good’ or ‘Bad’ bonus modes. The frequency in which players generally choose the high risk ‘Bad’ mode may be different at different levels. The less amount of times the ‘Bad’ mode is selected, the less likely the jackpot for that mode will hit during a specific timeframe.

We pride ourselves on the hard earned reputation we’ve earned over the years, and can assure you that we'd never jeopardize that by offering an unfair product. Openness and transparency is important to our business and we want to ensure that our players are confident in the product we provide.

To view the original certification from Gaming Associates please select the link below:

Link Removed (invalid URL)

We appreciate you taking the time to contact us, and if you need anything else, please let us know.

Best regards,

Bovada Player Advocacy

They deny that this is happening and they are going with the standard reply "Anything is possible since it's random".
If I may use a bad example, this is as if red would be turning up on roulette, every spin since they opened the casino, and they say "Nothing wrong here, it is possible since it's random".
Yes, it is possible but not for such a big sample size as we have thanks to that website, we've got more than a year of data.

If I can't make them open their eyes and realize it's misconfigured, at least I hope some players see this warning message and don't play there.

Thank you,

RolfMoister

 

[Sjodin525]

I have played at Bovada and also noticed the HUGE difference between the jackpots on good girl bad girl, and had been always wondering about what's up with that.

Hopefully we can get some REAL answers soon.

Also this is suspicious, but the link they gave you for their "certified game results" is broken

 

[RolfMoister]

Yes, that's true, link is broken as well.

I'm expecting a serious pardon from their side since they claim they have looked into it and everything is alright, when it's not.
It seems like they are not taking this complain seriously.

This jackpot is won 2-5 times a day, however, on these locked ones, NO ONE has won over a year.
This is not strange according to them.

I've asked them for information regarding if anyone has ever won the locked ones, still no answer on that.

How can they know that it's configured correctly if no one has ever won them when they should be won quite frequently?

 

[dougmanct]

At the Copa needs to be specifically addressed. I do not believe it is possible to ever hit the jackpot on this game and would challenge Bovada to identify specifically a time when it has actually been won.

 

[RolfMoister]

At the Copa needs to be specifically addressed. I do not believe it is possible to ever hit the jackpot on this game and would challenge Bovada to identify specifically a time when it has actually been won.

Thank you!
Finally people who have seen the same strange behaviour in the game!

 

[bonustreak]

This is NOT good & I have to admit very strange! I hope a rep can come clear this up ASAP

 

[RolfMoister]

Due to the fact that Bovada claimed: "Our slots games work exactly the same way as with a land based casino. Our Random Number Generator (RNG), has been fully certified, and ensures all of our games are completely random. As a result, there is no guarantee of when or how often a jackpot might hit.".
I'm starting to doubt how FULLY CERTIFIED their license really is.

How is it possible that a fully certified RNG is having these obvious problems.

Bovada, any response to this?

 

[Sjodin525]

I'm starting to doubt how FULLY CERTIFIED their license really is.

Perhaps you should ask them again for a functional link to their certification files?

 

[RolfMoister]

Some more info:

I've gathered some data from other sites using Betsoft.

Some of them have been locked as well.

It might be that Bovada is running these Betsoft slots without actually knowing themselves that it is locked.

In any case, even if they are not knowing that it's misconfigured, their "investigation" should not have returned all green lights.

Presumably it is Betsoft releasing the slots misconfigured on occasion (since not all of them are locked).

So, this is not a case uniquely happening on Bovada, but it is in their obligation to make sure this gets solved.

Bovada, now you have something more to go on.

 

[jt2oux]

Slot jackpot configuration - locks

I was actually coming here to post this same concern @ bovada when I found this post. After reading Bovada's reply to the inquiry I am a bit concerned because it is an obvious decision made by bovado to either lock these specific jackpots at certain limits or decrease the odds in hitting specific jackpots so that the jackpot sizes gets to draw attention and therefore more players.

The fact they are claiming this is random odds of a casino is bogus. Here is my analysis of situation. With Good Girl Bad Girl as my favorite slot, I've joined 3 casino's specifically for having that slot game in inventory. My observations:

Bovada: All 'Good' jackpots are very winable and frequently are won. The only 'Bad' jackpots winable are at the .02 cent and .50 cent wagers. The remaining jackpots are clearly locked. I personally have a few thousand spins on the money wheel at the .10 cent level, hitting all payouts execpt for jackpot.

Slots.LV: All 'Good' and 'Bad' jackpots at every wager level are winable. I've personaly won every single jackpot from .02-$1 wager at this site for both good and bad. I'm currently listed on their recent winners page for this slot. (Michael G, CO $46k win).

DrakeCasiono.eu: Drake has all jackpots locked at all betting levels. I've never hit once not does it appear as if anyone every has.


In my opinion This clearly shows that these games are highly configurable as far as manipulating jackpot probability down to specific wager levels and is left up to the Casino itself on how it wants to tweak/lock these games.

I've accepted this as a fact assuming it was done to generate large jackpots in order to accumulate to 'Life changing Sized Jackpots' which is understandable and exciting. But after hearing the Bovada Reps response that this is just unplanned casino style odds is a bunch of bull. This concerns me and will definately affect my decision of future play at bovada. Don't get me wrong, I believe they are likely one of the more reputable sites serving US players. I've always had a good experience with them during withdrawls, etc. But this does throw up a red flag for certain.

Thanks for everyone's feedback on this topic. Its nice to see that I was not alone on these observations.

jt2oux

 

[jt2oux]

Slot game takes orders from the casino's RNG

Some more info:

I've gathered some data from other sites using Betsoft.

Some of them have been locked as well.

It might be that Bovada is running these Betsoft slots without actually knowing themselves that it is locked.

In any case, even if they are not knowing that it's misconfigured, their "investigation" should not have returned all green lights.

Presumably it is Betsoft releasing the slots misconfigured on occasion (since not all of them are locked).

So, this is not a case uniquely happening on Bovada, but it is in their obligation to make sure this gets solved.

Bovada, now you have something more to go on.

My understanding is that the slot game itself is not configured but rather just accepts input from a RNG so the slot game acts as more of a slave to the RNG by computing win sequences and payouts, etc. This tells me there is something fishy with the way their RNG is configured with those specific jackpot levels. Someone at some level at Bovada (or Drakecasino for that matter) knows exactly what is going on. Too bad your inquiry got such a piss poor scripted response from Bovada. The Rep is clearly a puppet here.

 

[RolfMoister]

Is this a reason for the Casino to be put on the rogue list?
I feel that as long as they keep cheating the players it shouldn't be white listed.

Bovada, you should at least come with a response soon, you have been notified about this thread and we know you read it.

Reinvestigate this properly and everything should be fine.

 

[Sjodin525]

Is this a reason for the Casino to be put on the rogue list?

No, because it's Bovada.

Bovada is the definition, the height, and the model of trustworthy casinos in USA.

Give them a chance to fix this issue to your satisfaction.

 

[RolfMoister]

No, because it's Bovada.

Bovada is the definition, the height, and the model of trustworthy casinos in USA.

Give them a chance to fix this issue to your satisfaction.

Yes, you are right.
Ok, let's see how this is continuing.

 

[Sjodin525]

any updates regarding the situation?

 

[RolfMoister]

any updates regarding the situation?

Nothing, just complete silence.
I can't understand how this obvious fault is just being accepted.
People can't win, and there's proof of it, still nothing is happening.

I don't know what else to do than to present the evidence to the community, and if they keep on playing there, then I guess it's up to them.

 

[johnnyvegass16]

Wow this is disturbing. Question for you USA players, is there a thread here anywhere that shows something like your top 3 casinos you like to play at being a USA resident? Greatly appreciated, if not I would like to hear from the few usa players on this thread.

 

[RolfMoister]

ATTENTION!
Bovada has now locked ALL jackpots on Good Girl vs Bad Girl.
No one can win.

You can see the trend here: casinolistings.com/jackpots/betsoft/good-girl-jackpot
for about 1.5 days ago they put the lock in.

So, I'm officially warning anyone to play any game at Bovada at this point.

 

[EbeeDog]

Hi Johnny,

Our choices are limited here in the states but Club World Group and Jackpot Capital Group are my favorites. Go ahead and research them on here - look for problems/complaints and you will find very few.

Also, keep an eye on 3Dice. They seem to be having a few problems at the moment, but when I played there, it was a blast. If they get their problems straightened out, they're worth a shot. (Plus, they paid me in cash. That's right- certified letter with crisp, clean C-notes!)

Again, use the search at the top of the forum page to do a little checking on all of the above - don't take my word for it.

Hope that helps. GL

 

[Sjodin525]

Lol the jackpot is up to $2000 now

 

[jt2oux]

ATTENTION!
Bovada has now locked ALL jackpots on Good Girl vs Bad Girl.
No one can win.

You can see the trend here:...

-j---------------------------

Yes, jackpots are completely locked since this game received an update which changed the game play and appears to pay out much less than it had in the past. Might be taking this game off my favorite list. Looks like bovada will be off the list as well.

 

[lockinlove]

kind of strange bovado has read this thread and been online multiple times and havent bothered to comment on it.

I flagged them to this thread.


Any reason why you choose to ignore this thread bovada?

 

[johnnyvegass16]

I'm a newbie here but not to online gaming. WTF does it mean they locked a jackpot? Can someone elaborate?

 

[RolfMoister]

I'm a newbie here but not to online gaming. WTF does it mean they locked a jackpot? Can someone elaborate?

You see a slot that announces it has a "jackpot".
The jackpot amount keeps increasing the more people play, but it's just there for show.
No one can actually win it.

Simply:
They make you believe you can win it, but it's not going to happen.

 

[johnnyvegass16]

You see a slot that announces it has a "jackpot".
The jackpot amount keeps increasing the more people play, but it's just there for show.
No one can actually win it.

Simply:
They make you believe you can win it, but it's not going to happen.

Wow, why would anyone play at this casino is beyond me.