Mugwump
Dormant account
I'm sorry for the insane length of this post, but this behavior by online casino's is a pet peeve of mine, and the only way its going to end is for us, the patrons, to stop seeing it as acceptable.
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From a post in the "is Crypto rigged?" thread
kmartin also believes that a results-based RNG is as fair as an individual-event based RNG.
Repeat after me...
THIS IS NOT TRUE AND IT IS UNACCEPTABLE!!!
Most of us on these forums who gamble away our dollars online choose to do so in games where we feel we have some control over the ultimate result. Games such as blackjack, video poker, etc, where we make decisions. Part of the reason for this is that the game is more interesting this way.
When we first hear it, kmartin's claim that the result-based RNG is fair will probably make some degree of sense. This is not true...and as casino patrons, we have a right to expect better out of the casinos.
There are several problems with this form of RNG
1.) In choosing a game such as video poker or blackjack, a patron has elected to play a game where skill influences the final outcome. They still do not have an advantage over the casino (usually), but they can (in theory) lose less over time with proper play. This is no longer the case when this type of RNG is used. They are now no longer playing the game they thought they were, and are now just playing an elaborately disguised slot machine. This is deception by the casino, and the player is not recieving the product he ordered. An analogy would be buying scallops and recieving shark-meat cutouts instead. I may not be able to tell the difference, but I'm still being cheated.
2.) There are times in which a results-based RNG 'win' is far different from what it ought to be.
For instance, lets talk craps...
I place a $10 pass bet down and the dice result in a point of 6. I then place the double odds bet on the 6. I now have $30 on the table, and will lose it if a 7 hits, and win $34 if a 6 hits.
Before the next throw I place a $10 come bet. Dice roll a result of eight. I place the odds down, and will now win $34 if a 6 or 8 hits on the next roll, and lose $60 if a 7 hits.
Now lets say that the results based RNG already determined that both the pass and the come bet would win by making their points....this is great, because I just won $68 right?
wrong.
Next roll is a 6...I win $34, YAY!!!! The point is now off, and on most online casinos my come odds bet is no longer in effect until a new point is set (the come bet still is). I place $10 on pass...
Next roll is an 8...and since my come odds are not active, I only win my initial come bet ($10). Instead of winning $68, I have now won $44 saving the casino $24.
Now I suppose that it is theoretically possible to code an algorhythm that would account for all of the possible permutations and generate 'fair' game results, but this will fail over time, because in order to achieve this the game will end up skewing the dice to where they need to be in order to accomplish the result, and the skew will show that the game isn't random....so they will have to adjust for the skew. Which will result in an event like I had today after a relatively long series where no 7 appeared. To adjust its history to correspond to its baseline, and appear 'normal', the program gave me something like the following 10 consecutive rolls:
7-7-7-12-7-11-7-12-12-7-3-2-7
(sorry bodog, that was my last deposit)
I don't know what the odds are of 10 rolls in a row without hitting a 'point' number are....but they've got to be pretty astronomical.
added later:
3.) Lastly, this form of RNG invites abuse by the casinos. If I've decided that you are going to lose your next hand of blackjack....which is the better hand for me to deal you? 6-5 vs dealer 6? or 10-9 vs dealer 10? Obviously the 6-5 is, as the player following standard BJ guidelines is going to lose double his bet there. All I have to do to increase my overall odds as a casino then is to toss a couple more of these than usual into a player's results during a session. The player will curse his bad luck....but will be hard-pressed to prove anything odd is going on. He did, after all win the % of hands that he was supposed to, and he was only dealt 3 11's, so any results there are statistically irrelevant.
If casino's kept logs of all of their game event results (many, if not all, do) and allowed auditors to examine these logs, this kind of behavior by casino software would be readily detectable. Unfortunately, I have never seen evidence of such an audit at an online casino. Auditors check the overall result (game returned x% to players) and compare it to the cash-in, cash-out totals, but they do not do the statistical analysis of individual events necessary to detect this form of manipulation. I say this because I am absolutely positive that if a casino did perform such an audit, they would certainly post evidence of the results for the public to view, assuming they passed, and if reasonably skilled auditors were working, the only way to pass such an audit would be to use an event-based rng. To date, I have seen no evidence of such an audit, except on www.pokerroom.com's website. www.pokerroom.com's audit however, only refers to poker hands though, and not its casino games.
Sorry for taking so much time to rant here, but I feel that its time we started expecting more out of online gaming, and the blind acceptance of this algorhythm is starting to really piss me off.
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From a post in the "is Crypto rigged?" thread
After a hiatus, I've started playing again at a few casinos. And am now ready to quit again because I've noticed behavior similar to what kmartin describes.kmartinusa said:The best way that I can describe it is that the RNG's of machines vs. RNG's online are each random, but each in a little different way....The RNG's of online casinos seem to be set up to generate the appropriate number of winning hands that a mathmatical analysis would say that should be generated over a long period of time. The machines in land based casinos are random in a different way in that the individual cards (rather than winning hands) are dealt randomly and therefore the pay schedule probabilities match what happens. In both cases the game is fair, but is just done a little differently.
kmartin also believes that a results-based RNG is as fair as an individual-event based RNG.
Repeat after me...
THIS IS NOT TRUE AND IT IS UNACCEPTABLE!!!
Most of us on these forums who gamble away our dollars online choose to do so in games where we feel we have some control over the ultimate result. Games such as blackjack, video poker, etc, where we make decisions. Part of the reason for this is that the game is more interesting this way.
When we first hear it, kmartin's claim that the result-based RNG is fair will probably make some degree of sense. This is not true...and as casino patrons, we have a right to expect better out of the casinos.
There are several problems with this form of RNG
1.) In choosing a game such as video poker or blackjack, a patron has elected to play a game where skill influences the final outcome. They still do not have an advantage over the casino (usually), but they can (in theory) lose less over time with proper play. This is no longer the case when this type of RNG is used. They are now no longer playing the game they thought they were, and are now just playing an elaborately disguised slot machine. This is deception by the casino, and the player is not recieving the product he ordered. An analogy would be buying scallops and recieving shark-meat cutouts instead. I may not be able to tell the difference, but I'm still being cheated.
2.) There are times in which a results-based RNG 'win' is far different from what it ought to be.
For instance, lets talk craps...
I place a $10 pass bet down and the dice result in a point of 6. I then place the double odds bet on the 6. I now have $30 on the table, and will lose it if a 7 hits, and win $34 if a 6 hits.
Before the next throw I place a $10 come bet. Dice roll a result of eight. I place the odds down, and will now win $34 if a 6 or 8 hits on the next roll, and lose $60 if a 7 hits.
Now lets say that the results based RNG already determined that both the pass and the come bet would win by making their points....this is great, because I just won $68 right?
wrong.
Next roll is a 6...I win $34, YAY!!!! The point is now off, and on most online casinos my come odds bet is no longer in effect until a new point is set (the come bet still is). I place $10 on pass...
Next roll is an 8...and since my come odds are not active, I only win my initial come bet ($10). Instead of winning $68, I have now won $44 saving the casino $24.
Now I suppose that it is theoretically possible to code an algorhythm that would account for all of the possible permutations and generate 'fair' game results, but this will fail over time, because in order to achieve this the game will end up skewing the dice to where they need to be in order to accomplish the result, and the skew will show that the game isn't random....so they will have to adjust for the skew. Which will result in an event like I had today after a relatively long series where no 7 appeared. To adjust its history to correspond to its baseline, and appear 'normal', the program gave me something like the following 10 consecutive rolls:
7-7-7-12-7-11-7-12-12-7-3-2-7
(sorry bodog, that was my last deposit)
I don't know what the odds are of 10 rolls in a row without hitting a 'point' number are....but they've got to be pretty astronomical.
added later:
I also played vp there this week, and in a few 1000 hands recieved an above average number of full houses. Most of these were kings over queens, and most the k over q full houses all occurred either pat or after 3 card draws after the software had drilled my 100 unit stack to 45 or 50 units in an incredibly short period, pushing the stack buck up to the 90 or 95. Again, a win of sorts, but it sure didn't feel legit
3.) Lastly, this form of RNG invites abuse by the casinos. If I've decided that you are going to lose your next hand of blackjack....which is the better hand for me to deal you? 6-5 vs dealer 6? or 10-9 vs dealer 10? Obviously the 6-5 is, as the player following standard BJ guidelines is going to lose double his bet there. All I have to do to increase my overall odds as a casino then is to toss a couple more of these than usual into a player's results during a session. The player will curse his bad luck....but will be hard-pressed to prove anything odd is going on. He did, after all win the % of hands that he was supposed to, and he was only dealt 3 11's, so any results there are statistically irrelevant.
If casino's kept logs of all of their game event results (many, if not all, do) and allowed auditors to examine these logs, this kind of behavior by casino software would be readily detectable. Unfortunately, I have never seen evidence of such an audit at an online casino. Auditors check the overall result (game returned x% to players) and compare it to the cash-in, cash-out totals, but they do not do the statistical analysis of individual events necessary to detect this form of manipulation. I say this because I am absolutely positive that if a casino did perform such an audit, they would certainly post evidence of the results for the public to view, assuming they passed, and if reasonably skilled auditors were working, the only way to pass such an audit would be to use an event-based rng. To date, I have seen no evidence of such an audit, except on www.pokerroom.com's website. www.pokerroom.com's audit however, only refers to poker hands though, and not its casino games.
Sorry for taking so much time to rant here, but I feel that its time we started expecting more out of online gaming, and the blind acceptance of this algorhythm is starting to really piss me off.
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