Starluck Non-Random Video Poker

[chalupa]

This is a bit old, but the issue was never resolved by customer service so I thought I'd post it here for general information/amusement.

During the course of playing video poker at Starluck casino I was dealt the identical starting hand TWICE in a row and also THREE times in a row.

The odds of being dealt the same hand three times in a row -- with the cards in the same order -- are, I believe:

1 in ( 52 * 51 * 50 * 49 * 48 ) ^ 2

Which is 1 in 97,266,140,375,040,000

Yes, that's one in 97 Quadrillion, with a Q.

I immediately contacted customer service and they assured me the cards were in fact random, but were unwilling to take me up on my $10,000 wager that they were not.

I received a couple of follow-up calls basically saying they were still looking into it, but on the last call I asked the rep to please contact me by e-mail in the future (they were disrupting my workday) and she got very uncomfortable about that.

In fact she asked if she could call me one more time to follow-up. I again requested that she please e-mail me instead, and I never heard anything more. Strange.

In any case, attached is a screen shot showing the three in a row. "Hand 1" shows the five cards originally dealt.

 

[555YY]

This is a bit old, but the issue was never resolved by customer service so I thought I'd post it here for general information/amusement.

During the course of playing video poker at Starluck casino I was dealt the identical starting hand TWICE in a row and also THREE times in a row.

The odds of being dealt the same hand three times in a row -- with the cards in the same order -- are, I believe:

1 in ( 52 * 51 * 50 * 49 * 48 ) ^ 2

Which is 1 in 97,266,140,375,040,000

Yes, that's one in 97 Quadrillion, with a Q.

I immediately contacted customer service and they assured me the cards were in fact random, but were unwilling to take me up on my $10,000 wager that they were not.

I received a couple of follow-up calls basically saying they were still looking into it, but on the last call I asked the rep to please contact me by e-mail in the future (they were disrupting my workday) and she got very uncomfortable about that.

In fact she asked if she could call me one more time to follow-up. I again requested that she please e-mail me instead, and I never heard anything more. Strange.

In any case, attached is a screen shot showing the three in a row. "Hand 1" shows the five cards originally dealt.

i concur, igmglobal sites have lots of issues to work with, video poker problems are a major concern

a few weeks back i was playing one of their video poker promotions, after being repeatdly kicked out by the system and numerous delays, my account total was decreased by phantom bets that was never made by me. i emailed support along with my screenshot proof and merely demanded a refund for those errors that i CAUGHT, of course, no response

i don't see myself playing video poker there again EVER despite my 1k win in joker-poker

 

[caruso]

This is a bit old, but the issue was never resolved by customer service so I thought I'd post it here for general information/amusement.

I find nothing remotely amusing about cheating.

Several threads here with screenshot evidence of flagrant non-random dealing from this lot, with no comment from iGM - who can afford to turn a blind eye. Doesn't stop most affys pimping 'em hard.

Assuming your figure is correct, and about six hands per minute, that'd mean you'd need to play play video poker for seven times the age of the earth to see a repeat of this in a fair game, about 30 billion years.

Let's forward this to them so they can spend the next twenty years "looking into it".

 

[chalupa]

Only seven times the age of the Earth huh? It could happen.
A bit more if you include the 2x in a row hand I had in the same session.

I'd be surprised if it this was a direct result of cheating, they'd be pretty stupid to cheat like that. Clearly their software has (or had) some problems though, so it would be difficult to assume a fair game.

Actually repeating starting hands (if that was the only problem) could potentially be exploited by a player, i.e. place minimum bets and if you get a good starting hand jack up your bet for the next hand in case it repeats.

Also in their defense -- when this happened to me, I was up money at the time, and they let me forfeit my bonus and cash out early. Needless to say I wasn't too keen to play more video poker.

 

[Vesuvio]

This thread probably had the best explanation of what's wrong with the video poker (though BJ & slots also have problems):

https://www.casinomeister.com/forums/threads/iglobalmedia-video-poker-software-glitch.6691/

I wanted to try and paste in the old screenshot I got from them, but couldn't quite work out how to do it. Anyway, it's here:

https://www.casinomeister.com/forums/threads/iglobalmedia-invisible-cards-trick.5628/

I don't really see how they can avoid being rogued until they've fixed their software - it would certainly give them an incentive to finally get something done

 

[Mugwump]

I'd be surprised if it this was a direct result of cheating, they'd be pretty stupid to cheat like that. Clearly their software has (or had) some problems though, so it would be difficult to assume a fair game.

Could someone explain to me the difference between cheating and a game that is not fair?

 

[chalupa]

Could someone explain to me the difference between cheating and a game that is not fair?

My point was I doubt this is intentional cheating, it's just too far stupid a way to cheat, when you could do something subtle like make sure that a Royal Flush only came up half as often as it should. Something like that would be nearly impossible to prove.

On the other hand it would be crazy to assume the game is fair (intentions aside) when the software is this dramatically flawed.

--------

I'm a bit shocked to see another post showing the same problem at another iGlobalMedia site over 2 months after I reported my problem. When I reported my problem I sent them screen shots and everything... there could be no doubt they were well and truly notified of the problem. And I doubt I was the first to notify them of it.

The fact that it went un-fixed for at least 2 months is pretty awful. Clearly iGlobalMedia had should have immediately pulled the game until it was fixed. I wonder if it is fixed to this day. I'm not going to deposit to find out.

 

[Mugwump]

I guess I find it very hard to believe that a result like this could arise without attempted cheating involved. The algorhythm for dealing a hand of video poker is fairly simple. The only reasonable explanation I can see for this result is that the casino is trying to juice the odds somehow, and did it poorly.

It is possible, I guess, that they have a problem seeding their RNG, but this is something that would create easily identifiable patterns in results and destroy a casino as soon as someone noticed. It is also easily resolved.

Since this is an issue that has been brought to their attention in the past, I think its fair to assume that their VP is making them money. And from the results that have been reported, I suspect that its making them more than their fair share.