Don't make the same mistake I made.

#1
I hate to come off sounding like some sore loser, cuz I’m not. But I hope by posting my experience I can help others.

Recently, I tested out Golden Casinos and Rushmore Casino. First I experimented with their “Free Play” blackjack games. For a few days straight, I started with $1000 play money and used my basic strategy and a modified incremental betting system for testing. Every single day, I would play for a few hours and would end up on top, sometimes by as much as 2 to 3K.

So I said what the heck, I’ll try it with some real cash (should’ve know better). Deposited $250 into Golden Casino, where they matched 1 for 1 bringing my total starting at $500. Within less than an hour, I zeroed out.

I figured maybe it’s just my luck, or just Golden Casino. So I tried another $333 at Rushmore Casino. They had a 2 for 1 bonus for blackjack, so my total was at $999 to start. In less than 2 hours, I zeroed out.

Here’s what I found out, “Free Play” games are rigged in your favor. When you put it real money, the switch is flipped. YOU will be on the other end of the barrel. Golden Casino was blatantly biased. When you double down on 11, you’ll always get 2, 3, 4’s. The house constantly gets blackjacks. When you get 20, the house will make 21 on a 15 or 16 initial draw.

For Rushmore, it’s less obvious. It’s smart enough to learn your playing strategy. If you play $1 or $5 hands, your odds seem pretty fair. But once you start doubling down, you will get 8, 9, 10 straight kills. Once you decrease your bet down to below $5, they’ll try to make you feel better by giving you a couple of wins in a roll. And also to make it less obvious when you complain about the straight losses, they'll point to the straight wins you earned.

I already told Golden Casino to close my account and kiss my ass, will do the same with Rushmore.

Don’t play online! The games are rigged, fixed, and corrupt. Good thing I only tested with small deposits. Lesson learned.
 
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UK-21

Well-Known Member
#2
Firstly, sympathies for your loss.

Before you can shout that you've been cheated however you need to analyse the results in the light of statistical expectation. Three hours of play (at 400 hands per hour?) isn't a large enough sample to draw any sound conclusions on, and your bet value in proportion to your bankroll will also have a big impact on the likelihood of tapping out - at an extreme end, if each bet was 25% of your bankroll, and you lost four hands on the trot and tapped out, would you consider that to be a biased result?

If you search back through the board you'll see many similar postings. I've personally had eyebrow raising results when playing some free and practice games, results which set the alarms off before I pulled out my credit card. I have also played some real money games (with a reasonable bonus thrown in) where the results after several thousand hands were well within expectation (and I came out a few bob in front). So, for me, the jury's still out.

On a more broad note, I would advise anyone to stay away from online gaming as it is highly addictive, and nobody is immune from the effects of addiction. Please don't play more with the intention of recovering your $800 loss.

Best wishes for the future.
 
#3
Thanks newb99, for your advice.

I should've known better to think that the "Free Play" game has the same odds as the real thing. Personally, I think it's totally unethical to rig either game. If they can set the Free Play game in your favor, what's so difficult to simply switch the odds when you play for real?

Here's an example of one of my incremental bets at Rushmore.

1, 1, 1, 3, 6, 15, 30, 75, 150, 250, 250

Eleven straight beat down... The odds of that are ~ 0.0564%, in other words around 1 (set of 11 hands) in 1800 hands. My math might be off, it's been a while since I took statistics.

But I think anyone will agree that I shouldn't be running into these odds within 2 hours of play, less than 800 hands I'm sure.

In any case, I won't be playing online.
 

UK-21

Well-Known Member
#4
Certainly looks like you hit a bad beat, although losing 11 hands on the trot isn't beyond the realms of possibility. One contributor here has reported he lost 24 hands on the trot across three different casinos, although they were live, across the felt, games. I've personally had two occasions where I've lost 13 out of 14 hands, and in one case tapped out shortly after starting to play.
Went home early that evening.

Your results do highlight the danger of following Martingale type negative progressions - eventually that really low probability streak will show up and take you to the cleaners.

Again, best wishes.
 

shadroch

Well-Known Member
#8
You are throwing out bets of $250 with a $999 bankroll and are shocked when you go broke? I have no idea if you were cheated or not, but between using a progressive betting system and overbetting, it's clear you don't know thing one about money management
 
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StandardDeviant

Well-Known Member
#9
Lamester said:
Don’t play online! The games are rigged, fixed, and corrupt.
You didn't play long enough to conclude that.

When you put real money on the line, your outlook on the game and what happens changes, because you are taking risk. The game seems to change but it probably does not. I've seen the same think happen in trading. It's a behavioral psychology thing.

Finally, since online casinos shuffle after every hand, there is no chance to develop an advantage through observation of dependent events. What did you expect to have happen?
 
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#10
Wow, I see a lot of online casino reps on this board. Nice.

Again, I tried the Free Play version with the same system I used. Guess what? Wins every single time.

For those of you who are not paid by the casinos to go on this board, heed my warning. It's for your own good. You might as well put your money into the lottery, probably stand a better chance.

For the casino reps, how much do they pay you per post? I might switch sides. :)
 
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Jack_Black

Well-Known Member
#12
I give up sabre. What does fyp stand for?

FYP Final Year Project
FYP Five-Year Plan
FYP First Year Program (College of the Holy Cross)
FYP For Your Pleasure
FYP Fixed Your Post (newsgroups)
FYP Foundation Year Programme (Canada)
FYP First Year Premium (life insurance)
FYP Foundation Year Program (University of Kings College)
FYP First Year Players (Syracuse Univeristy musical theatre group)
FYP Five Year Program
FYP For Your Perusal
FYP Freight Yard Pub (North Adams, MA)
FYP Festival of Young Performers
FYP Full Year Projection
 
#14
shadroch said:
Thats a good attitude. Anyone who disagrees with you is obviously a hack for the casinos. Great way to learn anything.
No, not everyone that disagrees with me is working for the casinos. Just the ones that so quickly jump to their defense.

I played quite a few days, a totally of no less than 24 hours on the Free Play games. Always ending with positive results. I tried again afterwards, same positive result. You can go try it yourself, it's FREE.

Say what you may about probability and statistics. Something's fishy. Sure, lotteries are being won every single week. Does that mean if you buy $1k next week, you'll likely win? Probability works both ways, winning or losing. What are the chances of me winning constantly on the Free Play, but loses immediately on real money? Does that make sense to you, if yes, then no need for me to reply.
 

shadroch

Well-Known Member
#16
Lamester said:
No, not everyone that disagrees with me is working for the casinos. Just the ones that so quickly jump to their defense.

I played quite a few days, a totally of no less than 24 hours on the Free Play games. Always ending with positive results. I tried again afterwards, same positive result. You can go try it yourself, it's FREE.

Say what you may about probability and statistics. Something's fishy. Sure, lotteries are being won every single week. Does that mean if you buy $1k next week, you'll likely win? Probability works both ways, winning or losing. What are the chances of me winning constantly on the Free Play, but loses immediately on real money? Does that make sense to you, if yes, then no need for me to reply.
When you play on the free side are you spreading $1-$250? Are you limiting yourself to a $999 bankroll as you are on the real side? If not, there is no valid comparison.
Which brings me to my next point- Why are you spreading $1-$250?
You can't be counting, so whats your thought process? Betting $250 with a total BR of $999 is akin to playing Russian Roulette with five bullets in the chamber. Your end result will be quick but not very pretty.
 

Sonny

Well-Known Member
#17
Lamester said:
What are the chances of me winning constantly on the Free Play, but loses immediately on real money? Does that make sense to you, if yes, then no need for me to reply.
It makes perfect sense to me. That is exactly how betting progression systems work. You win a large percentage of your sessions but then a huge losing session takes away all of your profit and restores the house edge. If you read through the links in the Voodoo section you will learn exactly what sort of results to expect and why these systems are flawed. I'm not saying that the free game isn't rigged in your favor, I'm just saying that you have no reason to accuse the real game of being rigged against you.

It is time to put this issue to rest. You bet your money on a game where the casino has the advantage and you lost. That is exactly what you should expect to happen. You were using a progression strategy so you lost a lot of money very quickly. That is exactly what you should expect to happen. You had false confidence because your progression system gave you many winning sessions, but then you suddenly started losing uncontrollably. That is exactly what you should expect to happen. There is absolutely nothing unusual about your experience. If you do a little research you will find that out.

As you pointed out, there is no reason for you to reply. Spend some time learning about the game and about your strategies before you accuse casinos of cheating.

-Sonny-
 
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StandardDeviant

Well-Known Member
#19
shadroch said:
So which casinos do you hack for? Maybe we could have a casino hack convention. Seems there are a lot of them here these days.
Gee, I wish I could get a job with casino security. :grin:

I could learn all their secrets and then go across town and really rip things up!! :eek::eek:
 

shadroch

Well-Known Member
#20
I recently sent an email to every casino listed in the ACG. I figured since I spend so much time on these boards, they'd jump all over the chance to have someone monitering it for them.Since I got no reply, I assume some other forumite is already on the payroll.
 
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