Should I be skeptical?

Hi everyone. I play a lot of blackjack with friends and the casinos. I have never played online though. Should I be skeptical? It just seems like it could be very easy for these online casinos to cheat the cards. Am I over-reacting? Also which sites are good to play blackjack at? Thanks.

Danger

Taking all that has already been said, and is correct...is the ever present increased, hyper, danger of addiction to gambling spurned on by the ever present opportunity"s to play in the comfort of your own home, 24-7 if you wish!!!!

My advice, STAY AWAY.

CP

I generally play at at least semi reputable places.

The results from online blackjack match the results from brick and mortar blackjack.

But you can do it in your underwear.

If you're worried about it, record your w/l/t/BJ results and bets. Save your logs if you can.

If results fall outside of -4 SD, begin to worry a little.

Mine never did, so I have faith lol.

Too much potential for cheating and fraud

Dan, If you watch 60 minutes on Sunday, you may over-react even more. But that program only will expose poker room cheats. (Not BJ, roulette, slots or baccarat cheats.) You are correct. Cheating by online casinos is as easy as pushing a few computer buttons at headquarters and activating the program. Online casinos are all largely unregulated, as the US Government (under Bush) continues to try to sort out very complex matters, years on.
Two poker rooms were recently busted as cheats. How many other cheats continue to operate? Each online casino is asking for your trust. Now, you don't know me. If I asked you to trust me with your money, why should you? (I practice self-regulation. Do you believe me?)

Thanks for all the advice guys. I did some research and you're more likely to get addicted by gambling online. Also Katweezel, you made a very good point. Thank you for that.

I think I will just stick to playing with friends and going to the casinos once in a while. With the economy the way it is, it would probably be best to not gamble as much.:laugh:

Thanks once again.

OnLine cheater & 60 mins expose

The 60 minute show about OnLine Poker Cheating talked about pros noticing something was wrong and investigating. They found the cheater was winning at a rate that was more than 15 SD from the norm. They were only able to determine that because the online casino made a mistake and released detaailed info about the cheater's play.

I've got to think if a cheater stays withing 1 or 2 SD they wouold NEVER get caught.


BTW: the cheater was alleged to be an insider with admin access to their computers and was given amnesty in return for a confession and full disclosure.

Nice work if you can get it, eh

I just watched that myself. Russ Hamilton...a former poker pro too.

I would never trust any online gambling site. I don't even trust ASM's.

Rotten apple, anyone?

So one bad apple in the poker barrell got exposed. Big deal. The Law of Averages states that in a barrell with many apples - one of which was rotten - there surely are other rotten apples.
Unfortunately, in The Land of The Unregulated Online Casinos, there does not as yet, appear to be a Rotten Apple Posse; one armed and dangerous, ready to do battle - Elliot Ness style, with gangs of bad guys who may be living, 'working' on or holed up on...Indian reservations. They, (the IR's) as we have recently seen, are a law unto themselves. That could be an increasing problem...

Bad Casinos and poker rooms

Yes and unfortunately these 2 poker rooms mentioned did seem to have good reputations, which is unfortunate, its bad enough all the bad raps online casinos already have . This is all we needed to discourage new players away from the games even more, as far as I understand these poker rooms will not be prosecuted because there is no real set jurisdiction.

Jeff

Yes, and the American people who lost their money can't even use the US justice system to prosecute because online gambling is illegal here.

The casinos dealt the cards fairly.
It's a human being who cheated other human beings.
People cheat in the real world too.

You gonna know if a player wins one night because he can see your cards every time? Or just call him lucky?

Yea, that's why casino operators were held not criminally liable. It was one insider who hacked the system.

My question is why didn't the owners have security in place to bring to their attention a player winning at +17SD? He should have been audited before he started hitting 4SD. You can damn well bet anyone taking the casino's money in BJ at +4 SD would get noticed and watched.

The other kind of cheating I wonder about in OnLine poker is how do you know all or some players at your table aren't communicating with each other in an attempt to fleece you?

I guess he/they logged in under many different IP addresses and on-line identities.
Also why would they care who wins or loses - it's not like somebody is beating THEM that badly. They got their rake.
But sure they could have done a better job, responded sooner etc.
The players knew an awful lot sooner than the casino.

How long would it take you to suspect something when the guy always folds, even with a good hand but you have a better one, calls your bluff with nothing in a high stakes game when players know how to play?

As usual, anything that far out on the curve isn't possible - it means cheating lol.

So, for the record, 15 SD events don't happen and didn't happen here either lol.

A while back some casino made a software change and it didn't take long before people realized the "double or nothing" VP bet results were way out of whack. Casino investigated, found the problem, made everyone whole and that was that.

Sometimes you win so much on casino's "free demo" games that are supposed to be like their real games but they just aren't.

It's not a perfect world.

One time I thought too many dealer 10 upcards were coming out. Tracked them for a 1000 hands. They were fine lol. Overall results fine.

Never got to -4SD behind, close a couple times though lol.

Emotionally, it's tough to describe the pain of just -2.5 SD's :whip:
Feels like somebody is cheating but they aren't lmao.

Gang of crooks

My understanding of the Absolute and Ultimate poker scam is that it was set up by a gang of crooks, not just by one crooked individual. Operating out of two countries, Costa Rica and Canada. The crooks obviously did their homework by choosing an untouchable Mohawk indian base near Montreal. Smells to me of smart, expensive lawyer advice!