Is Blackjack on Bovada Rigged? Published by Teresa Westman August 4, 2020 Categorie(s): Casino News, Gambling News, Online Blackjack. When playing any kind of online casino game, many wonder if the game is in a fair manner. It's 100% not rigged. A rigged blackjack game has the odds in it's favor. Over time, they win. Mathematics dictates this, and is undeniable. You statement is based on variance. If you flipped a coin, and it came up heads 14 times in a row, you would no doubt believe the coin to be magic. Crooked software – When it comes to rigged online blackjack, this is the most likely culprit. The software has been designed to give the player even lower odds than usual, and in some cases the player never wins.
One of the biggest fears casino players have is being cheated by the casino.
I've talked to dozens of live casino players who constantly talk about how they've been cheated by the casino. This number is low compared to the number of online players who claim they've been cheated by an Internet casino.
The only question I get more than is online blackjack rigged is if online poker is rigged?
Of course it's an entirely different subject for another day, but I feel a lot safer playing blackjack than poker when it comes to being cheated.
The game of blackjack is already rigged itself, plus the crooked software. If they didn't make money off it (Which trust me, they do) then why would they have it as an option? Because it's a big. It's 100% not rigged. A rigged blackjack game has the odds in it's favor. Over time, they win. Mathematics dictates this, and is undeniable. You statement is based on variance. If you flipped a coin, and it came.
On this page I cover many of the common cheating claims, show you a few ways that cheating could actually occur, a few real issues online blackjack players may face, and discuss a few individual casinos.
As I explain in greater detail below, the best way to know you're playing a fair game and not being cheated is play at an established and trusted online casino. Ones with a long track record of honest play and customer service are the place you want to play.
The two I can recommend off the top of my head are Guts Casino live blackjack and 5 Dimes real dealer blackjack. Both of these companies have been offering online gambling for years and I've played at both of them for real money in the past.
So, is blackjack rigged at casinos?
Claims of Cheating
The same arguments and claims are made about live dealer blackjack as video blackjack. So the following claims are in reference to both of the following questions.
Is video blackjack rigged?
Is live dealer blackjack rigged?
The most frequent claim that I read about blackjack being rigged is that a player has lost 5 straight hands, or 7 straight hands, or 10 straight hands. The person complaining states that the game must be rigged because they lost so many straight hands as if that fact alone proved something.
What these players don't seem to understand is how probabilities and statistics work.
While you won't lose 10 hands in a row very often, it can and will happen. Just because something is rare doesn't mean that when it happened the casino is cheating or the game is rigged.
The odds of losing 8 hands in a row are only 1 in 173 so you'll have long losing streaks.
On the other side you'll occasionally have long winning streaks too. But most players quickly forget the winning streaks and scream bloody murder when the casino wins a few hands in a row.
The next complaint I see kind of falls under the same type of thing. Players say that a certain casino's blackjack game is tighter than others and if the player gets a good hand like a pair of face cards the dealer gets the same hand or a blackjack more often than normal.
The funny thing is I've seen a player complain that casino A is tighter than casino B and then seen a different player complain that casino B was tighter than casino A.
The fact is these complainers are simply making statements based on guesses and what they think they see over a few hundred hands at best.
What you never see is anyone that has actually tracked the hundreds of thousands of hands needed to make a real determination of blackjack cheating.
I believe there are two reasons for this. The first reason is the general player is too lazy to actually do the work required to track that many hands. The second reason is if anyone does track the hands they find out that the games are in actuality fair so they stop complaining.
How It Could Happen
The easiest way for an online casino to rig a live dealer blackjack game is by removing some aces or face cards from the shoe.
Because most live dealer games use a 6 or 8 deck shoe and don't go pat 50% penetration it'd be quite difficult for the average player to determine this was happening.
But a player who took the time to track enough hands would be able to see it in the statistics eventually. I'd want at least 25,000 hands to start making any accusations, and 100,000 would be better.
The only other feasible way is to use a stacked shoe, but the problem with this is in most games they have no way of knowing for sure how many seats will be filled at any time throughout the shoe. With a stacked shoe the casino needs to know how many players will be playing each round, and even then the players don't always make the same decisions so it alters the outcomes.
Why It Doesn't Happen
Of course I can't guarantee that you'll never find an online casino that cheats or a live dealer blackjack game that bends the rules, but for the most part it just doesn't happen with the best online casinos.
If an online casino or blackjack game is caught cheating it will cost the company millions of dollars, even if they can stay in business.
The news of a casino caught cheating will spread like wildfire through the Internet community and players will never trust the casino again.
Online blackjack games don't have to cheat in order to turn a long term profit.
Even the blackjack games that have the lowest house edge have a half percent edge over the player. And the only way a player can play at the lowest house edge is by playing perfect strategy.
Most blackjack players don't use perfect strategy, so they give the house an additional edge.
I don't have the exact numbers that online blackjack games operate at profit wise, but even if it's as low as 1% overall they make money hand over fist. And the truth is that the overall house edge is probably closer to 2% than 1%.
Here's an example to show just how profitable online blackjack is with a fair game.
If the average live dealer table has five players each betting an average of $25 per hand and the game deals 50 hands per hour the total amount wagered on the table per hour is $6,250. At 1% this is an hourly profit of $62.50 per table.
But the numbers in the example are quite conservative.
If the edge is 2% the hourly profit is $125. If the average wager is $50 with a 2% edge the profit is $250.
Remember this example just covers live dealer play. While some live dealers can deal more than 50 hands per hour, if you play on one of the software driven blackjack games you can easily play 100 hands per hour or more.
The other thing that most online blackjack players do is keep playing until they lose their entire deposit. While this is simply the average house edge grinding their bankroll down, it's what makes blackjack even more profitable for the casino.
Most players who have a decent run and get ahead at the blackjack tables keep playing and eventually the percentages catch up with them.
In the short run the casino house edge at any blackjack table fluctuates a great deal, but as long as the casino has a big enough bankroll to ride out the short term they're guaranteed a profit unless players figure out a way to alter the odds.
Some players can gain an edge against the casino in live play in a land based casino, but they can't while playing live dealer blackjack online.
So is online blackjack rigged?
The bottom line is the casinos have no reason to cheat online blackjack players. In the long term it's more profitable to deal a fair game than run the risk of being caught cheating.
I want to finish this section with a quote from a Bodog representative about blackjack.
'At the end of the day all Casino games, Blackjack included, have a house edge. We have no reason to alter the game in anyway. All you need to do is walk down the strip in Vegas and you have all the proof you need that offering a fair and honest game of Blackjack is just simply good business.'
Individual Casinos
Over the past several months I've received questions about different online casinos. These questions include the following. Lets vegas slot.
Is Bovada blackjack rigged or is Bodog rigged?
Is MyVegas blackjack rigged or is BetOnline blackjack rigged?
For the same reasons I've already covered above I don't believe any of these casinos offer rigged blackjack games or any other games.
I don't have as much personal experience with the second pair as with Bodog and Bovada, but I trust all of their blackjack games 100%. My personal experience with the Bodog brands is so good that I've played for real money with them for over 10 years and will continue to do so.
Real Problems
As you can see you don't have to worry about live dealer blackjack games being rigged as long as you play at established and trusted online casinos.
A few real problems blackjack players face is the ability to get money into and out of online casinos. Of course this depends a great deal on where you live, but it's always nice to feel safe in the thought you can easily and safely take your money out of the casino when you hit a nice win.
If you can open a popular online wallet like Skrill or Neteller it's the best way to quickly and safely move money around with online casinos. If you can't, have a conversation with the support department before you make a deposit to find out the best way for players in your country to make a withdrawal.
August 10, 2011 - Offer valid as of date published. T&Cs apply.
This has to be one of the most common questions we get asked here at Online Bookies and it's one that we can confidently answer.
No. Online blackjack and roulette are not rigged. Assuming you're playing at a licensed bookmaker.
However, the games are set up in the house's favour, which is something that you need to remember. For example, if you could bet on something that had a 50/50 outcome, like a coin toss, then the true odds for that bet would be even money or 2.00. A casino isn't going to offer you this price as they need to make a profit, so they offer you slightly less than even money; the odds might be more like 1.95.
Whatever you are betting on, the bookmaker or casino creates the odds in their favour. Always. Think of it as the price you have to pay to use their service.
But Is Rigging Possible?
It's all well and good for us to sit here and say that the games aren't rigged, but technically, they could be if the developers wanted to build them that way. You see, they are set up and run using computers which work with complicated algorithms. These algorithms create random patterns of outcomes for each game.
If a company were to tamper with these algorithms, they could either decrease the stated payout for the game or they could unfairly weight it to pay out in fewer situations.
However, this would be highly illegal and no reputable bookie would risk their license or business for the sake of a few extra quid.
How are Games Tested?
The first thing to note is that online casinos don't create their own games.
If the average live dealer table has five players each betting an average of $25 per hand and the game deals 50 hands per hour the total amount wagered on the table per hour is $6,250. At 1% this is an hourly profit of $62.50 per table.
But the numbers in the example are quite conservative.
If the edge is 2% the hourly profit is $125. If the average wager is $50 with a 2% edge the profit is $250.
Remember this example just covers live dealer play. While some live dealers can deal more than 50 hands per hour, if you play on one of the software driven blackjack games you can easily play 100 hands per hour or more.
The other thing that most online blackjack players do is keep playing until they lose their entire deposit. While this is simply the average house edge grinding their bankroll down, it's what makes blackjack even more profitable for the casino.
Most players who have a decent run and get ahead at the blackjack tables keep playing and eventually the percentages catch up with them.
In the short run the casino house edge at any blackjack table fluctuates a great deal, but as long as the casino has a big enough bankroll to ride out the short term they're guaranteed a profit unless players figure out a way to alter the odds.
Some players can gain an edge against the casino in live play in a land based casino, but they can't while playing live dealer blackjack online.
So is online blackjack rigged?
The bottom line is the casinos have no reason to cheat online blackjack players. In the long term it's more profitable to deal a fair game than run the risk of being caught cheating.
I want to finish this section with a quote from a Bodog representative about blackjack.
'At the end of the day all Casino games, Blackjack included, have a house edge. We have no reason to alter the game in anyway. All you need to do is walk down the strip in Vegas and you have all the proof you need that offering a fair and honest game of Blackjack is just simply good business.'
Individual Casinos
Over the past several months I've received questions about different online casinos. These questions include the following. Lets vegas slot.
Is Bovada blackjack rigged or is Bodog rigged?
Is MyVegas blackjack rigged or is BetOnline blackjack rigged?
For the same reasons I've already covered above I don't believe any of these casinos offer rigged blackjack games or any other games.
I don't have as much personal experience with the second pair as with Bodog and Bovada, but I trust all of their blackjack games 100%. My personal experience with the Bodog brands is so good that I've played for real money with them for over 10 years and will continue to do so.
Real Problems
As you can see you don't have to worry about live dealer blackjack games being rigged as long as you play at established and trusted online casinos.
A few real problems blackjack players face is the ability to get money into and out of online casinos. Of course this depends a great deal on where you live, but it's always nice to feel safe in the thought you can easily and safely take your money out of the casino when you hit a nice win.
If you can open a popular online wallet like Skrill or Neteller it's the best way to quickly and safely move money around with online casinos. If you can't, have a conversation with the support department before you make a deposit to find out the best way for players in your country to make a withdrawal.
August 10, 2011 - Offer valid as of date published. T&Cs apply.
This has to be one of the most common questions we get asked here at Online Bookies and it's one that we can confidently answer.
No. Online blackjack and roulette are not rigged. Assuming you're playing at a licensed bookmaker.
However, the games are set up in the house's favour, which is something that you need to remember. For example, if you could bet on something that had a 50/50 outcome, like a coin toss, then the true odds for that bet would be even money or 2.00. A casino isn't going to offer you this price as they need to make a profit, so they offer you slightly less than even money; the odds might be more like 1.95.
Whatever you are betting on, the bookmaker or casino creates the odds in their favour. Always. Think of it as the price you have to pay to use their service.
But Is Rigging Possible?
It's all well and good for us to sit here and say that the games aren't rigged, but technically, they could be if the developers wanted to build them that way. You see, they are set up and run using computers which work with complicated algorithms. These algorithms create random patterns of outcomes for each game.
If a company were to tamper with these algorithms, they could either decrease the stated payout for the game or they could unfairly weight it to pay out in fewer situations.
However, this would be highly illegal and no reputable bookie would risk their license or business for the sake of a few extra quid.
How are Games Tested?
The first thing to note is that online casinos don't create their own games.
The games are made by specialist game developers who license their games to the casinos. Once these deals have been signed off the casino can host the games on their own platform.
This saves the casino both time and money. If you look at some of the bigger casinos you will see that they have hundreds of games to choose from and the time it would take to create just one of these games, let alone maintaining and update it, would be a huge weight around the casino's neck.
The ability to sub-contract in their game library also allows them to choose from a much wider range of games than they would if they were making them all in-house. Many casinos use several different game developers to power their casino, creating much more diversity and interest for players. This is why you will see the same games at difference casinos – they are using the same developers.
You Still Haven't Mentioned Testing
Sorry, we're getting to that.
It's the game developers who are responsible for making their games fair. They handle all of the development, coding, design, etc., so the casino couldn't change the algorithms even if it wanted to.
There are a number of independent testing companies and regulatory bodies that test new games for fairness and ensure everything is as it should be. The key word here is ‘independent', so they have no affiliation to any casino or gaming company.
They put the games through their paces over millions and millions of spins/hands and won't sign off on a game unless it meets the requirements.
The largest of these is eCOGRA (eCommerce and Online Gambling Regulation and Assurance) who are a UK-based panel acting as a regulatory body for online gambling sites. The company have been around since 2003 and have carried out testing on thousands of casinos and casino games.
eCOGRA can also be alerted by players if they notice something suspicious going on. They also have a huge database of certificates that you can access to check on any games or casinos that you want to use.
Even though they are based in the UK, they are recognised globally as a leading company within the industry.
Other regulatory bodies include:
- iTech Labs
- TST (Technical Systems Testing)
- GLI (Gaming Laboratories International)
- Gaming Associates
- NMi
- BMM Testlabs
- SQS
Random Number Generators (RNGs)
If you're new to online casino games then you might not be aware that all the games are powered by Random Number Generators. It doesn't matter if these are table games such as blackjack or roulette, or other casino games like slots; the packaging might be different, but they all share very similar frameworks in terms of how they operate behind the scenes.
The easiest way to think of an RNG is to use a game like roulette. A roulette wheel contains the numbers 0-36, and if this wheel were to spin at an incredibly fast rate of 100 rotations every second, there would be no way of knowing what number it was going to stop on or even make out any of the numbers as it spins.
The RNG works in the same way. The cycle continues to spin and instantly stops as you press the ‘bet' or ‘spin' button on your casino game. The graphic will keep spinning but the outcome has already been decided.
In reality, it works with a combination of random numbers and algorithms that are programmed into that machine. The RNG will cycle through these random numbers several times every millisecond until you tell it to stop by hitting the button.
The RNG is clever in that it's able to take into account any Return To Player rates that the game developer wants to include. This is essentially how much a player can expect to get back from any unit of 100 (so £1, or £100) over a huge sample of spins.
House Edge
Are Online Casinos Rigged
The house edge is essentially the mathematical advantage that the casino has over the player for each game.
The house is going to have an edge with all casino games, but they do alter quite a lot from one game to another. We mentioned earlier that if there was a coin toss, the house wouldn't offer true odds of even money for that bet, but instead a reduced price at around 1.95 – this is the house edge.
When it comes to roulette and blackjack, the two games have very different house edge percentages. Roulette comes in three main variants, and each has a different house edge:
- America = 5.26% to 7.89%
- European = 2.70%
- French = 2.70%
As you can see, the casino has a much bigger edge with American roulette than it does with European or French. This is because an extra green number is used in American roulette, ‘00' or double-zero, yet the payouts for each bet remain the same across all three variants. This creates extra opportunities for the house to win from American roulette and increases their edge.
Blackjack has one of the lowest house edges that you can get at just 0.28% for Vegas Rules games. This is because you can apply a ‘perfect' betting strategy to blackjack and increase or decrease your stake amount to reflect times when cards statistically might or might not be in your favour.
How do you Explain Odd Results?
When you're playing any casino game, there are going to be times when some improbable scenarios arise. It could be the house getting 3 blackjacks in a row, or zero coming up 5 times in a row in roulette.
Are Online Blackjack Casinos Rigged
These freak occurrences tend to be when people start to cry foul and claim that games are rigged. This is actually called variance.
Variance is ever present in casino games but is highlighted by seemingly non-random instances. For example, the odds of a zero landing in roulette is 1 in 37 attempts given that there are 37 numbers. But this doesn't mean that zero will land 1 in every 37 spins, does it?
It could be that 1,000 spins are made and zero never occurs, but then it lands on 20 out of the next 50 spins. This would mean that zero has landed 20 times in 1050 spins, which is the same as 1 in 52.5 spins, which isn't far out, and if you played a much larger sample of spins it would level out even closer.
When people see these seemingly impossible patterns it's because of short term variance and comes down to luck and timing. Nothing more.
Still not Convinced?
Gta Online Blackjack Is Rigged
Well, there are other online options if you still don't trust these automated machines. The most obvious choice is that of live casino games.
These are real games being played on physical machines by a human dealer. They are filmed and streamed live to your computer or mobile from various different camera angles. It's like playing at an actual casino but from the comfort of your own home.
Live casino games are played manually so do not use RNGs and are totally down to the luck of the draw. The results could be just as erratic or seemingly ‘rigged', but they would at least offer you peace of mind if you don't trust computers to work with algorithms, or if you are sceptical of online gambling in general.
