So, in a nutshell, casino slots are rigged to make sure the casino makes a profit, but that does not mean you can’t win on any given gaming session. Gaming commissions would never allow casinos to run games you can’t win, nor would it be good for business. This is a portion of your bet that goes towards the operation of the online casino. All internet casinos are honest that fact, and it is public knowledge. So, when we refer to casinos being rigged, we are talking about illegal actions that casinos take that disadvantage the player. Roulette games are easier to rig offline than online, but when they exist online it is most often that the entire casino system is rigged, rather than the roulette game specifically.
You know the feeling. You get a roulette bonus, all seems to be going well, and you’re stacking up chips. Then, you start playing with your own money, and your fortunes change.
This scenario happens to everyone at least once or twice. It’s enough to make most players ask: “Is online roulette rigged?”
In this piece, I’m going to explain to you that online roulette is rigged, but not in the way you think it is. I’m also going to ease your mind and reassure you that there isn’t some evil casino genius interfering with the game algorithms, at least not at legit roulette casinos.
Is Roulette Rigged?
If you look at Reddit posts about roulette or at posts on other gambling forums, you’re going to find a lot of people who believe that online casinos are scams. Many posters are 100% convinced that online roulette is programmed to screw them. If you read enough of these opinions, they can be convincing.
I’m not going to tell you that every online roulette game is legit. There are scam casinos, some we have added to our casino blacklist, and they will rinse you for every cent they can.
What a lot of these forum posters are suffering from is called “gambler’s remorse.” They’ve lost, they can’t accept it, and they’re looking for someone to blame. Gamblers can be superstitious and paranoid. And when they lose money, especially at a new online casino they have never played at, they can start drawing irrational conclusions.
How can I be so sure? I’m going to explain to you how I know online roulette isn’t rigged most of the time.
Random Number Generators
There’s a great, in-depth post on Random Number Generators here. You can read that if you want to know the full details on how game outcomes are determined.
If you don’t have the time, I’ll briefly summarize it for you here. Random Number Generators (RNGs in industry parlance) are computer algorithms which spit out millions of numbers per second. Each number is associated with a game outcome. In roulette’s case, that game outcome is a number such as 10, 18, or 32. Each number has an equal chance of being chosen on each spin.
As soon as you click “spin,” the program selects one of the numbers which the random number generator has created. There are even Provably Fair games which you can use to check that no funny business has occurred. These use Bitcoin technology such as hashing, and let you check game outcomes for fairness.
You should also remember one important thing: The casinos do not control the Random Number Generators. Third-party software companies such as Microgaming program them. More often than not, they’re tested by an independent third-party organization like eCOGRA. They don’t work for the software firms and have no incentive to certify their games fair.
Online Betting Licenses
The second thing to consider is the online gambling licenses a casino has. It’s true that some of these aren’t worth much, but there are others which are. For example, if a casino has a gaming license from Malta or the UK, that’s a sure sign its games are legitimate.
These countries have a vested interest in keeping things fair. They generate a substantial portion of their tax revenue from online gambling. They can’t afford to license rogue casinos and lose that hard-won trust. The UKGC, for example, conducts its own random tests of casino games. If you believe that both the third-party testing companies and the national governments which issue licenses are in on rigged online roulette games, it may be best to lay off gambling for a while.
If you’re playing a Microgaming roulette game, or a game by any other reputable provider and the casino has a legit gambling license, you can be sure the games are not rigged. It’s much more likely that you’ve experienced a natural losing streak. All experienced gamblers will tell you that this can and does happen.
My Own Experience and Testing
I didn’t want this post based only on trusting big-name companies and organizations. While I know for a fact that they can be trusted since I work in this industry, I understand that some of you won’t have that same level of trust.
Therefore, I decided to put online roulette to the test. I played 500 spins on a game of European roulette to see if it was truly random. I placed random even-money bets worth $100 per spin.
Please Note:The results are as you would expect them to be. There’s no probabilistic difference between the number of red/black or odd/even spins. There are tiny percentage differences between these, with the zero appearing 4.2% of the time.
For this test, I was using popular online software and was placing red or black bets. The only thing that immediately jumps out at me is that the number 20 came up 4% of the time, and both 16 and 30 came up more than 4% of the time. Some players would call these “hot numbers” and advise you to bet on them, but I believe it’s just an anomaly and, over enough spins, these numbers wouldn’t appear more than any other number.
Are Live Dealer Roulette Games Rigged?
We’ve ruled out the idea that most online roulette games are rigged, but what about live dealer games? Wouldn’t it be easier to run a crooked roulette wheel from a game studio?
The answer is the same. There are rigged live roulette games at scam casinos, but if you stick with the legit ones like Evolution Gaming, that’s not the case. These guys didn’t build multinational businesses which hold UKGC and Malta gaming licenses by behaving like criminals.
As a matter of fact, live dealer roulette games are even less likely to be rigged than electronic games. There are often dozens of players watching at any given time, you can see what the dealer is doing, and it’s just so much harder to fix a live game than it is to slip something shady into an invisible game algorithm.
Live dealers from reputable companies are not:
- Using a brake under the table to stop the wheel and make sure the majority of people lose.
- Spinning the wheels at different speeds/forces to make it more likely that certain numbers will land.
- Flicking the ball, dropping it from a certain height, or using weighted/magnetic balls to make sure a certain game outcome occurs.
I’ve seen these accusations online. It’s ridiculous to think that award-winning companies like NetEnt are doing this. I don’t know what else to say about it than that.
Here’s a list of legit live dealer roulette firms. I can guarantee you that their games are not rigged:
- Evolution Gaming
- Extreme Live Gaming
- Ezugi (owned by Evolution)
- Authentic Gaming
- Playtech
- Microgaming
- NetEnt
As for the others, I’m not saying they’re not legit. I’m just not going to put my reputation or the reputation of LegitGamblingSites.com on the line to recommend them yet.
Where can you play these live roulette games? At one of our top-rated casinos, of course.
The One Way Which Roulette Games Are Rigged
Remember how I said at the beginning of this article that roulette is rigged, but not in the way you think it is? I meant that. It’s not rigged in a way where the casino is cheating, fixing spins, and conning you. However, the casino does have a built-in mathematical advantage. It’s called the house edge.
The roulette house edge depends on the variant you’re playing. You always have slightly worse odds in American roulette because of the double zero. You can learn all about the different roulette variants here.
The main point to remember is this—roulette is fixed in the sense that the casino has a mathematical advantage which ensures it will make money over the long run. You didn’t honestly believe they were running these games for the good of their health, did you?
In that sense, online roulette is fixed. It’s unbeatable over a long period. However, in the sense of “these guys changed the rules when I started betting with real money,” it isn’t. The only way that’s possible is if you’re playing at a rogue casino. You won’t find any of those recommended on this site.
Conclusion
Hopefully, you can now see that the vast majority of online roulette games are not rigged. Third parties which have no incentive to scam you decide game outcomes and my own analysis proves that at least one major casino software company is running fair games. You’ll have to trust that the same game testers and regulators that keep these roulette games fair are doing their job with the rest.
Don’t believe the guys and gals who always bet too much then rant online. Bet within your means, play legit online roulette games and remember that the casino always has a slight advantage. With these practices, you’ll have an enjoyable and honest online gambling experience.
A major concern for many players when they walk into a casino or decide to sign up and play online poker or casino games at any of the many sites around the Internet is whether they can trust the establishment to operate in a fair manner. After all, none of us will sit down at a private game if we feel one of the players or the host was going to have an unfair advantage due to some preplanned strategy to reduce our odds of winning.
We all know that the casino or the house is going to get its take. We all know that many games are set up so that the house will win over the long haul, but we’re talking about something more direct.
Is Online Gaming Rigged?
Online gaming sites are businesses. Their ultimate goal is to make a profit while engaging their customers, so they come back and invest more time and money in the game. Allowing their customer to enjoy the game requires the players feel safe and protected. Laws and regulations have been put in place to ensure the games are run ethically and legally.
Because the goal is to make a profit and because not every player can win every game, suspicions have been brought to light that the games are rigged. Some of the more popular theories for proof include the number of bad beats, the idea that wins are structured to keep people playing longer [if lesser-quality players win a few games, the idea is they’ll stay around longer in hopes of winning again], and hands are dealt in such a way to increase the size of the pots to entice players and to bring a larger yield to the casino.
While the accusation is that games are set up in a way that the player never wins, the truth is the casino must have an advantage, or they will go out of business. A house edge, however, does not indicate a game is rigged. In addition to the randomness programmed into the game, there can also be streaks of bad luck that will affect individual players. Even when the hands don’t feel random, this is no indication of a rigged game.
Historically, there have been instances of rigged games. In January 2013, Reel Deal and Hi/Lo Gambler were found to be running coin flip games that were not offering a fair deal to players. Despite advertising a 100% payout to players (which indicates no advantage or cut for the casino). As it turns out, the payout was only 96%.
Legally, this indicated fraud. The office as discovered when a player played a free play mode and was offered a fair game. Once she changed to a money game, she logged her results. After playing tens of thousands of hands of Hi/Lo Gambler, she gave the logs to her brother who analyzed them. He concluded the game was not paying her as it should.
Blackjack naturally has a mathematical percentage that favors the house, although the payout percentage varies by the skill level of the blackjack player. Online games use random number generators (RNGs) to ensure their odds match the payout of land-based casinos. The mathematical analysis should indicate the payout will average over time.
The most regular accusations of rigged games occur around card rooms. The feeling is that poker tables are rigged to improve profitability, such as when higher-than-natural odds are given to inexperienced players. Alternatively, an advantage can be provided to skew all-in scenarios for the underdog. A theory is that odds that should fall 78-22 would be changed to 80-20. However, such a scam would be too easily detected. In that case, odds could be shifted for a player that called an all-in versus the player who bet the all-in. This also may be too easy to detect. Another option is that non-all-in hands would be altered for the player who called the bet.
The ramifications of this are obvious. It allows a player to have inside information that would not be available to a player any other way. An understanding of gameplay and betting patterns will allow an observant player to realize when this form of rigging might be taking place.
In fact, this is exactly what happened during a tournament at Absolute Poker back in 2007, when observant players questioned the tournament winner’s gameplay and instigated an investigation which led to the uncovering of a scandal in which online players were cheated out of up to $1 million.
Security and preventing rigged games
Audited by government authorities
First of all, any online casino that is publically traded undergoes tremendous scrutiny. They are continually reviewed by government officials and 3rd parties to ensure that all their online casino games are fair and that all of their random number generators are in fact that – random. All of these online casinos are forever dealing with government agencies to ensure compliance with the rules and regulations of operating a white listed casino.
Are Indian Casino Slots Rigged
Good Reputation
Are Online Slots Rigged
If you are unsure of which casinos have a good reputation, ask your friends and family who play, and you will likely get plenty of information on sites that have a poor reputation and those that have a better reputation. Stick with those who have good word of mouth from people you trust.
Good PR
Are Casino Slot Machines Rigged
Lastly, one has to realize that it is actually in the best interest of these online casinos to have big winners. It gives them great PR and word of mouth advertising.
Independent Testing
They undergo independent testing for game fairness and random number generation.
More than casino sites, poker sites have a higher than average chance of collusion, although no higher instance of the site being rigged. Collusion occurs when players converse outside of gameplay to share information about their hands. This type of cheating in online poker does cause at least moderate concern. The fact is, this kind of fraud would be easy enough with IM clients or phone use.
The era of super users and cheating scandals orchestrated by operators is likely behind us, but players should still be alert and watch for suspicious activities by operators.