Are Online Casinos Fair – 2024 Guide

Many old-school gamblers never thought that online casinos will ever take off. Skeptics were clamoring about the inability to regulate online gambling, not to mention taking out all the thrill of walking into the traditional casino with all the neon lights and sounds of coins spitting into a slots’ trays. And then the main issue came to light, the issue of trust. How can players be sure that online games are not fixed? To better understand whether online casinos rig the games, we explored the way they operate in the first place.

The Basics

The majority of players are quite happy with their online gambling experience saying that it’s more or less the same thing as playing in the brick-and-mortar casinos. However, even they can’t help but wonder if the games are rigged. The truth is, all casino games, online or not, are created in a way to always give the house an edge. Does this mean that they are rigged? No. Casinos are businesses like any other, designed to make a profit, and the house edge is supposed to facilitate profitability.

In other words, the odds are always stacked against the player, it’s just the nature of the business. Truth be told, in the past, a couple of online gambling companies have been accused of fraud and they have been shut down. Since then things have changed, and if you stick to the legit businesses like Pennsylvania online casinos, there is no need to worry about games being fixed.

Blackjack, Roulette, and Slots

Some canny players tried counting cards in Blackjack to gain an advantage against the house. In online gambling, this option is completely eliminated, with house winning every time. To which extent this will happen, depends on the player’s skill. Some formulas showed that against an experienced player, the house has around 0.5% advantage, and against the beginner, this goes up to 3%. This is not considered rigging.

The roulette wheel in a traditional casino can be easily fixed. Any employee knows how to tamper with it easily. On the other hand, sometimes the machine suffers a glitch, and this is when clever players take advantage of it and place bets accordingly. However, online roulette is impossible to rig, since they work by “Return to player” percentage.

This is also a case with slots. Online gambling games are always programmed to have a “Return to player” percentage over an indefinite amount of time. It is not much, and often. Although it might seem like the game is fixed, this practice is actually perfectly legal.

RNG

Random number generator or RNG is a software that consists of complex algorithms in order to generate random number outputs. The complicated technology of RND determines every winning number on roulette, slot combinations, and every card dealt in Blackjack. Meddling with this system will give the house an unfair advantage. Physical, traditional, casinos have auditors that check their equipment occasionally and randomly. In online casinos, these auditors analyze the data and investigate any abnormalities. This system is supposed to give players a sense of security and trust just like they would have in a regular casino.

The Players’ Misconceptions

Losing twenty times in a row doesn’t mean that the game is rigged. This is bound to happen since the good and bad streaks are just the natural product of randomness. Let’s say a player is rolling dice and he gets number 5 ten times. The eleventh time, the player thinks that he must get some other number this time because it “their turn” or “it’s impossible” to get number 5 again. This is the players’ delusion. The dice has no memory, it just rolls and the randomness takes its course. Dice is a dice, and it can land any way every time. Believing otherwise is an illusion, not scientific. Seeing patterns in everything is in human nature, however, gambling is mostly just pure luck.

Blockchain Technology

It’s not only used in cryptocurrencies, but also in online gambling extensively. In the blockchain, games use a decentralized network that is 100% secure since there is no way to change transactions on the chain. If you have doubts about online gaming, this might be a way to go.

SSL

Secure Sockets Layer, or SSL, converts information that we enter into code using mathematical functions. The vast majority of online gambling websites use SSL in order to give their users a sense of security. The ones that don’t expose all of our private information like bank accounts, credit card numbers, etc. This technology does not affect gambling directly, but it goes towards websites’ professionalism and integrity showing their players that they are a legit business.

Terms and Conditions

All online casinos are regulated by official government bodies that require them to have accreditations and licenses. Players should always check if an online casino has a license to protect themselves from fraud. Recently, unfair bonus terms and conditions were enforced to protect players, including banning casinos to force players to play multiple times before being able to withdraw their money, and that any restrictions in the game must be disclosed loud and clear. This gave players a feeling of confidence in online gambling since now they don’t have to navigate through confusing terms trying to figure out their rights in an online casino.

Gambling should be a fun and relaxing activity. Choosing to gamble from the comforts of your home shouldn’t deprive players of a fair and honest game. Gamblers have to keep in mind that casinos are there to make money for themselves, it’s not free-for-all enterprise. At the same time, leaving players with a feeling that they have been ripped off is just bad for business. Just like any other company that provides service, casinos’ bread and butter are returning customers. That’s why they compete for players’ trust and affection. Many of them have loyal gamblers who visit their websites regularly which is the main goal from the beginning. Is the game fair or rigged? It’s fairly rigged from the get-go.