Is Online Roulette Fixed
But the answer you're really looking for is no. How does online roulette work? When I say that the roulette wheel is fixed, I do not mean this in a way that will have an effect on your probability of winning at the table. The first online roulette games were single-player games run by software. No other players could spectate, and it’s easy to see how doubts and conspiracy theories about fixed online roulette games could creep in. This also goes some way to explaining the boom in live casino games like live roulette. 3 Good reasons why roulette is not rigged.
Virtual casinos are all the rage these days. The ease of access, incredible graphics, and many bonuses have contributed to its popularity. Fans of gambling from all over the world flock to them like flies to honey. But a considerable number of people are still skeptical about gambling online. It would seem really easy to program the game in such a way that you can never win. Can online live roulette with a live dealer be fixed too? Read on to find out.
Is online casino roulette fixed or completely random? If you are going to play online casino roulette, there are mainly two ways. In a first way, you can be part of a live game that is going on in a live casino somewhere. This is called live dealer roulette.
Is Online Live Roulette Fixed?
While betting online is incredibly popular, plenty of people maintain cautious distance. This is because they’re usually skeptical of the authenticity of virtual casinos. How do we know that they aren’t sent up in such a way that winning is virtually impossible? What if you’re never dealt with a winning combination of cards? What if the live roulette wheel to programmed to land on any combination but your selection?
Online Live Casino Versus Land-based Casino
At a land-based casino, you can actually witness these things being carried out. You can see the deck of cards being shuffled, or how the dealer spins the wheel. A lot less room for shady business, right? Well, that’s where you’re wrong. Land-based casino games are, in fact, a lot easier to rig when compared to virtual ones? Surprised to hear this? We were too.
Online casino games, live roulette included are powered by a random number generator. That is based on an algorithm that generates a random combination of numbers that is impossible to predict or predetermine beforehand. And now, with the option of live dealers, you can play these games in real-time, and even interact with dealers. With live dealers, your outcomes are actually influenced by real dealers as opposed to a random number generator.
Success Of Live Casinos
Additionally, online casinos are businesses. They, like any other company, would want their customers to return. How possible would that be if they went around rigging live online roulette games willy nilly? A returning, loyal customer is every company’s most profitable asset, and no online casino would risk losing a regular user by rigging their games.
Furthermore, most online casinos are licensed and regulated. This means that their live roulette games are powered by legitimate, verified software. Besides, online casinos make more than enough money from their users by being completely transparent. It’s on you to make sure that the platform you’re betting with is trustworthy and not just after your money. Fixing their games would be a lot less beneficial in the long run.
It is true, however, that casinos, both land and virtual, have a house edge. But this doesn’t imply that their games are fixed, it just means that the casino has an advantage over the customer. This means that you have more chances of losing your bet against the casino. This has to be the case, or many of them would have gone out of business years ago.
A common question amongst both new and experienced players is whether or not online casinos are 'rigged' or fixed in some way. This is also a question that gets asked about once every other day on Yahoo answers. So we thought it was high time to answer it.
Before we start, we should point out that by their very nature all casinos games have a payout that is lower than the theoretical 'full odds' of the game (resulting in the 'house edge'). This fact is no secret and one that is not hidden by the casinos - it is also how casinos, both online and brick and mortar, stay in business. This topic has already been covered in the previous article, which you can read here.
With this in mind, when we talk about a casino being 'rigged' we mean one which operates outside of the laws of probability - ie: the outcomes of a game, rather than the payouts, are not as we would expect. For example, if you were to roll a dice 100 times and each time the dice rolled a '6', there is a strong chance that the dice is fixed in some way.
So what about online casinos? Most people that complain about the legitimacy of an online casino do so after a string of losses - either a large number of spins on a slot machine without a significant win, or a run of loses at the blackjack or roulette table. But do these loses related to some kind of manipulation of the game?
For roulette, many players scream 'fraud' when faced with a run of 10 reds in a row whilst they're betting on black - but does this point to a fixed game, a statistical anomaly or a relatively common occurrence? The odds of losing 10 bets on black in a row, which includes both spins that are 'red' as well as spinning the green zero, can be calculated as follows:
The probability of losing one spin is 19/37 - there are 37 numbers on a single zero roulette wheel and 19 of them would result in you losing your 'black' bet (18 reds + 1 green zero).
The probability of losing two spins in a row can be calculated by taking the odds of losing one spin and multiplying it against itself:
19/37 x 19/37 = 1 in 3.79 (or P = 0.26)
Similarly the probability of losing 10 spins in a row can be calculated by taking the odds of losing one spin and multiplying it by itself 9 times, which is written as:
19/37 ^ 10 = 1 in 784 (or P = 0.0013)
To put this in perspective, this means that if you were to spin the roulette wheel ten times in a row and then repeated this set of 10 spins another 783 times (for a total of 784), you would expect one of those spin sets to be all losses.
A one in 784 occurance isn't really that rare at all, in fact you have much better odds of facing a run of 10 consecutive losses at the roulette wheel than you do of correctly picking 4 numbers on the lottery (1 in 1,032).
Is Live Online Roulette Fixed
Please note: The odds quoted above are for a full set of 10 spins before any of the spins have occurred. If you have already spun to nine losses, the probability of losing the next spin is 19/37. Chance has no memory and the numbers that have come up previously have absolutely no influence on the next number. If you need this principle explained, read this article.
If players were faced with such a run at a brick and mortar casino, they would likely accept it as 'bad luck'. But because an online casino is essentially a graphical representation of a computer generated random number, people tend to be a bit quicker to jump to the conclusion that a game is fixed.
In reality, the games at a reputable online casino are exactly the same as the ones you would find at a brick and mortar casino. In fact many online casinos actually offer a higher payout percentages (RTP) than their land based brothers - a perk that can be offered thanks to the reduced overheads of not needing to have a physical presence.
Is Online Roulette Rigged
A final point to consider is that casinos (both online and offline) do not need to be rigged to ensure themselves a long term profit - this is acheived by the house edge. What a casino does need is volume - the more bets a casino takes, the more profit they will make. A casino where everybody loses simply isn't fun - and if the gaming experienced offered by a casino isn't fun, most players wont return. In this respect, a fair game is much better for business.
Obviously we are not saying that all online casinos are 100% honest - there are people in the world that have questionable morals and there is a chance that some of these people probably do run rigged online casinos. But if you stick to reputable licensed online casinos you can ensure that you're getting a fair game.
The following simple advice should help you find a safe, trustworthy online casino:
- Stick to large well known brands that are regulated in the UK such as Bet365.
- Play at casinos powered by trusted online casino software, such as Microgaming or NetEnt.
- Look for proof of third party audits of a casinos payouts and random number generators.
- Use guides, such as the one found on this site, to get recommendations of reputable online casinos.
Finally, remember that casino gambling is a form of entertainment that comes with a cost. In the long run, the house really does always win - so play for the thrill and enjoyment, but never bet with any money that you can't afford to lose.