Nowadays more and more players are migrating from land casinos to online casinos. Even though a trip to Las Vegas is still a very exciting idea, some
regular players prefer to play safe at home than have to go to a casino every time they feel like playing a slot game, a game of poker,
blackjack, or any other.
Online casinos give every player in the world a chance to have all the fun of a great casino in the palm of their hand (or on their computer screen). But the online world, even as a part of our normal daily lives, still gives people a “bad feeling” as it's easier to trust something that you have in front of your eyes (like a casino dealer or a real-life slot machine) than a virtually created environment that resembles a casino game of any kind (live or not).
So, it is very common to see players ask themselves this question:
are these games rigged? Especially when they are having a “bad luck” moment in the game and start losing money instead of winning.
Today at Casino Bonuses Now we will provide you with facts about online casinos, and their games and we will provide you with the answer to this never-ending question of whether these games are rigged or not.
Random Number Generator (RNG)
In gaming, the
RNG represents a series of (random) numbers that will determine the outcome of a game, a spin or a hand of blackjack for example. The RNG is a system that was created to prevent players from “cheating” at the game to get all their winnings from themselves but this system can be that “pain in the ass” that will make most players think that the games that they are playing are against them to make them lose.
So, in the end, online games (and games in general) can be summed up in two words: numbers and probability. We, humans, tend to see and look for patterns everywhere and every time; however, this does not mean that the pattern is there. We look for these patterns to have a better understanding of how things work.
For example, the
odds of a coin landing on a head is 1/2 and the same goes for the odds of landing on tails (another 1/2 chance) so, if you would make 10 different tosses with the same coin, mathematically you will get that 5 out of 10 times it landed on tails and the other five times it landed on heads, but ask yourself: is impossible that all of the 10 times the coin landed on the same side?
The answer is simple: is improbable yet not impossible, this means that it can happen but it will be a very rare case; now imagine the same scenario for a player that is trying to get a jackpot on a certain slot game that counts with a lot more variables than head and tails.
Every event on the online slot games is an independent event, which means that previous results will not interfere with further results, but with this scenario, it is almost an impossible task to get a real jackpot, so, in order to give the player better odds at a game, the developers of that game include several features like a bonus round, wild cards and any other creative way to increase the player’s win rate.
When the odds work against you
On the other hand, if we just use common sense (and by the fact that we all know how casinos work in real life) we will soon realize that they don’t need to rig their games to get the bigger piece of the cake.
You might be familiar with the phrase “The only way to make sure that you win at a casino is to open your own casino”. Because, let’s face it, even though casino games are fun and exciting; Casinos (doesn’t matter if they’re online or not) are still a business like any other and as a business, they want to make sure to have earnings while entertaining their customers.
Even the concept behind a casino itself is random and unknown, but fighting against the odds and still being able to get a jackpot it’s what makes casino games so exciting because be honest, nobody likes a game (for too long) when they always win.
Random Number Verification: what the law has to say about this.
If you are still not convinced about RNG and casinos “taking this seriously” then you should know that gambling laws are here to support you. Before a casino can go out to the market with a valid gambling license they must first complete a series of rigorous tests to prove their fairness and get their gambling license.
There are even companies that dedicate their efforts to auditing the RNGs of any game that comes out in order to avoid a real rigged game on the site because even though most online casinos are not rigged at all, there are still a lot of casinos are scams and a bad place for your money.
Another important thing that you must know is that many games (like Microgaming games) publish their RTP numbers. RTP stands for Return to player, this is a percentage number that represents the amount of money that will be returned to the player on a specified number of spins (usually thousands of them), our advice is that when you play a game you look for their RTP and the higher it is the better odds you will have on that specific game; please remember that RTP varies from game to game.
If you want to know this and more details about your favorite games, here on Casino Bonuses Now we have the best and most complete list regarding online slot games and online casino games in general, you can find them at our “Games” and “
Slots” sections at the top of this site.
What do Land Based Casinos say about RTP Numbers?
Finding the RTP number of a specific online game is as the saying goes “easy peasy lemon squeezy” as most of the time this information will be provided by the company that created the game and it’ll be shown on the casino, on the case that you can find it anywhere you can always use
Casino Bonuses Now as your guide in this confusing times.
However, on the other hand, looking for this same number in land casinos will be like finding a needle in a haystack. The only reason for this is that real-life slot games don’t have a uniform payback across every casino. Instead, the developers of the game allow casinos to select their
payout percentage based on a list of options. So, in the end, you will need to play the same game on different casinos and see which one of them gives the best results for you… or you can just play the same game on your favorite online casino with an RTP number that can be easily checked here on CBN.
eCOGRA was once a well-known auditing service but it was more an internal thing for mainly
Microgaming casinos.
4 facts about online gambling that you must know!
- Over 70% of the casino’s industry profit comes from online slot machines: Online slot machines are so popular nowadays that you can find thousands of online casinos that only offer these kinds of games or that feature exclusive bonuses, promotions, and even games with slot machines at their center. It is really unlikely that a company that develops such popular games will risk its name and position just to rig a game and earn a bigger profit.
- You can’t count cards in online Blackjack: even if counting cards can be easily done with a lot of practice and patience, the objective of counting the cards on a deck gets countered with a deck that is shuffled every hand, as it takes no time or effort from a computer to do this process on every hand.
- Online casinos have loyalty and VIP programs as regular casinos have: one great way that online casinos have to compensate players for playing at their casino (and sometimes losing money too…) is to invite them to special programs that will give them additional perks, prizes, and rewards for the time that they spend at the casino.
- Several regulatory organizations provide casinos with licenses: as we have mentioned before, any casino that wants to have a completely legal business must have a valid gambling license from one or several of the following online licensing authorities: Alderney, Costa Rica, Gibraltar, Kahnawake, Malta, and the United Kingdom. There are a few more organizations, but these are the most common ones.
What to look for when looking for a safe online casino?
Before signing up for an online casino you must first make sure that that place is safe for both your money and personal information. The first thing that you must look up is the casino license, we recommend that you verify if
their license is valid and still active; to do this you just need to click on their license’s hyperlink, check their license’s information on Google or you can simply come to Casino Bonuses Now and look for our review about that casino, there we will indicate you if you should play or not at that casino as you will get the information that you are looking for plus every relevant detail about the casino, their games, their bonuses and promotions and many more.
The best way to recognize a casino as safe and trustworthy is by checking if they are licensed and regulated by one of the following organizations: Malta, Gibraltar, and/or the United Kingdom.
It's highly recommended that you take your time and do research about the casino that you are about to join, remember that if you come across a scam or rigged casino your personal information and
your money are at stake!
Another great recommendation (though it might be boring, but is a necessary evil) is to check the casino’s privacy policy, especially the parts that talk about what would happen to your personal information once you handle it for them, make sure that they will not give that delicate information to any third parties.
Once you have done that research you can start worrying about the casino’s bonuses, available games, loyalty or
VIP programs, customer service/casino live chats, etc. But once again, you can have all of this information at the palm of your hand right here on Casino Bonuses Now, just make sure to check the “Casinos” and “Bonuses” sections at the top of this site.
Sleuth Sites: Casinomeister
Some companies and organizations dedicate their time and effort to go a bit further than just giving a review about a casino or a game; these organizations work to provide the best information about the legality of a certain casino or the fairness of a game.
The most popular of these organizations are, without any doubt the sites known as
Casinomeister (casinomeister.com) and
ThePOGG (thepogg.com). These organizations represent a global reference for both players and webmasters, so, if you ever find a casino that is blacklisted by any of those organizations, then, you should not give any sort of information to those sites as you can be assured that you will get rigged or scammed. If anything these are some frequently asked questions at thepogg.
These organizations also explain the reasons behind black-listing a casino or a game, the most common reason is the lack of a valid license (some online casinos start their services without one in the first place) and the other most common reason is that despite having everything in order with the law, many casinos uses their terms and conditions as a way of creating a legal labyrinth that ended with players that did not receive the money that they fairly won because some fishy clause on their T&C.
If you find a casino that rigs their players or that is operating without a valid license you can always make a report to the correspondent gambling authorities like the UKGC (United Kingdom Gambling Commission or see UKGC casinos) for example.
Final thoughts and conclusions
So, what is the answer to the big question: Are online casinos rigged? The answer is that
most of them are not rigged or are trying to scam you in any way as they have proven to players, webmasters, and legal organizations their fairness and safety. But there are still a few online casinos (compared with the total number of online casinos) that are trying to scam or rig their players.
The recommendation that we give you at Casino Bonuses Now is that always check a casino before deciding to spend your money or give any personal information at it. You should check about the casino’s license and terms and conditions; if you want, you can read our reviews about almost any online casino and online games so that you won’t have to go through the process of looking at the information for yourself!
Check out our
recommended online casinos here!
