Do online casinos, sportsbooks, poker rooms, and other gaming platforms manipulate their games? Do they rig them to cheat players? Yes and no. Here’s what I mean by that.
Every once in a while, I read or hear something along the lines of “are online gambling games rigged?” Sometimes it’s from a friend, family member, or listener who is new to the online gambling space. Other times, it’s a seasoned player who has witnessed something strange and is now questioning the integrity of certain games or operators.
Today, I want to answer some of the most pressing questions about rigged online casino games, betting scams, and other shady practices that you should know about before wagering your hard-earned money online. Are casino games rigged? The short answer is yes, they have been in the past. But the long answer is more nuanced than that.
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If you think that online casinos rigging their games is a modern phenomenon, think again. Gambling has always been an industry rife with corruption, collusion, and downright criminality. Even though modern regulations have cleaned up the space, removing much of the grime and filth, there are still some bad eggs operating in the shadows. And the best way to avoid running into those unsavory types is to learn the warning signs and educate yourself on how to identify rigged online gambling games.
Are online casino games rigged? That all depends on the operator in question. There are hundreds of safe and secure online gambling sites that would never dream of ripping off their customers. On the flip side, however, there are many rogue casinos, poker rooms, sportsbooks, and other shady operations that use all manners of tricks to separate you from your money. Some use unfair rules to justify withholding your winnings, while others engage in outright fraud and deception. It happens. And until gamblers stop enabling these criminals with their business, it will continue.
Let’s look at some of the dirty tricks the industry has seen over the years and whether casino games are rigged today.
The Monte Carlo Casino’s Ponte Nightmare
The story of rigged online gambling games inevitably begins with non-online examples, simply because the world wide web had yet to come into existence. One such example dates back to 1863 and features the venerable Monte Carlo Casino in Monaco. At the time, the pope-inspired architecture was just a decade old, having been completed in 1856, and its bella figura was without compare. The prince of Monaco wanted a casino that exuded wealth, class, and respectability, and that’s precisely what he got.
Unfortunately, respectability wasn’t front of mind for one group of cheats who concocted a plan to beat the house at baccarat and abscond with as much money as possible. Their scheme hinged on constructing a false bridge, or “Ponte,” in the middle of the Chemin de Fer table.
Here’s how it worked.
The first step was to place a small metal device (the bridge) across the table that could deflect the ball in any direction. This was done during play, so nobody took notice. The ring leader would then signal to a female companion to place a bet of up to 20,000 francs (a huge sum in 1863) on whatever position the bridge happened to direct the ball. Amazingly, the plan worked for several hours, and the couple walked away with tens of thousands of francs.
Of course, their luck couldn’t last, and on the eighth or ninth try, the croupier grew suspicious. Sure enough, he caught the pair red-handed and alerted the authorities. The police showed up and arrested everyone involved, including dozens of patrons who had aided and abetted the thievery by distracting the croupiers and creating diversions.
Today, the Ponte is a part of baccarat lore, often invoked whenever anyone wants to talk about rigged casino games. While the Monte Carlo Casino has since distanced itself from unsavory characters looking to cheat the house, there are still some unscrupulous operators out there who would welcome this level of chicanery. The good news, however, is that modern casinos have security measures in place to detect cheating before it gets too far.
Playtech’s Wonder Woman Slot Featured Exploitative Software
Are online slots rigged? It’s a fair question to ask after seeing some of the dubious practices certain developers have engaged in over the years.
One such example involves the Wonder Woman online slot, which was developed by Playtech shortly after the release of the 2017 DC Comics film starring Gal Gadot and Chris Pine. Like many licensed properties, this game was designed to capitalize on the popularity of the source material and offer fans a chance to spin the reels and win prizes featuring their favorite superheroes.
Free Casino Slots Games You Can Play Online for FunEverything was fine for the first year or so, with players reporting typical win percentages and variance. However, a British woman named Jane Micklefield began noticing some unusual patterns in the software after several hours of play one afternoon. She alleged that the Wonder Woman slot featured an exploitative free spin feature that drained her balance and produced little to no prize payouts despite activating bonus rounds with regularity.
Micklefield took her complaint to the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC), which launched an investigation into the matter.
It turnsp out that Micklefield was onto something. The UKGC found that the Wonder Woman slot did indeed feature a glitch in its free spin feature, causing it to consume cash without producing adequate wins. Once apprised of the situation, Playtech pulled the game from its entire network of online casinos and issued a statement acknowledging the problem. They later released a fixed version of the Wonder Woman slot that no longer suffered from the malfunction.
Was the Wonder Woman online slot rigged? Technically, no. All slot games feature RNG (random number generator) software that randomly determines each spin’s outcome. However, RNG software can malfunction, thereby producing results that appear unfair or skewed. This appears to be what happened here, and while no one lost sleep over the fact that a virtual millionaire had blown through several grand on superhero slot machines, it’s nice to know that regulators were watching out for the little guy (er, gal).
Betsoft’s Gladiator Fight for Honour Had High Payout Irregularities
In 2015, the UKGC investigated another video slot amid allegations that its payouts didn’t jibe with accepted standards of randomness and fairness. The game in question was Betsoft’s Gladiator Fight for Honour, a five-reel fantasy title that promised big bonuses, free spins, and expanding wilds.
Things were going swimmingly until players began sinking countless spins into the game’s Gladiator Challenge Bonus round without emerging victorious. According to tests run by the UKGC, just 1.95% of approximately 400 attempts ended in a top payout of 121x the instigator’s stake. To put that in perspective, standard slots typically offer payouts between 50% and 70%.
Once again, it appears we have a case of rigged online slots.
Betsoft initially pushed back against these findings, claiming that the high payout irregularities weren’t the result of faulty code but rather the luck of the draw. However, the developer eventually folded and withdrew the Gladiator Fight for Honour slot from all UKGC-licensed casinos.
This isn’t the first time Betsoft has found itself in hot water. In 2011, the company settled with the Malta Gaming Authority (MGTA) after it was discovered that the Slots Angels video slot featured a progressive jackpot that didn’t meet the organization’s payout requirements.
PokerStars Freezing Their Competition’s Accounts
Rigged online poker games aren’t hypothetical; they’re very real.
Perhaps the biggest black eye suffered by the online poker industry came in April 2017, when PokerStars was accused of freezing the accounts of several top players in an attempt to blunt their competition at the SCOOP (Spring Championship Of Online Poker) tables.
At issue were the accounts of four top pros: Niklas Heinecker, Fintan Hand, Rainer Kempe, and Ben ‘Sauce123’ Tollerene. These players claimed that they were unable to withdraw winnings or transfer funds to other accounts both during and immediately following the conclusion of the SCOOP series. Each pro had built up substantial balances through prior play and was hoping to parlay those credits into bigger and better games.
However, their plans hit a snag when they discovered that they couldn’t access their coin.
Initially, PokerStars cited various violations committed by each player as justification for freezing their accounts. Hand, for instance, was said to have used multi-accounting software to gain an advantage over his opponents, while Kempe was accused of sharing his account information with a third party. Tollerene was dinged for entering restricted regions, whereas Heineckercken was hit with the catchall “misconduct” charge.
Each pro denied the charges and accused Stars of engaging in anti-competitive behavior. Specifically, they charged that PokerStar was trying to field a weaker team in an expensive high-stakes tournament series and protect its own skin in the freerolls.
In the end, PokerStars was forced to eat crow and apologize to the affected parties. All players were made whole, and PokerStars issued a statement saying that an internal review had shown that the account holds had nothing to do with the upcoming SCOOP events. Each player was also invited to participate in the high roller tournaments, though few chose to take the company up on its offer.
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Dota 2 is a massively popular esports title from Valve Corporation that pits teams of five against one another in epic battles of strategy, skill, and reflexes. Players choose from a massive selection of heroes, each with unique strengths, weaknesses, and abilities, in an effort to destroy the enemy’s base while defending their own.
It’s a lot of fun and a great way to make some money if you happen to be a really good player or have deep pockets.
See, there are two ways to earn currency in Dota 2: You can compete in tournaments or trade on the game’s Steam marketplace. The latter entails buying and selling in-game items like hats, capes, weapons, and other cosmetics that don’t actually confer any competitive benefits upon the avatars that wield them.
Yes, people actually spend gobs of money on digital hats.
The reasoning behind this seemingly irrational practice is known as “digital scarcity.” If only a select few possess a particular item, it becomes an object of desire unto itself. You’re not buying the hat for its utility; you’re buying it because you like having rare things. Got it?
Anyway, back in 2015, several high rollers playing Dota 2 on Bovada’s online casino circumvented the skill-based system that governs success in the game by purchasing expensive items via third-party arbitrageurs. Effectively, these players were able to skip the grind and start trading at the highest levels, giving them an artificial edge over their less-wealthy competitors.
Bovada initially condoned this practice by turning a blind eye to third-party trades conducted between main accounts and tamper-proof reserve accounts. However, when the house finally woke up and realized what was happening, they banned all the users involved and wiped clean their stolen inventories.
BetOnline’s Ponzi Scheme Collapses under the Weight of Its Own Lies
Are online gambling games rigged? If an operator is willing to outright lie to your face, cover up its misdeeds, and prey upon the vulnerable, the answer is yes.
For nearly a decade, a user going by the name “Gerry36” dominated the poker rooms at BetOnline, Bovada, Sportbet, and a half dozen other online gambling sites. Over the years, Gerry36 amassed millions of dollars in winnings across multiple accounts, leading some to accuse the mysterious figure of being a syndicate rather than a single person.
Despite winning at an absurd clip and never experiencing a downswing, Gerry36 continued to grind day in and day out, draining thousands of poker fish dry.
However, all good things must come to an end, and in late 2020, the house of cards that was Gerry36 came crashing down. Using a variety of forensic accounting methods and some old-fashioned detective work, a handful of seasoned grinders concluded that Gerry36 was actually BetOnline’s paid professional, using a Ponzi scheme of his own to dupe thousands of players out of millions in fake winnings.
Free Casino Games You Can Play Online Right NowAccording to the accusers, Gerry36 paid out many of his wins using reserves taken from future deposits made by new players. When these reserves ran low, Gerry36 would go on epic heaters and win everything he needed to keep the lights on at the ‘Online mothership.
The alleged mastermind behind the Gerry36 persona was BetOnline’s former poker manager, Gonzalo 'CrasHvNc' Curia Alvarez.
Twitter sleuths pointed to numerous pieces of evidence to support their theory, including shared IP addresses between the Gerry36 accounts and BetOnline staffers, identical errors in grammar and syntax between the staffers and Gerry36, and the mere impossibility of one person winning so consistently over the course of a decade.
To date, BetOnline has declined to comment on the allegations.
How to Spot a Rigged Online Gambling Game
Are casino games rigged? It’s possible, especially if you sign on with a bad actor in the online gambling space.
So, how can you spot a rigged online gambling game? What are the telltale signs that an operator can’t be trusted?
Here are a half dozen red flags to watch out for when scouting new rooms to grind in or casinos in which to drop your action.
Licenses
All the best online gambling sites hold licenses in reputable jurisdictions that compel them to follow certain regulations and laws.
These licenses serve as seals of approval, letting players know that the site has undergone extensive vetting and been deemed trustworthy by governmental entities with teeth.
Some of the top regulatory bodies include the United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC), Malta Gaming Authority (MGTA), Gibraltar Gaming Commission (GBC), and Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC). If a gambling site holds a license from any of these organizations, you can rest assured that it’s legit.
Audits
Even the best operators in the online gambling space need an outside party to ensure that their games are fair and their practices above board. That’s where auditing companies like eCOGRA, iTech Labs, and Technical Systems Testing (TST) come into play.
These firms run diagnostics on casinos and poker rooms, checking to make sure that their RNG software is functioning properly and payouts are swift and accurate across the board. Any reputable gambling site will provide links to these audit reports on their website or within their terms and conditions sections. If a site doesn’t post its RNG certificates, consider taking your business elsewhere.
Terms and Conditions
I know what you’re thinking: Who has ever won the lottery by buying a ticket from a convenience store located inside a casino? And more importantly, why is that even a thing? Good questions, but they don’t answer the question at hand.
Great Sites Where You Can Win Real Money Playing PokerNo, the lottery/casino example doesn’t quite fit here because those tickets contain their own unique sets of rules and regulations. More to the point, the casino is protected by its gaming license, meaning it can’t outright lie to your face and hope to get away with it.
Still, it’s fascinating to consider what sort of language might exist within those tattered lotto tickets. Would they allow the operator to fudge the numbers if you hit the jackpot? Would they stipulate that winners must give half their haul to a third party? The answers are endless, and thankfully, highly unlikely.
Okay, maybe the lottery/casino comparison doesn’t hold water, but my point remains: You have no way of knowing what the establishment will do if you hit a big win unless it’s spelled out somewhere publicly available. That’s where terms and conditions (T&Cs) come in handy.
Every reputable gambling site will force you to check a box accepting their T&Cs before registering for an account. These documents contain all manner of legalese regarding proper conduct, prohibited jurisdictions, payment methods, and win restrictions. Yes, win restrictions.
Sadly, it’s become somewhat fashionable among rogue casinos to publish clauses within their T&Cs stating that they may withhold payments to winners for any reason or no reason at all. These clauses almost always cite vague phrases like “suspicion of cheating” or “violation of these terms and conditions” without providing specific definitions for what would constitute such actions.
When you see language like this, you’re dealing with an unsafe operator that cannot be trusted with your bankroll. Respectable casinos and poker rooms do not withhold legitimate winnings without recourse or due process. Period.
Player Reviews
As with any other consumer product or service, the best way to gauge the quality of a gambling site is to peruse reviews left by previous customers.
Now, I’m not suggesting that you take every random PostMalone casino endorsement at face value. Celebrities get paid insane sums of money to toss their moral authority to the winds and normalize sketchy gambling sites. Similarly, you can’t believe everything you read on Reddit or other online forums. However, if you see a pattern developing – say, dozens of players complaining about withheld winnings or bot-ified tournaments – it might be time to move along.
Site-specific player reviews can be found at several aggregation sites, including AskGamblers, Pogger, and LuckyCasinoSpins. I will warn you that you’ll find plenty of 5-star ratings and glowing testimonials no matter where you look, as disgruntled players are far more likely to leave negative comments than happy grinders are to leave positive ones. That said, consistent complaints about non-payments, delayed withdrawals, and shoddy customer service merit further examination.
Security Measures
You can judge a book by its cover, particularly when that cover boasts several visible symbols of safety and security.
Reputable online gambling sites will display the logos of all their auditors, regulators, and SSL encryptors somewhere on their home pages. These marks of distinction let players know that they’re dealing with a serious outfit that takes its responsibilities seriously.
Of course, crooked casinos wouldn’t dream of posting their RNG certificates or gaming licenses for all to see, lest their nefarious practices come to light. If a site isn’t proud to wave its credentials around, you probably shouldn’t trust it with your bankroll.
Customer Service
The final way to determine whether online gambling games are rigged is to reach out to a gambling site’s customer service department and gauge their response times and helpfulness.
If you’re met with radio silence or stock replies devoid of actual solutions to your problems, you’re almost certainly dealing with a sketch operation that doesn’t care whether you receive fair games and timely payouts. After all, why go to the trouble of faking RNG software and withholding winnings if you aren’t going to be there to answer your customers’ questions?
I recommend reaching out to any potential gambling homes of choice across at least two different mediums to gauge their consistency. You should test email response times by posing a simple query and timing how long it takes to receive a reply. Live chat functions should be monitored for polite and knowledgeable representatives who can answer basic questions.
Of course, you may encounter long wait times on phone support or impolite representatives on live chat, as these factors can be subjective. However, multiple negative experiences across two different forms of communication are tough to overlook.
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I wish I had a dollar for every time someone asked me, “Are online slots rigged?” or “Is PokerStars rigged?” in online gambling groups and forums. Sadly, many prospective players remain anxious about joining in the fun due to unfounded fears about rigged gambling games.
While it’s true that some bad actors have sullied the online gambling space with their unfair practices and shady business models, the vast majority of reputable brands offering the best online gambling games are entirely trustworthy.
If you stick to well-known operators with strong reputations and licensing from respected regulatory agencies, you stand little chance of becoming a victim of rigged gambling games. Always take the time to read the T&Cs, check player reviews, and contact customer support with any questions or concerns before signing up for an account.
With these tips in mind, you should be able to safely navigate the exciting world of internet gambling without worrying unduly about rigged gambling games.
Footnotes:
- Story of the Wonder Woman slot glitch is courtesy of .
- Details of the PokerStars account holds controversy were culled from a .
- Information about Gerry36 and the alleged BetOnline poker fraud can be found at .
J.W. Paine is one of the most experienced writers at GamblingSites.com. He's written for television and the printed media, and he knows poker first-hand thanks to his years living in Las Vegas.
