5 Times the Casino Cheated Players

Every casino gambler who suffers through long losing streaks becomes suspicious of the house. They may feel that the dealer is rigging games to make them lose more, or that the casino has messed with slots RTP.

Luckily, these fears are mostly unfounded today. Modern casinos operate in heavily regulated markets and have too much to lose by cheating players.

However, the thought of a casino cheating isn’t completely ridiculous. In fact, the house has been caught on more than one occasion ripping off players. You can see five different instances where online or land-based casinos cheated gamblers below.

1 – Rigged Faro Games Throughout the Mid-1800s

If you haven’t heard of Faro, then you shouldn’t feel too bad. After all, this game has been completely out of casinos since the 1980s.

Faro lost its relevancy far before the eighties. It quickly fell out of favor with players after it became a lightning rod for crooked casinos.

Faro got its start in France in the late-17th century. French gamblers needed something to replace the recently banned Basset. They tabbed “Pharaoh” as their new card game of choice.

Pharaoh would soon travel north to England, where it became an instant hit. From here, the English version “Pharo” moved across the pond to the United States.

After undergoing yet another name change to Faro, this game would take the US by storm. Gambling houses from the East Coast to the Wild West offered numerous Faro tables.

Gamblers couldn’t get enough of this game. They loved Faro due to its relatively simple rules and low house edge.

But casinos eventually grow to resent the low house edge. They countered this dilemma by using rigged dealer boxes.

Dealer boxes are supposed to ensure that cards are mixed up and random in between rounds. However, casinos rigged these boxes to where the croupier could see inside of them. The dealer used sleight of hand to ensure that player-friendly cards never actually saw the table.

Faro cheating eventually became common knowledge among gamblers. They started finding other games to play. As a result, Faro became less and less popular until it finally vacated casinos for good.

2 – Venetian Rigs Mercedes-Benz Drawing

The Venetian Las Vegas may not have been caught bilking players through casino games. However, they did get busted for rigging a 2002 prize drawing.

The popular Vegas strip casino wanted to compensate a high-stakes gambler for their heavy losses. So, they rigged a contest that awarded the losing gambler a Mercedes-Benz.

A Venetian executive hid a ticket with the high roller’s name on it in their sleeve. They then pretended to randomly choose a ticket out of a jar before pulling the losing gambler’s name. Two other executives knew about the plan in advance and let it happen.

After discovered that the Venetian cheated in the Mercedes-Benz drawing, the Nevada Gaming Control Board started looking deeper into the matter. They discovered that the casino had also preselected winners for contests that awarded $10,000 and $20,000 worth of free play.

After investigating the matter, the Gaming Control Board leveled a $1 million fine at the Venetian. $663,000 was the penalty for cheating in multiple drawings. The remaining $337,000 went towards covering the Board’s investigation cost.

3 – Amigotechs Runs Faulty Video Poker Games

Amigotechs is an online gaming developer that’s rarely found at internet casinos today. There’s a good reason for the disappearing acts too: they offered faulty video poker games to players on two different occasions.

This saga began in 2011, when a gambler complained about Amigotechs on a forum. They detailed how they logged 922 hands on 50-line video poker, only to never draw a winning hand.

The chances of this event being a random occurrence are zero. After pressure from the gaming community, Amigotechs finally admitted that the 50-line game had a software bug.

Unfortunately, they still didn’t clean up their act. In 2015, another gambler discussed how they played 2 Ways Royals for 560 hands and never got anything better than two pair.

This is another occurrence that’s virtually impossible under normal circumstances. Amigotechs again cried software bug, but gamblers weren’t willing to listen when considering that both bugs heavily favored the house.

4 – Chicago Casinos Feature Rigged Roulette Wheels

Underground casinos were rampant throughout Chicago during the 1920s Prohibition Era. These casinos were owned by none other than the notorious gangster Al Capone.

Capone made his fortune through many unscrupulous ways. One of these ways involved cheating gamblers through roulette games.

These rigged roulette games went unnoticed for nearly a century. However, the Games Room Company discovered a rigged wheel while restoring one of the roulette tables used in Capone’s casinos.

Of course, 1920s Chicago gamblers probably had their suspicions when they lost huge sums of money in mob-run casinos. Restoration experts have confirmed these suspicions years later.

The Games Room Company explained that the rigged wheel worked as follows:

• A leg beneath the table was hollowed out. Two battery packs were hidden inside of this hollow leg.
• Mobsters packed the leg with newspapers to keep the batteries place. The Games Room used the newspapers’ dates to trace this table back to Capone’s casinos.
• The batteries were an important part of an electrical circuit that helped the dealer rig the action.
• The dealer would press a concealed button that caused a pin to rise into the wheel’s field of play.
• The pin would hit the ball, stop its momentum, and cause it to drop into a certain section of the wheel. This section was normally one that caused most/all players at the table to lose.

5 – Virtual Casino Group Scams Players on Bonuses

Real money online gamblers expect a fair shake when they chase bonuses. Otherwise, bonus deals would have little-to-no appeal.

The Virtual Casino Group didn’t get this memo, though, when they started cheating players out of bonuses in the 2000s.

The story involved a $100 no-deposit bonus that a gambler qualified for in 2013. The player used this offer to make $429 through a slots game.

They then used their winnings to start playing table games. However, the gambler quickly realized that their balance had dropped to just $100.

Things got even weirder when the player noticed that their account had a pending withdrawal for $329. The Virtual Casino Group ordered this cashout themselves.

The final straw was when the player logged on the following day and saw that the remaining $100 balance was gone. They had officially been ripped off of all $429 of their winnings.

In addition to bad bonus dealings, the Virtual Casino Group was notorious for poor customer service, unfair bonus terms, and being late with payments. The company eventually sold their assets to the Ace Revenue Group and exited the market.

Why You Don’t Need to Worry About Getting Cheated Today

You can see that some casinos have had no qualms about ripping off players. Luckily, though, you don’t need to worry about such instances today due to the following reasons.

Gambling Regulation Is Heavy

Gaming regulation has become much stricter over the decades. Many states and countries feature strong gaming regulatory bodies that cover markets.

For example, the UK Gambling Commission thoroughly examines every new applicant for their land-based and online gaming markets. They also watch closely over operators to ensure that they don’t take advantage of problem gamblers.

Therefore, casinos have no chance of using gaffed dealer boxes or rigged roulette wheels and getting away with it. They’d quickly get reprimanded for their actions.

Casinos Already Have a Large Enough Advantage

Gambling establishments don’t exactly have to cheat their customers today. After all, they already hold solid edges in most games.

Some casino games especially give the house a big advantage. Caribbean stud (5.22% house edge), American roulette (5.26%), slot machines (5% to 12%), and keno (10% to 30%) are really friendly towards the house.

Of course, casinos could still try boosting their edge through rigged games. But why risk permanently soiling their reputation and drawing multimillion-dollar fines to improve upon their already large edge?

Gamblers Don’t Like Playing at Casinos Where They Lose Big

As mentioned before, many players are already suspicious of casinos. They don’t exactly like revisiting establishments where they lose lots of money.

Casinos might still be able to draw the same players back if they didn’t have much competition. But the gaming market is definitely saturated today.

Gambling venues must walk a fine line between giving themselves a solid advantage without going overboard. Ripping players off isn’t going to accomplish this goal.

Conclusion

In some ways, gamblers’ fears about casinos cheating them are steeped in logic. The 5 instances covered above show that the house has, on occasion, resorted to unscrupulous tactics.

On the other hand, casinos must deal with more regulation than at any other point in history. Most gaming regulatory bodies heavily scrutinize operators to ensure that they abide by strict rules.

It’s still theoretically possible for gambling establishments to cheat players. But they have less to gain by doing so these days.

After all, the punishments for intentionally ripping off gamblers are crippling. In many cases, casinos that are caught cheating never recover.