Grand Theft Auto V Blackjack Tables Are Rigged

Rigged casino games are a fear shared by many gamblers. Some people gamble with a constant paranoia that the casino is trying to rip them off.

These fears aren’t totally unfounded because, as I’ll cover later, casinos do occasionally rip off their players. Some online gambling sites and establishments are so desperate that they’ll do anything to win.

You wouldn’t think, however, that you’d need to worry about getting cheated at a video game casino. After all, this isn’t real money gambling.

But a popular Twitch streamer recently found out that you can’t trust the house anywhere. A dealer in Grand Theft Auto 5 roleplay (GTA 5 RP) stole his chips!

As you’ll see below, this isn’t part of the game’s plot either. Instead, the 128-bit dealer was breaking standard casino rules the money. You can read about this entertaining incident below and learn about the times when real casinos have cheated gamblers.

Watch Your Chips in GTA’s Casino

RockStar Games made gaming headlines in early 2019 upon announcing that they’d be opening the Los Santos casino GTA 5.

The announcement didn’t exactly provide many details; however, it did set players up to enjoy gambling action within one of the most-popular video game series ever. The casino officially launched for the main GTA 5 game in July 2019 and became available on the online roleplaying version in late February 2021.

Opening soon: A luxury casino in the heart of Vinewood… pic.twitter.com/fSM9xXFk23

— Rockstar Games (@RockstarGames) June 13, 2019

Twitch streamer Jaryd “summit1g” Lazar recently decided to pay a visit to GTA’s new gambling hotspot. A former esports pro who competed in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Lazar now streams a variety of games, including DayZ, Escape from Tarkov, and GTA 5.

Summit1g made his way around Los Santos until finding the casino. Here, he tested his skills on the blackjack tables.

During one hand, Lazar managed to draw an ace and jack—good for a natural blackjack. This hand typically delivers an automatic win along with a 3:2 or 6:5 payout, depending upon the table.

However, the dealer committed two mistakes during the hand:

1. They didn’t have a natural blackjack and instead drew for another card, which gave them 21.
2. They took Summit1g’s chips following the hand, acting like he’d lost.

Regarding the first point, the player automatically wins if the dealer doesn’t also have a natural blackjack. Even when the croupier has a natural, the wager is a push and the player’s chips are returned.

Not only did the dealer technically lose to the player on this hand, but they also stole Lazar’s $500 rather than returning the bet.

This double-mistake would never fly in a real casino. In the GTA world, though, the game kept going and the dealer acted as if nothing had happened.

Developers Looking to Fix Casino Glitches

The fact that Summit1g had $500 in chips stolen from him obviously isn’t a big deal. After all, this casino is just a play-money establishment in the GTA-verse.

Nevertheless, a dealer stealing money from gamers is puzzling. Although not seriously annoyed, Lazar did jokingly complain about the incident.

“I lose that? We tied. That’s not – that’s rigged,” he said. “I win with the [hand]. That’s bulls**t. I got blackjack. That’s bulls**t.”

Again, this blackjack hand wasn’t some part of a GTA mission, where a casino cheats the player, who then goes on a murderous rampage to right such wrongs. Instead, it’s one of multiple bugs that have been popping up since Los Santos casino went live in the roleplaying mode.

Luckily, a server developer named Koil is on the task of working out the kinks. Koil assured Summit1g and other gamers that he’d report the problem to Dean, who runs the casino side. He also said that Lazar would be getting his $500 in virtual money back at some point.

Other Times That the House Has Cheated Gamblers

Fortunately, most land-based and online casinos realize that cheating players isn’t good for business. If caught, they run the risk of losing everything.

Nevertheless, GTA 5 RP isn’t the first time that casinos have been caught swindling gamblers. Here are some incidents where the house got too greedy.

Faro Games From the 1800s

Faro is an antiquated casino game that’s no longer available in any casino today. It’s gone the way of discos, CD players, and the Atkins Diet.

However, faro was once the hottest form of gambling in the US. In fact, it comprised virtually all of the American gambling industry in the mid-1800s.

Everybody was playing this game from Washington DC to Wild West goldmining towns. This boom would end, though, on account of casinos’ greediness.

Gambling houses loved the number of patrons that faro brought in. However, they suffered from two problems when offering this game:

1. The house had a very small advantage.
2. Players didn’t need to bet much to play.

Casinos felt that they needed a way to bring in more revenue, so they started cheating in faro. They did everything from stacking the deck to using rigged dealing boxes was in play. Things got so bad that equipment manufacturers started making premade rigged dealing boxes.

After losing so much money, gamblers eventually noticed how badly they were getting ripped off. Faro disappeared from casinos throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s.

GGL Live Blackjack Dealer Caught Cheating

In 2017, a gambler named Michael Morgenstern was playing live dealer blackjack at BetOnline. The latter used the Global Gaming Labs (GGL) software for its live blackjack action at the time.

Morgenstern was betting $100 per hand and recording his session for a YouTube video. He was able to capture a bizarre hand as a result of the recording.

Morgenstern hit with an 11 while the dealer had an 8 upcard. After hitting, he noticed that the dealer reached for the second card from the top.

As you may know, casino dealers are only supposed to deal from the very top.

This move became all the more suspicious when Morgenstern drew a 6 (17 total), while the dealer drew a 10 (18 total) after the illegal maneuver.

Assuming the dealer had dealt the hand like normal, then Morgenstern would’ve won with a 19, and they would’ve lost with 16.

As you can see in this video, the croupier definitely uses a technique called “second dealing.” The latter refers to when a dealer stacks a good card on top of the deck. They then proceed to deal the second card from the top until needing the top card.

It’s unclear what the croupier’s motivation was for second dealing. In any case, it resulted in BetOnline switching their live gaming provider from GGL to Visionary iGaming.

Rome Casino Offers a Faulty Slot

At one time, Rome Casino was one of the more popular US-facing online casinos. Today, it’s a footnote in internet gaming history.

Rome offered a faulty online slot called Diablo 13, which was produced by TopGame. This slot was supposed to offer wild symbols in reels 1 and 5 that were essential to hitting the jackpot.

Players, however, noticed that these wilds never landed on the reels. They complained and Rome support vowed that the issue would be fixed.

Rome Casino management never issued an apology nor explained why they were running a rigged slot. They also didn’t offer to compensate anybody for the troubles.

TopGame, however, proved to be a classier act by apologizing and issuing refunds to affected players. They also broke ties with Rome Casino and got stiffed on $2.85 million that Rome owed them.

As if refusing to pay a software provider and offering rigged slots wasn’t enough, this casino also had terrible payment processing times. Gamblers would often wait months just to receive a small withdrawal.

Conclusion

The developers of the GTA 5 RP servers have some work on their hands. The Los Santos casino dealers appear to be an unsavory bunch that will steal players’ chips after losing to them.

Luckily, this is one cheating incident that’s all in good fun. Jaryd, or “Summit1g,” merely lost $500 in play money rather than anything that he was seriously betting.

The GTA 5 casino incident does prove, though, that you can’t let your guard down anywhere. More importantly, you can’t let your guard down when dealing with real casinos.

You will likely enjoy fair gaming in 99.999% of cases, but some casinos will occasionally pull something—whether it’s intentional or not.