Monday, June 1, 2009

Debunking all online gambling promises

Anyone who has ever run a google search or "make money fast" or "make $xxx in xx days/hours" or any similar search, will have come across "Cash Professor", "Underdog Wealth Systems" or any number of online gambling services, ebooks, communities and gurus who promise that you can make up to $1000 an hour if you use their system.

It ain't true.

Each system I've looked at (and my eyes are all dry and scratchy because I've been staring at a computer screen for far too long) relies on the idea that the law of averages will eventually work in your favor. This is just plain weird. If the law of averages were perfect, the best you'd be is break even on any given day.
Lets look at systems that use roulette first of all.
On each spin, the chance of the ball landing on either red of black is exactly 50-50 (ignoring the 0 or 00 spaces). If the ball lands on three red spaces in a row, the chances of the next number being black is still 50-50. No single spin is affected by the previous spins, nor are they affected by any future spins.
Theoretically, it is possible to continue to spin and always land on a red number, given the probability of each spin. Just like flipping a coin, heads or tails has the same probability of being the result every single time.

But in fairness I will not argue my point on theory and mathematics alone. I went and spent three hours in an online casino play (no money involved) roulette to prove my theory. The result, after one thousand, two hundred and seven spins was pretty clear. I started with $1000 'play' money, and ended up with $974. Not even break even. And three hours gone from my day. Good thing it was well after business hours, and there were few other things I could have been doing that would have made any money.

On to blackjack. The system: hit to 17. Just like the casino itself.
The theory: The casino makes money hitting to 17, so so should we.
I agree, in theory it should be possible to hit to 17 and earn money. However, the draw of cards means that the number of times you bust or are beaten by the dealer, will roughly equal the number of times you win.
Again, as with roulette, I entered an online casino and played with fake money. No risk, no payout.

The result, after six hundred and nine hands of blackjack, I was up $11.00. And down two hours of my time. Now while I was up at the end of my self imposed time limit, I don't think $5.50 an hour is worth it. Especially considering the minimum amount for a payout in most casinos is greater than $100, and even then, most casinos only have one free payout a month.

So, while it isn't possible to earn a living income in an online casino (through these systems), they do provide a safe and easy way to gamble for entertainment. I would like to stress the "for entertainment" part... there is nothing more dangerous than relying on chance outcomes for revenue and/or a living.

The casino I used for these tests was Bodog Casino, because it looked the most visually appealing, appeared to have the best support network and allowed me to play 'download free' (I have a Mac) and play real-time games without a deposit. So if you want to test any gambling theory yourself, head over to Bodog Casino and play with fake money. Never Assume any theory or system is safe to trial with real cash.

2 comments:

  1. A few years ago i read an article about about playing blackjack at the online casinos. It featured the bonuses they give with first time deposits, like you pay 50 dollars and get 100 to gamble with, but had to play x amount of games to get your money back, then you play to minimize losses and come out with hopefully a little more than what you started, it was like you said, you couldn't make much per hour or total because it was for first time customers, but it was an interesting topic.

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  2. It really is amazing how many people get sucked in by this kind of thing because the fail to read the terms and conditions. Thanks for the reply again :)

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