Online Casinos Expose Crooked Software; Gamning Profits Sink; Gaming on Rise in Florida
Gaming Articles
Studies say software cheats players at 2 online casinos
By Mark Gruetze – pittsburghlive.com
At least two online casinos use software that cheats craps players, two leading gambling statisticians say.
The software by BLR Technologies, based in Costa Rica, detects a player’s bet and increases the chances of a losing roll, according to gambling consultant Michael Shackleford, known as the “Wizard of Odds,” and Eliot Jacobson, operator of Jacobson Gaming, which audits and certifies casino games around the world.
Legends.com and World Wide Wagering (www.wager.dm) use the BLR software in their craps games, A third operator, 5Dimes.com, said it dropped BLR after the studies were posted on Shackleford’s WizardOfVegas.com site.
Rachel Miller, general manager of Legends, said the software used on her site plays fairly. She said the company has invested thousands of dollars in new random number generators to work with the BLR software. She said she could not agree or disagree with the Shackleford and Jacobson studies because they did not test the craps game at Legends. “I guarantee that everything is perfect on our end,” she said.
A spokeswoman for 5Dimes said the company had no comment beyond a statement to Shackleford’s site that it had removed BLR software from its casinos.
“BLR was given ample time to address the concerns of (WizardOfVegas) forum members as well as our direct questions,” the statement said. “No acceptable answers were given, so the casino platform was removed.”
BLR and World Wide did not respond to phone and e-mail requests for comment.
The complaint about the craps software surfaced last month in a WizardOfVegas player forum.
Norman Clem, 66, of Las Vegas said he had been playing craps at World Wide for about a year and was slightly ahead before he suddenly started losing.
“I thought I was just on a bad run. But it never stopped,” he told Player’s Advantage. He documented his play, recording each bet and each outcome in a spreadsheet. From May 14 to Aug. 27, he videotaped 3,200 rolls in which he bet “pass” or “don’t pass,” the simplest bets in craps.
Those bets should win almost 49 percent of the time. Clem said he won 856 times, about 27 percent.
Intrigued by Clem’s postings, Shackleford played craps at 5Dimes, which was using BLR software at the time. He said he bet only the pass line, winning 81 times and losing 247.
“It would have been easier to win the Powerball two out of two times than to be as unlucky as I was,” said Shackleford, who has helped design slot machines for Internet casinos.
Jacobson said he devised a test to see whether the software “would really misbehave.” With his approach, he would win something unless a seven came on the next roll.
“Suddenly, it produced a lot of sevens,” he said. In 74 chances, a seven came up 41 times, or more than once in every two rolls; with fair dice, a seven comes up an average of once every six rolls.
“Thousands of people have been ripped off by this software,” Jacobson said.
Clem said World Wide refunded his losses.
“It’s obvious I was cheated, so what were they going to do?” he said.
Shackleford said 5Dimes refunded his losses. It’s unclear whether others received refunds.
Jacobson said BLR also makes software for online blackjack, video poker, roulette and slots, but he does not know of any research into those.
Legends, World Wide and 5Dimes are primarily sports books, but offer casino games as another gambling attraction. Miller said less than 10 percent of Legends’ 7,500 active gamblers use the casino.
She said Legends continues to use BLR, in part, because the software works so well with the site’s main function of handling sports bets.
The United States does not license or regulate online gambling. Federal law prohibits American gamblers from collecting winnings from Internet casinos.
The federal government’s April 15 crackdown on Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars and Ultimate Bet was based on accusations that they violated U.S. banking law.
Although those sites were shut down in the United States, 300 offshore companies continue to offer online gambling to U.S. players, according to the American Gaming Association, an industry group.
Shackleford and Jacobson said the BLR case should hasten the move toward U.S. regulation of online gambling.
“It only goes to show that when there’s no regulation, there’s nothing to stop these types of things from happening,” Shackleford said.
“This kind of issue just shows how much (regulation is) needed,” Jacobson said. “People are going to continue to gamble at these sites. There are still thieves and crooks creating crooked software.”
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Station Casinos, Cosmopolitan reported third quarter losses
by Ray Poirier
Artice courtesy of the great gaming websote www.gamingtoday.com
Two non-public Las Vegas gaming companies reported losses during the third quarter.
Station Casinos LLC, recently restructured under bankruptcy court approval, reported a loss of $19.1 million for the period that ended on Sept. 30. This was far less than the $264.1 million loss the company reported in the comparable quarter of 2010.
Company officials were encouraged by an increase of 5.6 percent in net revenues. The current quarter saw revenues of $282.4 million compared to last year’s $267.3 million. Considered the king of locals casinos, the company, led by Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, operate 17 gaming properties. It also manages the Aliante Casino in North Las Vegas but that arrangement could end at any time.
It was revealed last week, the Station Casinos LLC agreed on Nov. 1 to terminate its management arrangement with ALST Casino Holdco LLC but will continue to oversee the property during a transition period.
Cosmopolitan, the newest and flashiest hotel/casino on the Las Vegas Strip, reported a loss of $58.4 million during the third quarter, a period that saw net revenues reach $126.6 million. However, the property managers said that only 16 percent, or $23.8 million, was generated by the gaming portion of the operation. During the nine months of its operation, Cosmopolitan generated just $83.1 million in gaming revenues.
“The volume of table games play,” said officials in a statement accompanying the report, “has remained fairly consistent over the nine months and our focus continues to be on supplementing the level of table games play at the property.” To this end, the management is planning a new high-limit area with 15 tables.
The Cosmopolitan is owned by a subsidiary of Deutsche Bank of Germany
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Biggest U.S. casino companies fight to secure 3 super resorts
by Phil Hevener
Read Phil and others at the superb gaming website www.gamingtoday.com for news from around the world
From the we’ve just begun to fight department: Opponents of expanded south Florida gaming are getting cranked up in response to the plans of legislators (and their deep-pocketed backers) who hope to secure approval for three super resorts in Broward and Dade counties.
Thanks to a recent court decision, they can do it without local referendums. There are already slot machines at tracks in these two counties.
Strategists on both sides of the issue have been down this road before – many times.
The battle will feature most of the usual players – developers who know a good idea when they see one and opposing interests that have done their best to slow the creeping sprawl of new gaming enterprises. These ideas have so far produced several racinos, wide open poker at pari-mutuel tracks and, of course, a lot more for the Seminoles who are now said by reliable sources to be generating more than a billion dollars annually, most of it from their two Hard Rock resorts.
The myriad elements of Florida’s existing tourism industry will be speaking through a variety of business-oriented and religious groups, just as they have in the past, groups that see no reason to welcome competition from out of state companies, even foreign companies in the case of Genting, which bought the Miami Herald building even before it knows the outcome of legislation that has yet to receive formal attention from the House and Senate.
The biggest U.S. casino companies – Wynn Resorts, Las Vegas Sands and Caesars Entertainment – have given their unqualified support to the possibility of three resorts that will each cost more than $2 billion dollars.
Steve Wynn remembers that the development around the Fontainebleau, Eden Roc and Americana during the 1950s and 1960s created an unprecedented lure for deep-pocketed spenders from around the world. As far as he is concerned, Miami Beach was a travel destination then with few equals anywhere in the world.
His repeated emphasis: those good days were the result of development by imaginative people who created unprecedented experiences.
Something like what happened when Disney came to Central Florida in the late 1960s. I sat in an Orlando auditorium on a morning in 1967 as Roy Disney dazzled business and political leaders with images of what his late brother Walt wanted to create on thousands of acres where there was nothing much happening. The last time I was there several years ago Interstate 4, which links the Tampa and Orlando metropolitan areas, was like a parking lot – all those visitors rushing to spend money, all those people trying to get to and from jobs that did not exist before Disney and its followers arrived. I don’t remember angry editorials, frowns and shrill voices railing against the damage Disney might cause with its over-the-top applications of imagination to the business of creating experiences with the kind of appeal that spans the globe.
I wonder why more Floridians don’t see the parallels between what Disney has done and the promises of well-heeled “imaginers” who hope to create another kind of tourism oriented experience that will jump-start a new era of prosperity in Broward and Miami-Dade.
I understand that the Seminoles are not anxious to have competition, assuming the South Florida plan moves forward. But let the Seminoles compete with the best that other elements of the gaming and entertainment business have to offer. They certainly have no shortage of money to spend.
The resulting critical mass of attractions can only add new polish to the Miami area’s reputation as a travel destination.
Caesars Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman says his company has every intention of being involved there, assuming legislators produce a business plan that makes sense. Caesars, unlike Wynn and LVS would probably seek a joint venture partner, possibly because Loveman hopes Caesars will also be busy several years down the road creating and operating one of the major resorts that appear to be likely in Massachusetts.
Wynn has had his eye on Florida for years, going back to 1976 when he threw his support behind a pro-casino initiative that was a good idea long before its time.
