Dear GameMaster
As CEO and Captain of The River Belle, I’m obviously very happy that you are
considering endorsing our casino and are thus giving us the chance to prove
our honesty and integrity. We’re therefore very keen to do whatever is
necessary to win your approval and that of the online gaming community at
large. We hope that our attempts to make our web site
(http://www.riverbelle.com) as informative as possible will be seen as a
positive step in that direction.
As online casino operators, we’re acutely aware that probably the biggest
obstacle in the way of the success of the online gaming industry is that of
credibility. Players quite understandably want to know that they are dealing
with reputable operations that pay their winners and that don’t manipulate
the results of their games.
That many players believe that there are casinos out there which are guilty
of non-payment and / or rigged games is somewhat frustrating to honest
operators, since there is a tendency for people to tar all the online
casinos with the same brush. The River Belle hopes to overcome such
perceptions by offering games that are obviously fair (such as full pay
video pokers, generous keno payoffs and single zero roulette) and ensuring
the prompt payment of winners (for example, we are in the process of
introducing a means of payment whereby we can have winnings deposited
directly into players’ bank accounts, often as soon as the next business
day).
Your reader, Dave, is largely correct when he states that there is currently
no real way to verify the honesty of an online casino before playing there.
This will continue to be the case until some form of effective regulation is
established, whether this is governmental or self-imposed. However, there
are ways of checking honesty once you have played for a while. While it’s a
laborious process, it’s something skeptical players might want to consider.
All you have to do is keep a complete (and careful) record of all your
transactions and play at the casino, and then ask the casino for an audit
trail to match. Not only should you then compare what they supply with your
own version, but you can also refer the results to an independent
statistician for verification that the gaming outcomes were indeed random.
Provided you accumulate enough transactions for a statistically valid
examination, this should ensure a relatively accurate assessment of the
casino’s honesty.
In addition, we think that there is one point which Dave overlooks that,
certainly for us, serves to ensure the honesty of online casinos. This,
quite simply, is the profit motive. As casino operators, we can state quite
clearly that it is far more profitable for a casino *NOT* to cheat its
customers. The rather healthy profits earned by the Vegas and other casinos
bear eloquent testimony to this, and online casinos are no different in this
regard. To turn Dave’s example around, as far as we are concerned it makes
far more sense for a casino to earn 1% from a Blackjack player who will
return time and again than to earn 8% for at most a week or two by ripping
off a customer who will never return and who will also tell all his friends
about his bad experience. Why would any casino, online or otherwise, want to
scare away customers like that? This is especially true on the internet,
where angry Usenet postings and negative reviews on any of a multitude of
commercial and amateur web sites can destroy the reputation of a casino in
the space of a few days.
While self-regulation is not an optimal solution, we do believe that it can
be made to work if properly implemented and strictly controlled by the
industry. For example, a measure that we would welcome is that of an ongoing
audit requirement, whereby an online operator would have to submit to
regular audits (by a reputable and independent third party) of both their
games and their payouts to winners. Provided the interval between audits is
short enough, this would go a long way towards providing players with the
confidence that the casinos involved are honest. The River Belle would have
no problem with audits that are as frequent as quarterly or even monthly,
even though such a frequency is likely to represent significant expense and
administrative inconvenience for us.
The River Belle has in fact already approached some of the “Big 6” auditing
firms for the purpose of arranging an independent audit. Thus far, political
pressure from the USA (given the unanswered questions as to the legality of
online gambling in that jurisdiction) and other vested interests (such as
those of the big terrestrial casinos which are already major clients of the
big auditing firms and which, if only for the moment, are a more significant
source of fees than we are) has prevented this from coming to fruition. If
anyone who reads this is able to refer us to a reputable third party with
recognized casino auditing skills which is willing to audit an internet
casino, we would very much appreciate it if they would contact me with
further details, at captain@riverbelle.com.
As to the other points Dave makes, the following is relevant:
-- The River Belle does not have access to the source code of the software
licensed from MicroGAMING Systems, and nor do any of MGS’s other clients, as
far as we are aware. The whole point of licensing the software instead of
developing it ourselves is so that we don’t have to worry about the
underlying code, since writing code is not our organization’s area of
expertise. Anyway, why would MGS give away their code? If they did, they’d
only be risking their good name (their customers could then mess up the
software and blame MGS) and giving away their own hard work for free, which
is unlikely to prove a particularly effective business model.
-- To assume that a casino can just change its games back to “cheat” mode
once the 3rd party auditor has left their premises ignores the fact that any
reputable casino will have a full audit trail of all their transactions.
Contrary to popular opinion, it isn’t practically possible to manufacture a
proper audit trail, since manufactured results are by definition not random,
and statistical analysis will reveal this quite easily. Further, regular
audits will also make this sort of practice impractical, if not impossible.
-- Online video streaming isn’t going to provide players with any more
security than they have now. Technologically, there’s no reason why the
video that a player sees can’t be manipulated to change the results. Again,
it is the profit motive that will in practice serve to protect the player
from being unfairly treated, whether they are playing via a video interface
or a GUI.
If I have any advice for people who want to gamble from the comfort of their
own homes but who are wary of the honesty of online casinos, it is this:
First and foremost, have a careful look at what the casino is offering you.
In particular,
-- Has their random number generator been independently certified? Are they
prepared to provide an audit trail of gaming transactions on request?
-- Are their games obviously fair, or could you get better odds elsewhere?
For example, don’t settle for double zero roulette or 8/5 Jacks or Better
when single zero roulette and 9/6 Jacks are readily available elsewhere.
-- Do they have a 24 hour help desk? A reputable and service-oriented
organization should have one. Take the time to call them, and ask them a few
searching questions.
-- How much time and effort has gone into their software and their web site?
Speaking from experience, the more time and effort that is evident, the more
likely it is that the casino will want to protect its investment and long
term profitability by treating its customers in a way that will ensure that
they continue to play there.
Secondly, check out the newsgroups and the various gambling sites. You can’t
always be sure that the positive reviews aren’t simply paid advertorials or
shills, but some sites and commentators are obviously impartial and critical
where necessary. As for the newsgroups, dodge the spam, but keep a lookout
for genuine sounding postings. More than a couple of negative stories should
ring alarm bells, particularly if the casino concerned hasn’t even taken the
time to respond to negative newsgroup postings.
Finally, when you find an operation that you feel comfortable with, don’t
dive in too deep. Play for less than you normally would, so that you
minimize your risk until you are happy that the casino is a fair one that
will offer you proper odds and prompt payouts. After that you might become
comfortable enough to play for the amounts you normally would.
I’d like to thank the GameMaster for an informative, interesting and
impartial site. I hope that GameMasterOnline.com will continue to give both
criticism and praise where it is due, so that the online gaming industry as
a whole will benefit from the weeding out of any fly-by-night operators that
remain. I’d also like to thank Dave for bringing all of the above issues up
in the first place. If Dave or anybody else would like to discuss this
further, I would be happy to enter into personal correspondence via email at
captain@riverbelle.com. Comments can also be posted to me via the Captain’s
Cabin on The River Belle’s web site, at http://www.riverbelle.com/captain/.
Yours sincerely,
Spencer McNally
Captain and CEO of The River Belle
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