Rigged system

i will never understand why people would be dumb enough to play in online casinos, or any other form of digitalized gambling. this includes slots.

104

Nonono, you don’t understand, dude. See, there’s these hats, right? But sometimes, the hat has this super rare effect, see? And, if I spend $2.50 per crate key, I can sell that unusual hat for more than I spent on the key, making profit. OR — hear me out — or: I could spend the unusual i unbox on MORE crates and keys, and get more unusuals.

That’s not digital gambling, right? Right.

61
- i know that this is talking about tf2, and yes this is gambling you have a problem
  
  19
- Hey, I sold all my hats for a Valve Index.
  
  But I DID also have a shady key guy I paid through PayPal who gave me keys for 1.20USD, so I was very lucky.
  
  I hate gambling, but I LOVED pixely hats. I’ve been to a casino only a few times in my life and it was almost always super boring. But the rush when there was a full server ceasefire so everyone could come stare at the firey hat I had just opened…
  
  7
I understand why people do emotionally, but working in tech I just know there's no such thing as "online gambling". Even random number generators can't be 100% random. This takes that and adds on businesses that want to be profitable and minimal oversite.

I don't know how people can believe it's fair and not rigged. You're telling me out of all of those millions of lines of code, nothing in there skews a bit to the house to screw you over? Nah, they'll keep your money. Any wins you may have are because they let you have them.

24
- It's all rigged, technically. If you go to a real life casino, slots are certified to pay out some percentage of plays. It's like, 8%.
  
  If you play craps, roulette - the house always has the edge because there's more results favorable to them.
  
  The only "casino" game where the house doesn't have an edge is poker because that's player against player. The house doesn't really have a stake in any outcome, they're just being paid to host the game.
  
  27
- It depends on your definition of rigged. There are many "provably fair" online casinos where they use hashes and user generated seeds that influence the outcome such that it makes it 100% verifiably fair but you will still lose over time because the house edge. If you call the house edge "rigged" then offline gambling is equally rigged
  
  10
- but working in tech I just know there's no such thing as "online gambling".
  
  I wouldn't call pseudorandomess(if that's what you're implying) as disqualifying something from being gambling - it only needs to be random enough with an even distribution.
  
  If instead you're talking about odds being slightly in favor of the house then... that's literally no different than gambling irl either. At which point, I have to question what you even define as "gambling".
  
  5
- Online casinos are not rigged. But there's a lot of math behind them. And this math tells you exactly how much money the casino will make. There's literally no point rigging anything when you have a super stable source of income.
  
  4
I well never understand why people would be dumb enough to play in ~~online~~ casinos, or any other form of ~~digitalized~~ gambling.

19
- yea same here lol
  
  3
- for fun? It's just gaming for money if you think about it.
  
  3
- I can go out for a night with movies and dinner and spend $200. Or I can go to the casino, spend the same but with a chance I actually get some back
  
  -4
carefully walks into discussion

...crypto

runs out of the room

6
- GET BACK HERE!!!
  
  3
how is online gambling different than irl gambling?

6
- Digital randomness vs physical randomness for one. Code can be subtly weighted easily in the direction and degree you want without regulation or oversight. Your roulette wheel’s loss of randomness is random itself and tampering is easy to see for regulators who absolutely exist and are inspecting. Even digital slot machines are heavily regulated. Your trust isn’t in the casino, it’s in the state it occurs in. And like yeah something fishy might be happening in a casino in your state. But nobody has stricter statisticians than the Nevada government. Their state’s economy relies on it.
  
  Also physical gambling sells an experience outside the home in a specific atmosphere. Online gambling feels like the equivalent of getting a vodka faucet ran into your house next to the water. Sure you can indulge responsibly in that situation, but it’s not made for that purpose and it’s going to be much easier to find you’ve slipped into a serious addiction that’s harder to avoid.
  
  10
- Fewer pants.
  
  2
- Another big thing is that in the US at least, recovering addicts can go to the casino and tell them to not take their money anymore. These safeguards aren't present in offshore online gambling sites.
  
  0
Usually they promise you something like extra money on your first deposit, daily free spins, or something else to get you hooked.

A former coworker claimed to have a scheme on one casino to use those perks for guaranteed free money (of variable amounts per month), buuuut never told me much about it. Given that, it might even have been legit.

Haven't really tried it myself, I have ADHD so I'm afraid of addictive things. I already have alcohol, nicotine and caffeine in my life, I don't want to add gambling.

4
- Good on ya for knowing yourself and avoiding that. Best of luck in dealing with your other addictions.
  
  3

Casinos have to comply with Know Your Customer laws like banks. This is to stop money laundering.

There are great reasons to dislike casinos, this is not one of them. Also, online casinos are probably shady AF, why are you using one?

38

I mean, if it's because of legal reasons, wouldn't they request KYC paperwork before depositing the first bet instead of after? You know, since handling dirty money is still a crime even if the money is locked in the casino

16
- Only if the deposit is over the threshold for KYC laws. (If the threshold is $X, and you get $X in chips, you will need KYC stuff collected from you).
  
  Otherwise no:
  
  Patron A goes to the table and receives $50 in chips. No information is exchanged. No chips are cashed out at the cashier because Patron A lost it all at blackjack. No KYC.
  
  Patron B goes to the table and receives $50 in chips. He does well at the tables and makes several good bets that means he's ahead $X dollars. Since he won this in several bets, there is no taxable event, but trying to cash out $X in chips is a currency exchange and means the casino now needs to gather KYC information on him.
  
  Most people (99%) gamble like patron A. Patron B is inconvenienced because of Patron C:
  
  Patron C stuffs $X dollars into a slot machine and cashes out without gambling. Patron C now has $X in slot tickets, which he attempts to exchange at the cashier window. His goal is to claim his $X came from gambling winnings and not wherever it actually came from. The cashier has to collect KYC info on him, and the goal is to make a paper trail so the casino can comply with state/federal law.
  
  Patron C has a lot of other creative things he can try to do to get around these laws (see structuring)
  
  Since most people are going to fall in category A, the casino wants to make the barrier for gambling very very low. They will only ask what is absolutely necessary at the moment. This is why those websites don't ask for scans of your license or blood-type or whatever when you sign up, because they don't need to if they're just taking your $50. I haven't used a gambling website but if they're US based they have to follow US law.
  
  13
I understand this but, since they are storing your money in the first place, they would need to request this information to deposit in order to remain within those laws as well I believe

15
- Also true, however, there are times you cash out more than you deposit (sometimes people win). Edit: there are thresholds of amount of money you need to start moving around before the casino will pester you for more info, because most people don’t need to bother because they don’t meet those thresholds.
  
  1
I HATE KYC LAWS!!! I HATE CONSTANT SURVIELLENCE ON EVERYTHING!!!

2
- Me too, friend. To avoid KYC laws at a casino I recommend not gambling significant amounts of money.
  
  I wish I didn't need a bank account, then I wouldn't have to deal with it at all.
  
  9

I swear i had to submit my semen sample at least 6 times before DK let me cash out.

21

DK just wants to know if you fire in spurts.

4

Wouldn't you want them to be overly cautious when sending money? It would suck if someone stole your password and drained your balance.

11

Those are all things you have to do only the first time you want to withdraw. The fact that they only want to know if you're old enough to gamble when you want to stop gambling is more the issue here though

15

Same as almost every online sign-up.

SiriusXM Joining - easy.
SiriusXM Cancelling - Must call in, will be asked why you're cancelling, will be offered 3 other smaller plans, will be offered to "Suspend" plan that will start up automatically later.

10

I remember signing up for a food delivery/taxi app during the pandemic. Ended up barely using it and decided to delete my account.

...turns out the only way to do so was through calling customer support and solving the maze that was their autoresponder

5
Say you're from California and they must require online cancellation without needing to call in.

4
- If you VPN from California, will a cancellation option appear, I wonder.
  
  1

Money laundering son.

4

Scammers doing scammy things. No surprise here.

3

Yeah just ignore money laundering or how people actually act when their money is stolen.

Delusional shit here. Wow.

-3