Online BJ is rigged at 95% of places IMO. There are a few that play fair, the one one I can think of that I remember is the old Crockfords online casino, and the old Harrods online casino. Casino games are already 'rigged' so no. Would they intentionally skew results harder, possibly but no real incentive as people would certainly figure it out and stop playing and the casino would potentially face penalties from relevant gaming com.

1. Digital Blackjack Rigged Game
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The Random Number Generator (RNG) is at the heart of the modern online gambling industry and is prevalent in all online games, blackjack included. The RNG’s purpose is to ensure random, i.e. unpredictable outcomes, guaranteeing fairness for everyone involved.

Blackjack is by far the only casino game where players can turn the tables in their favor through the implementation of advantage play techniques such as card counting. This is possible because blackjack is a game of dependent events, meaning that previous outcomes affect the odds of future outcomes. Players use the knowledge of past cards dealt to make better informed playing decisions about the hands to follow.

Is this the case in online blackjack variations that run on RNGs, though? Rather than having a human dealer to shuffle and randomize the card order, online blackjack uses algorithms and mathematical formulas to ensure each card that appears on the virtual felt is dealt at random. This prevents the games from showing bias toward the dealer or the player.

For years, gambling buffs have speculated as to whether or not such games are truly random and unbeatable. Some swear by the unpredictability of randomly generated online blackjack while others believe the games are exploitable.

Here at SuperCasinoSites, we give you the full lowdown on all you need to know about Random Number Generators in online blackjack as well as an answer to the question are such games beatable or not.

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The RNG and How It Works?

The RNG made its entry into the gambling industry as a new way to operate slots. Slot machines previously had physical reels that rotated to determine which symbols would eventually appear and potentially create winning combinations.

Slots gradually developed into more complicated games with multiple paylines and special features. The need to introduce a new way of ensuring random outcomes arose. Physical space was limited on old-fashioned reels and did not allow for the ever-increasing number of symbols and winning combinations in advanced slots.

It is this need that led to the introduction of the Random Number Generator. The RNG is a built-in program that relies on mathematical computations to generate fully random events. Frequently implemented in scientific simulations, it also found its way into the gambling industry with the rise of online casinos.

The RNG can be used to simulate random independent events such as the roll of the dice, the spin of a roulette wheel or the flip of a coin. In the context of online blackjack, the RNG shuffles the cards, ensuring every single hand is randomly dealt and has an unpredictable result.

The software achieves this by generating lengthy strings of random numbers. It has no knowledge of previous results and lacks a predictable pattern. The implementation of RNGs is essential when it comes to ensuring fair and unbiased online casino games, whether it is blackjack, roulette, slots or any other game with an element of chance. They are also used in brick-and-mortar venues for electronic roulette and blackjack, keno, and video poker.

True Random and Pseudo-Random Number Generators

There are several types of RNGs, the first one being the True Random Number Generator (TRNG) which relies on some external input to spit out random results. The TRNG is significantly more expensive to maintain. It is mostly used in the field of cryptography where its main purpose is to spew random cryptographic keys to transfer data safely.

The vast majority of online casinos rely on the so-called Pseudo-Random Number Generators (PRNG). Unlike the TRNG, the PRNG is deterministic and uses complex algorithms to produce unpredictable results in casino games like blackjack. Let’s have a more detailed look at the differences between these two main types of RNG.

One-to-One Comparison between TRNGs and PRNGs

True Random Number Generators (TRNG)

TRNGs rely on different natural phenomena or external sources to produce random numbers. To use a simple example, suppose you place 1,000 microphones in multiple noisy areas worldwide. You can use their combined sound output for the purpose of randomization. The TRNG will use these obviously unpredictable random sounds and translate them into strings of numbers.

This type of RNG lacks a computer algorithm to make computations, which means the numbers its spews are indeed an unpredictably jumbled mess. The TRNG extracts random numbers from physical phenomena such as the movements of a computer mouse, keystrokes, radiation waves, and atmospheric noise.

TRNGs are also known as Hardware Random Number Generators because they use hardware transducers to transform certain aspects of physical phenomena into electrical signals. This physical output is then converted into random digital numbers with the help of analog-to-digital conversion systems.

There are many ways to achieve absolute randomness but most TRNGs usually rely on external sources such as radiation waves. One great example is the HotBits service which creates random numbers by timing the decay of consecutive radioactive pairs, an inherently unpredictable process. This information is detected and fed into a computer straight from a Geiger–Müller tube.

Atmospheric noise can also be used for this purpose and so can background noises like those in office buildings or laboratories. In the second case, you will have to watch closely for discernible patterns as those can hurt randomness.

Another cool example of a highly functional TRNG is Silicon Graphics’ lavarand generator. It extracted random data from snapshots of the shapes made by the floating material in lava lamps. The data was then used to produce truly unpredictable seeds for a Pseudo-Random Number Generator.

Regardless of what physical phenomenon is implemented for the generation, the TRNG is non-deterministic, which means the number sequences it produces cannot be recreated, intentionally repeated, or predicted in any way.

With that said, certain number sequences can repeat themselves several times but this repetition happens entirely by chance. As for efficiency, TRNGs often lack in this department. Unlike PRNG, they require more time to generate numbers.

Pseudo-Random Number Generators (PRNG)

Many online blackjack variations run on the so-called Pseudo-Random Number Generators (PRNGs) to give randomness a kick. Rather than relying on completely unpredictable physical phenomena, the PRNG uses complex algorithms and computations based on a predetermined set of rules.

The difference here is that the PRNG does not necessarily require an external input to produce random outcomes. All they require is a fixed algorithm and seed numbers to kick off the process of random number generation. Each random number corresponds to a particular card value and suit.

The PRNG is highly efficient at its task because it is capable of producing very long strings of numbers every millisecond. Unlike TRNGs, the PRNG is deterministic, which is to say it can reproduce a specific number sequence at a later date if need be. It is also periodic in the sense that number sequences, no matter how chaotic they appear to be, will sooner or later start to repeat themselves.

It makes sense this periodicity is an undesirable trait in the context of online gambling games such as blackjack. It takes away from the unpredictability of the hands’ outcomes. This renders online blackjack games theoretically exploitable.

In practice, though, the period of repetition of sophisticated casino PRNGs is extremely long and involves billions of hands. This fact alone prevents players from detecting any patterns in the outcomes whatsoever.

The casino software communicates with the PRNG each time it must reproduce a random result. The PRNG then generates a number and feeds it back to the software. Each number is related to a potential outcome or card value and the software displays it accordingly.

Assume, for instance, you are playing blackjack in a landbased casino and you choose to hit. The dealer will simply draw the next card from the top of the deck or shoe. This is not what happens in online blackjack since here cards are not dealt from a “real” shoe.

The casino software would simply instruct the PRNG to generate an arbitrary number, which will determine the value of the card you are dealt next. This process repeats itself after every single hand. Once you finish a round, the discards are reintroduced back into the virtual shoe and reshuffled. In essence, you are always playing from a fresh and therefore, neutral shoe.

The table below is a one-to-one comparison between Pseudo and True Random Number Generators.

Measures Taken to Ensure Fairness in RNG-Based Blackjack Games

Online blackjack utilizes Random Number Generators in place of dealers, which causes some players to question the authenticity of the games. Are they rigged in favor of the house or not? One typical scenario is when a player goes through several hundred hands, loses half or the majority of them, and quickly jumps to the conclusion the game is rigged. It seems the virtual dealer always manages to outdraw them no matter what upcard they show.

The trouble is this scenario is not all that uncommon in gambling, even if you play games like blackjack which combine elements of skill, strategy, and chance. The above-mentioned reasoning is a classic case of confirmation bias.

Us humans have the tendency to look for, interpret and sift out information in a way that reinforces our prior individual beliefs. Some players’ line of thinking is “I am losing a hand after hand so the game most definitely is rigged against me!”. However, a sample size of several hundred or thousand blackjack hands is hardly sufficient when it comes to drawing any such conclusions.

We would like to point out honesty and fair play are not something you should worry about if you play blackjack at reputable, licensed, and properly regulated online casinos. Here is why:

Tests and Evaluations of the RNGs

Tests and evaluations of the RNGs used in blackjack games are performed regularly to make sure the software works efficiently. The available blackjack variations undergo frequent audits by third-party testing companies like eCOGRA, Gaming Laboratories International or Technical Systems Testing.

These are all independent auditors to prevent any conflict of interest. The audits assess the games’ RNGs, using sample sizes that involve millions of blackjack hands. This is the only way to determine whether the outcomes of a given game add up to its built-in payout percentage or not.

Certificate From the Testing Agency

Once an online casino passes the audits successfully, it is granted a certificate from the testing agency to post on its website. This badge of approval indicates the blackjack variations, along with all other available games, are random and therefore, fair. Moreover, online gambling operators are expected to report the results of these audits, along with their games’ payout percentages, to their regulators. If something is amiss, the casino faces serious repercussions.

Randomness in the Blackjack Games

Finally, randomness is of utmost importance for casino operators as well. It preserves the integrity of the blackjack games and ensures the casino generates sufficient expected value to continue operating. Remember you are already playing against the house at a small disadvantage, roughly 0.50% in blackjack games with more favorable rules.

There is no need for online casino operators to cheat you and risk losing their licenses in the process. They have already secured their cut from the virtual blackjack tables thanks to the built-in house edge. Casinos face a heavy financial penalization and license suspension if an audit determines their blackjack games are rigged.

The Attributes of Exploitable Blackjack Games

Now that you have understood what the RNG is and how it is implemented in online card games, we shall return to our original question, namely “Can you beat the RNG in online blackjack?”. And more particularly, is this feat achievable through the implementation of techniques like card counting. To answer this question, we must first examine the attributes of profitable, i.e. beatable, blackjack games.

Favorable House Rules

To begin with, you need to find blackjack variations with favorable rules that reduce the house edge enough so you can beat the game. Some of the things you need to consider in advance include the payouts for blackjacks, the number of decks, and the doubling and splitting rules.

The more liberal the rules are, the lower the house edge becomes. The rules of some variants are poor enough to render the games unbeatable. Other rules like Late Surrender are favorable to players and decrease the casino advantage.

Games that offer reduced payouts of 6 to 5 for blackjacks have considerably higher house edges and should be avoided at all costs. Luckily, the majority of online blackjack variations pay for naturals at standard odds of 3 to 2.

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Good Penetration

The second attribute of beatable games is good enough deck penetration. For the uninitiated, the term designates how deep the dealer would deal into the shoe before reshuffling the cards. The deeper the penetration, the more information a card counter gets as to what cards remain to be dealt.

The main issue with RNG-based blackjack is that it gives advantage players no penetration whatsoever. This renders techniques like card counting completely useless. RNG blackjack is equivalent to live-dealer games where Continuous Shuffling Machines (CSMs) are used. The software automatically reintroduces the discards into the shoe and reshuffles everything after every single hand. This is an instant put-off for versed blackjack players.

It is impossible to beat a game where the cards are shuffled after each round. To use card counting to your advantage, you need good enough penetration. An example of adequate penetration is a six-deck game where the dealer shows you around five decks before reaching the shuffle card.

With RNG-based games, you start each round from a neutral, newly reshuffled shoe. Respectively, you base your playing decisions on limited information since you only get to see the cards dealt to your hand and the upcard of the virtual dealer. The best you can do against the RNG is stick to perfect basic strategy, in which case, you are still playing an unbeatable game with negative EV.

Hands Played per Hour

Speed is a double-edged sword when it comes to online blackjack. RNG games play at an exceptionally fast speed, which may appeal to players who prefer greater dynamics. Since you play against the software, there are no other players at the virtual table to slow you down while making their decisions.

The main trouble here is this increased dynamics can be extremely costly in the long run because you end up playing significantly more hands per hour than you would in a traditional landbased casino. There is no natural pause in the game for reshuffling, either. The RNG knows no rest, tirelessly reshuffling the virtual shoe round after round.

Consequently, you play a greater number of hands at a disadvantage, which ultimately causes you to lose more money to the house edge in the long term. Each result is unpredictable and entirely independent from the rest. Every round starts from a neutral shoe that favors neither the player nor the virtual dealer.

You can benefit from playing more hands per hour only if you count cards in a game with decent penetration and this is not something RNG-based blackjack offers. Here, the more you play, the bigger your hourly losses will get.

Conclusion

Some players assume that Pseudo-Random Number Generators (PRNG) in online blackjack are beatable due to their determinism and periodicity. They reason such games are exploitable because sooner or later the sequence of numbers will begin to repeat itself.

While it is theoretically possible to use this “pseudo” randomness to your advantage, very few people are capable of achieving it in practice. The algorithms in RNG-based blackjack are simply way too sophisticated so predicting the outcomes of the hands borders on the impossible. Furthermore, the software undergoes regular audits. Rigged or hackable blackjack games will never slip through the net during testing.

Can Online Blackjack be Rigged?

'Has anyone actually won money playing online blackjack?'

'The dealer gets twice the blackjacks as the player, 8 in 100 hands, and the dealer always wins more doubles.'

'It would be more likely that I would get hit by lightning than suffer the results I did.'

Digital Blackjack Rigged Games

The preceding statements were taken from message boards which specialize in online gambling discussions. While many players believe just the opposite, a growing minority are convinced that online blackjack is indeed rigged by the house.

The question this article tries to answer is, 'How likely is it that online blackjack is rigged?'

The answer to this question, like almost all questions, is, 'It depends.' or 'Sometimes.'

Take, for example, a scam in England which cost an online gambling operation $1.6 million dollars before a rigged blackjack game was discovered, and it's easy to see why many players are so suspicious.

Couple that with the fact that online wagering, once thought of in the same seedy vein as online pornography, has achieved a level of mainstream popularity which attracts thousands of new players daily, often providing easy targets for the unscrupulous and the downright immoral, and you have a situation rife with mistrust and paranoia.

Customers who complain about online blackjack being rigged have four main concerns:

1. Refusal to pay out winnings

Perhaps the worst violation, there is nothing more frustrating than actually beating the house advantage and then finding that your chosen online casino will not pay. And since it is not a land-based business, your odds of recovering the money are very slim.

2. Lengthy delays before winnings are paid out

Almost as annoying as #1, but at least you eventually get what is coming to you.

3. Closures with no warning, without refunding deposited funds

This is a problem almost exclusive to fly-by-night operations and casinos established solely to scam the customer. This problem will almost never be encountered if you choose to gamble at a reputable casino with a solid business history.

4. Use of rigged software, with outcomes not randomly generated

Perhaps even more insidious than not paying out winnings is an online blackjack game which cheats you out of the chance to make a profit in the first place. This subject is often the most passionately debated, because it's almost impossible for the average Internet player to prove it one way or another.

While such crooked software does exist, many blackjack players are just too eager to cry foul when they suffer a bad run, thus casting doubt on the industry as a whole and furthering the overall sense of paranoia. While these concerns might sometimes be real and valid, many gamblers simply ignore the most basic fact of gambling which is constantly staring them in the face.

Every casino in the world, whether it's online or land-based, offers games which give the house an edge (strangely, few people ever complain about losing the lottery, a game where the house, in this case the government, has a huge advantage over the player). No matter what you do, you generally can't beat that edge.

Casinos will always make money. Gamblers, as a general rule, will usually lose money. And the longer you play, the more likely it is that the house edge will catch up to you. That's how it works.

If it didn't, casinos would have gone the way of the dodo a long time ago. But despite this fact, many players continue to claim that online black jack games are rigged, usually citing certain software manufacturers as the real culprits.

Most software makers charge an internet casino between $10,000 and $250,000 to develop a web-based casino, and often the software companies get as much as 30% of the gaming win generated by the site.

With that kind of money on the line, it's small wonder that someone who just lost $1,000 at on line blackjack might grow suspicious.

An authority site in this industry, has said, 'Online casinos are fair and honest for the most part. If you stick to the Big Four software manufacturers (Boss Media, Cryptologic, Microgaming, and World Gaming) you shouldn't have to worry about the fairness of the games themselves - the only thing you need to look into is their reputation for support and prompt payments.'

An Internet gambling expert who reviews e-casinos says, 'CryptoLogic offers about a 98 % return on video poker and blackjack, but, of course, the rules are such that the casino's odds may be a bit higher due to player mistakes. If you want better odds than what the major software-makers offer, you have to venture a bit off the beaten path, but if you do that you risk security.'

Considering the above statement, it should then come as little surprise that the problems have occurred almost exclusively at unlicensed and/or unregulated online casinos (it is thought that there are 200+ online casinos operating illegally today).

Casinos licensed by a responsible government are regularly audited and seem to have as few problems as regulated land-based casinos, and the odds they offer are similar.

When considering online blackjack casinos, try looking for the following marks of quality:

1. Software

Reliable and proven software backend that generates random numbers. Probabilities cannot be manipulated by the software backend.

2. Business Practice

Operators have shown a history of stable business operations. No prior fraud convictions, bankruptcies, etc.

3. Fair Play

Look for companies who openly advertise payouts and are audited by a reputable, independent organization. Bonus winners should also be openly advertised to show that reliable payouts have been made.

Anyone, particularly the software developer, can claim any payout percentage they want. Without independent auditing (from a reputable firm like Price Waterhouse Coopers, for example) these numbers mean absolutely nothing.

4. Quick and Reliable Payout Process

Operators must have some type of payment processing that allows for reasonably quick payouts.

5. Playability

Software should be reliable and able to retain the game state in case of dropped connections.

6. Customer Support

Any casino you want to play at should have a toll-free call center and prompt email support. The customer service staff should demonstrate a firm understanding of the product.

7. Disclosure

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Virtual black jack casinos should demonstrate full disclosure in releasing details regarding payouts, policies, insurance, etc.

So is online blackjack rigged?

In a sense, all casino games are rigged by paying out at different odds than the true odds. In other words, all casino games have a house edge that is unbeatable.

But usually when someone asks about online casino being rigged, their concern is with whether or not they're getting the same house edge that they would have playing a non-virtual, or brick and mortar version of the game in a land-based casino.

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Most of the time, if you're playing at a reputable casino, you will be receiving a fair game, because there is little motivation for an internet casino to cheat with their software. The house edge is already built into the game, so there is no need to cheat in order to win in the long run.

In fact, most online casino operators have plenty of incentive NOT to rig their software. If they get caught, they go out of business, and then their profit margins become 0.