The casino industry in Canada rakes in tens of billions of dollars every year. And it’s not hard to see why some people would want to get a piece of that cake by trying to manipulate the game.
Some unethical players continually try to find ways to scam casinos and take in the big winnings. Of course, casinos are aware of the fact that many people try to cheat in the game. Therefore, land-based casinos and online casinos have taken several precautions to prevent getting hacked by immoral players.
Here are some of the ways people cheat in Casinos & how casinos tackle them.
Table of Contents
1. Bonus Abusing
Online casinos in Canada usually give an incentive to players in the form of a welcome bonus. This is usually given as a percentage of the deposit you’ve made or maybe in the form of free spins.
But where there are casino bonuses, there will be casino bonus abusers. Due to this abuse, online casinos decided to apply wagering requirements and other terms to their bonus offer in order to combat cheating. Some of the abuse is not actually illegal but is considered to be against casino etiquette. Therefore, breaking these rules could result in getting blacklisted from a casino and the other casinos on its network.
To be fair, some people might not even realize they are breaking some of the bonus rules. They could be new to the casino or simply neglected to read the terms and conditions of the welcome bonus thoroughly. Nevertheless, you are considered a cheater to the casino and you could be restricted from further playing on their site.
Creating Multiple Accounts
You don’t always need to deposit money to benefit from a bonus in an online casino. Several casinos in Canada even welcome you with no deposit free spins where you can win real money.
Some players try to take advantage of the casinos’ generosity by cheating, though. They try to register for multiple accounts to repeatedly benefit from these no deposit bonuses and cash out once they’ve won.
Usually, this benefit is minimal though, as most online casinos have a maximum win amount ánd sometimes maximum payout amount when playing from this bonus. Another way casinos try to combat this is by limiting their bonus offers to 1 per household or IP address. But note that even when not taking advantage of a bonus, a player can have only one account at a casino, and sometimes only one account of the casino’s network.
Limits On Gameplay
Usually, a casino bonus stipulates what type of games you can play. You’re often not permitted to play games like Blackjack and Poker as they have a low “house edge”, which means that the likelihood of the casino making money off you is small. So as long as your bonus is active, you’ll be restricted from playing these specific games.
No Withdrawals When a Bonus is Active
Almost all online casinos have a rule in their terms and conditions stating that they have the right to deny any withdrawal requests from players who have a pattern of betting that appears to be bonus abuse. Additionally, you won’t be permitted to make a withdrawal as long as your bonus isn’t wagered in full.
These are only a few of the rules you must abide by when taking advantage of a bonus. They are all set up to prevent you from scamming the casino.
2. Theft in online casinos
Well, we all know that stealing is not right. It’s not a secret that anything that involves money tends to bring the worst out of malicious people as they will try to scam other people.
Therefore, online casinos ensure that any private information stays private by implementing a few safeguards on their sites.
SSL Encryption
SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer which means that personal data such as your username, password, and banking information used on the casino site is well secured. It works in the same way we cover our pin number when using our card at land-based settings. For instance, when using a non-encrypted link, information can be read very easily like:
Username: RustyRyan, password=RyanandRusty
When using the encrypted version, however, it will appear something like this:
OIDFIJ*%5K922YkLIjhsdje892z^*==fJwPLkl
The foremost advantage with an SSL encrypted link is that the only place where your personal details are revealed is on your own browser and server you visit, so third parties cannot decode your sensitive data in transit.
Therefore, it is very important that casinos make use of SSL encryption to protect the players’ data. All legit online casinos in Canada make use of this safety measure.
Firewalls
Firewalls are like the muscular bouncers guarding a nightclub. They decide who enters the club and who doesn’t. Troublemakers are thrown out without any hesitation.
Like these bouncers, firewalls are able to keep any unwanted or threatening networks from coming into their servers or filtrating their software. Should a hacker try to enter the casino site, the firewall will pick up on that easily and prevent access
3. Collusion
Collusion is a form of cheating that involves two or more players working together. At a real-life poker table, players can share signals to inform each other about their hands.
In the virtual poker world, this is when 2 or more friends are sitting at a virtual table sharing information about the cards they’re holding. The information is usually shared by an outside chat line or via telephone and when won, the winnings are shared.
Having extra information benefits you over the other players at the table because you can place your bets accordingly which increases your chances of winning. Just having more information than your fellow players at the table doesn’t automatically mean you’ll win the game, though.
It takes decent poker knowledge to win while colluding. But it definitely puts you in a better position compared to the other players as you are able to place your bets according to this knowledge.
Casino sites have security measures to prevent this behavior. Unusual patterns of playing behavior will be monitored by dedicated software that tracks every player’s move at the table.
If you fold your pocket queens because you know your friend is holding pocket kings, that will look very suspicious, to say the least. Such dubious behavior will be monitored by the fraud expert.
It’s harder to collude when you are playing live poker because the actions and behaviors of all the players are constantly monitored. It is one of the reasons casinos have installed cameras and advanced surveillance at every table.
4. Eyes in the Sky
Some people try to cheat at roulette by placing extra chips on the table after the croupier has called “last bets”. As the ball starts to slow down it becomes easier to speculate in which quarter of the wheel the ball will land in. Of course, this increases the players’ chances of winning.
It happens that cheaters come in pairs with one attempting to distract the croupier while the other one places extra bets.
This is only one example out of many hoaxes that can happen at a casino. As a result, all land-based casinos are equipped with state-of-the-art surveillance systems.
This can include video surveillance, alarm systems, facial recognition biometric systems, and RFID tags. All these prevent fraud, theft, and cheating from happening in the casino. Facial recognition can uncover known cheaters at the premises. In prosecution and in liability claims against the casino, video evidence can be used.
5. Card Counters
Card counting is a technique that blackjack players do by discreetly counting the cards of the first blackjack rounds. This lets the players figure out when the advantage will shift into their favor. When this is happening, card counters increase their bet value which raises their potential winnings. And when the benefit moves in the dealers’ favor, the card counter will make much smaller bets or place no bet at all.
Although card counting is considered to be a form of cheating in the casino, it is not illegal to do so in any state of Canada. As a player, you have every right to “observe the game rounds” or make some bets according to math. But of course, casinos don’t particularly like it if you’re counting cards. If casinos suspect you are card counting and you are winning too much, which is to their disadvantage, they also have every right to stop you.
Once you are suspected to be card counting, the cameras might be turned on you to analyze your current and previous play. It is good to know that in many cases, the security people at the casino are former card counters so they’ll know exactly who is card counting and who isn’t.
Expect a soft tap on the shoulder from a security person, telling you are too good for the game. Next, you could be asked kindly to leave the blackjack table and amuse yourself with some other casino games, but you might also be banned from the casino premises for good.
The type of punishment you’ll get depends on the executive staff of the casino and how much money you managed to win while counting cards.
Since they cannot work with cameras to analyze people’s behavior, casinos might take some precautions that prevent people from card counting:
- Removing some advantages from the player. They could make the blackjack rules worse such as “removing doubling after split” and “removing late surrender”. Experienced blackjack players know the chances of winnings decrease vastly if the rules are bad, hence they’ll play much less.
- Using automatic shuffling machines. This makes card counting impossible and totally useless. The only bets that can be made are choosing between standing/hitting 16 against a 10. If the card decks reset after each round, then the shoe can never be predicted even in the slightest way.
- Set a rule for one certain player: The casino might put a limit on your bet amounts of $10 per round, instead of varying from $10 to $1,000. This is not done very often though, because other players might suspect the casino is punishing a specific player.
We can conclude that it is neither wise nor ethical to (try to) cheat the casino, be it a brick-and-mortar casino or a gambling site. We recommend you to forget about the spectacular frauds in the popular casino movies and to read the terms and conditions of the casino and its bonuses carefully.
Gambling should be a fun way of entertaining yourself, not an inspiration to get extra money in a dishonest way.
I am the owner of the site rohithebbar.com. I love playing poker and other card games.
