|
|
|
Reason #3 why the Wizard likes Bodog:
Excellent Odds
In my opinion many online casinos are too stingy when setting the odds on their games. They think they will make more money that way but I believe they are misguided, because when players lose too quickly it's not fun, and those players might not come back.
Bodog is one of the few casinos that understands this.
They offer generous odds to let you play longer and get you a better chance of winning. Among their generous offerings are Full-Pay Jacks or Better returning 99.54%, six other video poker games paying over 99%, single-zero roulette, and my favorite, Pick 'em Poker, returning 99.95%!
Kudos to Bodog for not being afraid to give their players a good gamble. (Visit Bodog)
Try blackjack at Bodog.
One click and you're in:
 No popups, no download, no registration, no B.S., just the game.
|
|
|
|
Online Casino Blacklist
Last update: Mar. 11, 2010
Blacklist
My blacklist is a place for the most unethical of Internet casinos. Reasons for inclusion on the blacklist include:
- Game results are not consistent with a random game. p>
I expect all casinos to offer a fair game as evidenced by the fact that the cards or dice observed fall in line with statistical norms.
- Non-payment of legitimate gambling winnings.
Granted the word “legitimate” is rather vague. I would prefer to say “any” gambling winnings, but many online casinos have a policy to not honor winnings in the case of extremely aggressive bonus abuse. While I strongly feel that casinos should honor their own rules, I want this list to consist of casinos that are significantly worse than the industry norm. Seizing deposits, or prior gambling winnings to the current withdrawal, are not acceptable, and justify blacklisting.
- Stealing web site content (typically mine).
Here is the Blacklist, starting with the most recently added.
Ultimate Bet: Ultimate Bet (UB) was placed on the blacklist on June 9, 2008. Both UB and Absolute Poker (AP) (see below) are owned by the same parent company, Tokwiro Enterprises. The cheating and alledged cover-up at AP was also occuring at UB. A UB player by the handle "NioNio" stole millions from other players, by way of super-user access, which allowed him/her to see his opponents hole cards. His win rate was many orders of magnitude better than the best poker players on earth. Yet, this went on undetected, and perhaps aided by insiders, at UB for months. It took the player community to expose what was going on. If UB/AP wish to refute any of this, I would be happy to print their corrections or comments. More information on Ultimate Bet cheating scandal:
Poker site cheating plot a high-stakes whodunit by Mike Brunker at MSNBC.com
Superusers and Silence: How UltimateBet let players get cheated for millions at twoplustwo.com.
Absolute Poker: Absolute Poker was placed on the Black List on November 30, 2007, because of the hole-card scandal, and the denial that followed. Anybody can be make mistakes or be hit by holes in security. However Absolute Poker had glaring evidence that a particular player was playing with evidence of competitors hole cards, and still denied it. For more information, please see my Absolute Poker invesigation. Virtual Casino Group: Added Nov. 13, 2007. This group of casinos is blacklisted for slow-paying and not paying players at all. I defer to the Casinomeister for the details. One of the many affected players is a good friend of mine, who has been owed money by three of these casinos for years. Virtual casinos are: Cirrus Casino, Prism Casino, Cool Cat Casino, Palace of Chance, Club Player,
Vip Lounge, Bet Royal Casino, and SlotsofVegas.com
SBG Global, Bet Royal: Added October 25, 2007 for non-payment of winnings. These two sports books claim a group of players were all following the same radio handicapper in Connecticut, and such "syndicate" play is against the rules. In my opinion, this is a ridiculous reason for non-payment. Some handicappers have huge followings, who all bet the same way when the picks are released. Take your losses like a man and pay, for crying out loud! Enterbet: Added January 19, 2007. Enterbet is placed on the blacklist for stealing content from my site. Much of their games rules were copied word for word this site. - All Elka System/Oyster Gaming casinos: After getting some anecdotal evidence that Netgaming.com was cheating in free play mode I gave them a try. In their single zero roulette game I placed 200 bets on red. My results were 133 wins and 67 losses. The probability of 133 or more wins in 200 spins is 1 in 3,788,515. So obviously they were letting me win. I blame the software for this and thus add all Elka/Oyster Gaming casinos to my blacklist. Besides this reason they have had a terrible reputation in the industry for years. Furthermore one of their clients, NetGaming, sold me out to pornography spammers. I used to maintain a list of Elka/Oyster casinos here but checking a random sampling of about ten 100% had vanished. So I believe this group to be fortunatly defunct. However the Casino Meister keeps a list of casinos that have used their software.
All Start Your Own Casino casinos: This software by their own admission can guarantee the operator a specified minimum win. As stated on their web site, "Our proprietary random number generator is calculating your profit before the winning/loosing number is sent back to the game. you can set a minimum profit that is always kept for you! this also ensures that you will not wake up with $20000 debts!" Thus the games can not be completely fair and random. I used to list three casinos using this software, but all three links are dead, as of July, 2009. - All MGM Gaming Systems casinos. The Wizard of Odds
recommends you to not play joker poker at all casinos
that use MGM Gaming Systems software. Based on my play at
Transnet Casino (click here
for full story) I very strongly believe that this
software is not playing a fair game of joker poker.
Besides Transnet other casinos that use this software
include Axel, Casimodo Palace, Casino XO, Lazarus, Master
Blackjack, Moon Palace, Paradise Players, Players Palace,
Tiger Dragon, and Vino. (Update: All these casinos seem fortunatly to have vanished)
- All Vegas Strip casinos: I played at
Cleopatra's Casino when they had a $100 bonus for $100
deposit promotion. I ran my balance up to $300 and cashed
out. The $200 in bonus/winnings arrived 20 days later by
Fed Ex, with an apology for taking so long. As usual with
Real Time Gaming casinos everything went very smoothly
and the bonus was paid quickly and without fuss. However
I got a complaint from a player in July 2001 saying he
responded to a Cleopatra promotion through this site. The
player in question claims they refused payment of
winnings and ignored all his inquiries. I put in an
inquiry myself about the situation, which they never
responded to. Failure to respond to my inquiry is just
cause for me to remove my endorsement. This casino is
part of the "Vegas Strip" family of casinos, a group I
have been hearing a lot of complaints about. The
GameMaster
reports they have refused to pay winnings to players just
for living in Denmark (a country known for Internet
casino fraud). Other Vegas Strip casinos include
America's Online Casino, Cleopatra's
Casino, Club Regal Casino, eWorld Casino, and Club
Mardi Gras Casino. Last date played: May 9, 2001. (Real
Time Gaming software)
- Casino Bar: When I played at Casino Bar on May 27, 2002, and December 13, 2002, the evidence will show that I didn't get a fair game of blackjack. Three other webmasters also tested them and the results were also not in line with a fair game. For the entire story please visit Casino Bar investigation. Date last played: December 13, 2002 (C.O.A World Entertainment software). As of July, 2009, Casino Bar seems to have vanished.
- Golden
Palace/Casino Depot: During the glory days of Internet casino
bonus hunting the Golden Palace offered a 20% bonus on
purchases up to $10,000, every month. I personally
collected $2000 in bonuses every month, and sometimes
from their sister casino Casino Depot as well. In April
2000 they evidently started to realize what was going on
and sent players letters stating that if they didn't play
more during off promotions they would not be offered
future promotions. This was fair and I gave them more
free play. Others made deposits immediately after
receiving this letter and played. Shortly after this they
took an even stronger stance and locked out all players
suspected of bonus abuse. By early June they had finished
their investigations. Some players, including me, got
their money back, and some did not. Golden Palace says
those funds were donated to charity. I am of the opinion
that every online casino should abide by its own rules.
Seizing funds from players whose only fault is taking advantage of the bonuses that were offered is not acceptable. Not until the Golden Palace
refunds the accounts of all players from this debacle
will I remove them from the blacklist. For the long
version of this story visit my Golden
Palace statement. (Playtech software)
Here are some more warning lists by other webmasters.
©1998-2010 Wizard Of Odds Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.
Privacy/Terms
Contact
Advertise
About Us
Links
|
|
