One of the essential things casino players fear is being cheated by the casino. With everything being so impersonal and technical, it is often simple for players to think that the live dealer’s blackjack is rigged against them. Because of blackjack’s popularity, crooked casinos and croupiers have no problem drawing in naive players.
This article will teach you about live dealer blackjack and whether it is rigged.
What is a Rigged Live Dealer Blackjack Game?
Live dealer blackjack has become a prevalent means of playing this game. It enables you to enjoy land-based-style blackjack from the comforts of your home. However, cheating dealers can ruin the experience for any player.
Rigged live dealer blackjack is all about putting a player at a disadvantage through various methods. This includes setting the game where dealers get the best possible hands or giving an advantage to one specific player.
Hand Signals
In a rigged live blackjack game, live dealers use specific yet subtle hand signals to convey information to accomplices. These signals are usually indicators on the hidden dealer card.
One example of a hand signal is to swipe their thumb down the middle of the shoe as if they are prepping it. The number of thumb swipes can indicate the value of their hidden card or undealt card from the shoe.
These are only some apparent hand signals that live dealers usually do. It helps to have watched how actual croupiers host live dealer games or casino tables. The experience lets you know if the dealer is trying to signal a player through hand signals of various means.
Second Dealing
According to any blackjack rules, a dealer draws the top card of a shoe/deck when distributing everyone’s hole cards. However, cheating croupiers will deal with the second card of the deck instead of the first one, which is called second dealing. This classic cheat is where the dealer keeps a sound card for them or an accomplice player.
How can second dealing affect a game? With a pre-arranged deck, crooked dealers can give themselves or anyone Aces or a trash card. Aces are a big deal in blackjack since you can make natural blackjack hands or soft hands. Naturally, rigged live dealer games often lead to dealers making natural blackjack.
Having More Low Cards
High cards, ranging from A to 10, can boost the odds of obtaining a natural blackjack. However, they can increase the possibility of a player going bust.
Given that situation, croupiers could take one or more high cards out of the deck. Taking away buffers or low cards can drastically increase players’ bust rate when they hit or split their blackjack hands. Dealers are safe since they act after every player’s turn, increasing the chances of all players losing before the dealer can play.
Moreover, removing most cards from the deck can make most blackjack strategies useless. Live dealers usually have eight decks in their shoes, which gives an equal number of low and high cards. Altering the cards will change the odds of forming various hands, which puts most players at a disadvantage. Dealers are likely to enjoy the benefit of a natural blackjack, especially if they are also second-dealing.
Are There Actual Rigged Live Dealers?
The idea of cheating live dealer casinos is not some theoretical scenario in the Blackjack game. An actual blackjack game incident in 2017 involved live dealer blackjack cheating.
During a BetOnline Casino blackjack game, a Global Gaming Labs (GGL) dealer got caught while doing the second dealing of cards.
The GGL live dealer was playing against Michael Morgenstern – a gambler who caught this croupier cheating and eventually circulated what happened across the internet.
According to Michael Morgenstern, the live dealer had an eight-up card. Michael struck with an 11, drew a six, totaling 17, and opted to stand.
He observed that the croupier took the second card when dealing with him instead of taking the top card. After that, the dealer continued to provide themselves with a 10 – a full card. In the end, the dealer won the hand by having an 18.
Supposing this deal usually went down, Michael would have gotten 11+8, totaling 19. On the other hand, the croupier would have acquired 8+8, totaling 16, and been forced to strike again.
Unfortunately, BetOnline merely licensed the games of the studio. That means they are not involved in this case since they did not control the dealers in GGL.
Hence, there are two possible cases for what happened – either the live dealer was second dealing on behalf of GGL, or the dealer did the second dealing act accidentally.
It is difficult to verify whether the first scenario is actual conclusively. But after a month, BetOnline Casino immediately changed its providers of live casinos from GGL to Visionary iGaming.
How to Avoid Rigged Live Dealers?
Look up Blacklisted Online Casinos
You can search for the blacklisted online casinos on review and directory sites to avoid playing with rigged live studios and casinos involved in disputed incidents. You can also look for relevant gambling scandals or issues that caused them to be blacklisted and be aware of the schemes of sketchy live dealers. This method is one of the best ways to find legitimate live dealer blackjack sites.
If you have chosen a live casino, read reviews about it on different websites to help you get various opinions about that particular gaming site. This will help you find live dealer blackjack games that offer fair games.
Get a Read on the Dealer’s Personality
It pays to observe and read the personality of the live dealer. Note that this is not about catching the dealer red-handed by reading their intentions. This tip is about knowing the signs of a possible crooked dealer.
Observable behaviors such as keeping their head lowered and not making conversation indicate a person with something to hide. This attitude suggests criminal intent in taking advantage of the players.
You can tell a dealer is legitimate if they answer almost all the player’s questions. Some legit dealers also interact with the players actively. This behavior indicates a dealer who prioritizes everyone’s gambling experience.
Dealers are usually rotated to give them a break or stop any collusion with the players. If you notice a croupier is still hosting a game despite getting called out for their negative behavior or signs of cheating, you might be playing a rigged game.
Unfortunately, there are cheating croupiers who are looking to profit from naive players., However, you can always avoid crooked dealers by spotting the signs of a cheating method and going through a list of blacklisted casinos.
This article was published on August 21, 2022, and last updated on August 13, 2022.
