Against the Odds
Gambling has become America's hot pastime. But today's casinos have more of an upper hand
A handful of governments, such as those of Antigua, Gibraltar, the Isle of Man, and the Canadian Kahnawake tribe, are trying to clean up online casinos by licensing them, checking the backgrounds of operators, and requiring them to play fair. But the vast majority of gambling sites are based in countries like Costa Rica, which has no rules whatsoever. That means anyone can open up an online casino, even if he has no money set aside to pay off bets, engages in cheating, or is part of an organized crime ring. While there are legitimate sites, there are plenty of cons. In fact, one software provider promises online casino owners its program will cause gamblers to start losing once they reach a certain win threshold. Several independent Web watchdogs, such as those on casinomeister.com and wizardofodds.com, have identified sites that appear to be, say, dealing bad cards.
That's not the only website wile. A study by Canadian psychologists published last year in the journal Computers in Human Behavior found that 45 of 117 randomly selected Internet casinos inflated the player's win ratio during the free introductory games. When the psychologists bet $100 each at five sites, they lost almost everything. One casino refused to cash out their $14 winnings unless they gambled again. They did, and lost. Another site refused to refund the $20 they had left after losing $80.
Even the online casinos that play it straight often drag their feet. It typically takes up to five days for a gambler to cash out, a temptation to a gambling addict. Sue, a 52-year-old paralegal who doesn't want her last name used, said that's one reason she lost more than $12,000 gambling online in the past two years. "I couldn't control myself during that few-day waiting period and kept chipping away until there was nothing left," she says, noting that it only took seconds for the casino to accept her money.
Online casinos insist they are not taking advantage of customers. Casino-on-net.com, one of the biggest, says it takes three to five days to process cash-outs to prevent cheating and money laundering. "It is not for our own good," says spokesman Richard Bloch, "although it can appear that way to a customer."
Something that isn't obvious to many customers is the way some online casinos set the odds. Calvin Ayre, founder of Bodog.com, one of the world's biggest sports books, says that computers at his Costa Rican site identify each bettor and then personalize the odds. Such player profiling cannot occur in the legal sports books in Las Vegas because those casinos publish their lines in newspapers. Ayre says the individual odds are nothing more than a high-tech version of the traditional bookie's practice of taking advantage of, say, a Philadelphian's emotional tendency to bet on the Eagles. "They have the choice to take our offer or the other side," or to go to another site, Ayre says.
Not foolproof. Even the best-intentioned online casinos find it difficult to enforce the most basic rules, such as age limitations. Most try to do cursory checks, by, say, requiring some players to fax copies of identification cards. But Andrew, a 17-year-old Marylander, says he began betting on poker at Goldenpalace.com by clicking on the box that asked if he was 18 years of age. Goldenpalace says that it often relies on third parties, such as offshore escrow services, to verify customer ages and identities, but it is working on improvements. "Nothing is foolproof," says spokesman Steven Baker.
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