Do you believe that the casinos let you win at first? All to entice you with fairly small (for the casino) wins so you would start betting big and lose. But is there really something to it? I decided to dig in and finally confirm or debunk the myth.
The Sources of The Myth
The idea that you have increased chances to win as the newcomer at the casino comes from the times of mechanical “one-armed bandits”. It has merged from multiple layers:
Distorted Personal Experience
A person starts winning right after the first spin, but eventually loses everything. But instead of blaming himself for not stopping in time, he tries to rationalize in some other way.
And “the casino has tuned up my slot so I would win at first and then lose everything. I even saw the man who did this (just a casino worker emptying the nearby opened slot to turn the money in)” seems like a plausible explanation. And the loss doesn’t feel so sore anymore.
Later this story gets shared during a mug of beer with friends. Now imagine thousands of players sharing a similar story and it spreading around.
News Outlet Influence
A person interested in gambling inevitably hears and reads news reports about casino employers or even managers detained and accused of rigging games and slots somehow. This leads to a thought — if the casino employees can rig games, then they certainly can set up my slot for a scenario when I win at first, then lose big later.
“Common Sense”
The whole thing is plausible from the perspective of a common man without much knowledge of gambling laws and industry. It just looks sensible to tune the machine in a way to entangle a particular person more into the game by letting them enjoy some wins at first. Especially when thought from the perspective of this person who considers himself special and unique.
Why It Is Just A Myth
1.True Common Sense
If the casino lets you win at first, then… this means you can reliably win by going to a new casino, dumping some cash and walking away with the remaining winnings after you feel you start losing. Looks even easier in the digital casino time when you can easily leap from one website to another.
If it had worked, there would be hundreds of thousands trying this and walking away rich, because it would’ve been so easy. Not happening though.
2.Too Much Hassle For Nothing
The casino won’t get rich from devising and implementing a special scheme just for you, newcomer, to squeeze an extra $50 from your pocket by letting you win and then make you lose big. The casino makes a big buck by utilizing a house edge over the volume of players.
The house edge differs from 0,15% to 40%(only for Keno) depending on the type of game. So for the house it doesn’t matter if a few lucky people walk away with winnings while the rest lose more, and due to the house edge they will.
3.Digital Casinos Can’t Adjust Games
Even if the casino sees that your account is new and decides that “it would be nice to give a newbie a taste of win to strip him off all his money later”, there is no way for it to adjust the game to play out this particular way. Legit digital casinos don’t have direct access to the games. They are played on the game provider servers and all calculations happen there.
Thousands of people play the game at any particular time and the game provider doesn’t know who is playing. And has no reasons to care at all.
But Is There at Least Some Truth in This Myth?
There is, but only if we turn to rogue casinos set up to scam people. They utilize rigged games that can be set up to play the aforementioned scenario, granting small wins at first to make you deposit more money.
The thing is that even if you choose to withdraw the funds after the first wins, you won’t be able to do so. Because the scammers have no intention to pay you anything after you stop playing. So the rogue casino will “delay” the payment. And after scamming more people just close the website and disappear.