Hi all,
I'm new to this forum.
I've just had a nightmarish case of what appears to be extreme variance on
Blackjack. The casino will (for now) remain nameless but I am desperately seeking advice on what to do next.
My story is this:
I have been playing online Blackjack for a while now at numerous casinos utilising the sign up and
reload bonuses. I use basic strategy and while I have had some disappointing losses, I have also had some good wins and overall have gained a fair profit off the bonuses.
A month ago, one casino (which I also use for
sportsbetting) offered a casino sign up bonus of $500 with a WR of $20,000. I used $10 stakes and when I was through I had lost the bonus, but not my stake. Disappointing of course, but not the end of the world and probably not incredibly unlikely, just unfortunate.
Anyway, for reasons which will become clear in a moment, I added up the results of the first 531 hands and it came out: Win: 241 (45%) Lose: 251 (47%) Push: 39 (8%)
Quite reasonable percentages wouldn't you say? Well within EV.
OK, now last week this same casino offered me a reload bonus of $250 with a WR of $10,000. Fine, I thought, let's hope I have better luck this time...
I already had $1350 in my account from previous deposits and sports betting. The bonus pushed it up to $1600. Anyway, I started wagering at Blackjack again at $10 a hand and again using basic strategy. Over time, I just kept losing and losing and losing. That's not to say I lost every hand of course. However, after just 350 hands, I had lost the entire $1600!
To check I was not just losing my mind, I then deposited a further $50, but this time wagered just $1 stakes. Again, the losses just kept coming and I went bankrupt after a further 180 hands. :-(
My results were: Win: 135 (25%) Lose: 354 (67%) Push: 41 (8%)
By my calculations, the chance of this happening (or worse) is unbelievably crazy - like about one in 800,000,000,000,000,000.
If this is not enough proof, I counted the number of Blackjacks throughout the session. Correct me if I am wrong, but the player has the same chance of getting a Blackjack as the dealer. Again, a little variance is to be expected but the results were: Player: 6 BJ (11%), Dealer: 47 BJ (89%). I make the minimum chance of this happening (or worse) to be one in 354,000,000.
I seriously suspect something extremely dodgy is going on here and obviously I am gutted at losing well over $1000. Can anyone here help me please? Is there an ombudsman I can go to, or should I contact the casino first?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
ChaseTheAce