Online Blackjack Rigged or not?
play

Is online blackjack rigged? This is a question that many live blackjack players ask themselves at some point. Perhaps you’re a new blackjack player wondering why the house always wins in the end, or perhaps you’ve been playing for a while and are beginning to grow curious about why you always end up losing in the long run.

We’re going to answer your questions here. The answer is both yes and no. Online blackjack, including live blackjack, is mathematically rigged in favour of the casino, but it’s not rigged in the sense that you can never win.

If that confuses you, don’t worry, we’ll explain everything here.

Warning: Rigged Blackjack Sites Do Exist

Before you begin to play blackjack online, you should be fully aware that there are rigged blackjack sites online. We’ll never recommend them here, but they do exist, and you should be careful about where you play blackjack.

For example, if you play at UKGC-licensed casinos like 32Red and Mr. Green, you can be sure you’re playing safe, fair, truly random games. Casinos like these run live blackjack games from award-winning companies like Evolution Gaming, which in turn holds its own UKGC license. This means that the regulators are watching every move these casinos make, and they’ve verified the games as truly random.

We don’t want to put you off playing live dealer blackjack online. We just wanted to be honest about the fact that not every operator plays fair. If you stick with our approved sites, you can avoid any problems with rigged blackjack games.

Online Blackjack Is Rigged – Here’s How

Have you ever heard the common expression, “the house always wins”? It’s true of every casino game, including blackjack, if you play for long enough. Does this mean the games are rigged? Not in the commonly understood meaning of the word “rigged,” which means fixed so that you can’t ever win. However, in another sense of the word, they are rigged to give the casino an advantage.

Every casino game has a house edge. This is a percentage, making it a mathematical certainty that the casino will make money on every game. In blackjack, if you play with a perfect strategy, the house edge is under 0.5%. That means that for every £100 you wager, the casino will make less than £0.50 on average.

Remember, this is the house edge for blackjack on average. It accounts for every player, every hand, and every wager. You could get lucky and win six hands in a row, leaving you up money, or you could lose six hands in a row, losing your stake. There’s an element of luck involved for sure, but in the end, the house edge guarantees the casino a small profit.

The house edge is meant to express the average earnings of the casino on a game. And yes, in the end, every game, including blackjack, is rigged in favour of the casino.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t win!

Online Blackjack Is Not Fixed

This is where many players get confused. Some people think that online blackjack is fixed and that you can’t win because the casino will cheat. That may be true at some rogue casinos, but it isn’t true at the vast majority of them. Especially when we’re talking about blackjack sites for UK players, regulators are tough and diligent. There’s no way a UK online casino would risk its reputation and guaranteed profits in the long run, just for the sake of running fixed blackjack games. It doesn’t make sense for them to do so.

Online blackjack isn’t fixed so that you can’t win, but it is rigged so that the house makes a guaranteed profit over hundreds of bets. We hope that makes sense.

Playing Blackjack Online – Frequently Asked Questions

No, and that’s an important point to make. For example, in Spanish 21 blackjack, all the 10s are removed. This significantly increases the house edge. It’s best if you play classic blackjack. Some blackjack games earn the casinos much more than others.

Believe it or not, you can. You have to learn how to count cards, though. Casinos will typically ban you if they catch you doing this, and it’s much harder/borderline impossible at online casinos which use continuous shufflers and up to eight decks per game. It is possible in land casinos, though, and some card counting teams have been incredibly successful.

This is an easier question to answer: yes. Unless they are specifically designed for blackjack players, it’s most likely that blackjack will hardly count at all towards the wagering requirements. This is because the house edge on blackjack is so small. When you accept a casino bonus, make sure to check the “game weighting” section of the small print. In all probability, £0.10 out of every £1 you wager on blackjack will count towards wagering.

You can trust any live blackjack site on this site. We have reviewed them all, and they have all met or exceeded our standards. If we could only recommend one, it would be Mr. Green. However, 32Red, Temple Nile, and all of the others are safe blackjack sites. They don’t run fixed games.