Blackjack - Dealer getting '21' an unreasonable/improbable amount of times

[deputy865]

Date and time (provide timezone): 2/8/2025, 4:00pm EST

Character name: Shane Michael

Does this issue appear again after a full game restart?: Yes

How many times did this issue appear for you?: 16 out of 24 hands

Issue/bug you are reporting: I was playing Blackjack to pass the time and when I first started playing, the dealer hit '21' (not always a blackjack, but the final hand resulting in '21') 4 of my first 5 hands. I found it laughable, but after it frequently happened again and again, I started tracking it. I ended up playing 24 hands before losing all of my money and of those 24 hands, the dealer had '21' 16 times. I understand it is a casino, it is gambling, and "the house always wins", but losing to the dealer having '21' 16 out of 24 hands is an extremely unlikely scenario without tampering in some way. I wouldn't have minded losing, or even have noticed losing if the dealer won with other hands, but the fact that the dealer showed '21' for 16 of 24 hands, not even counting the times the dealer won with 18, 19, 20, etc., is insane to me. We should also have a way to review previous hands or at the very least see the text of the wins/losses when gambling in the chat logs. 

Expected behavior:  If the game is played perfectly, or by the book, the house should have an advantage of 0.5% upwards of 2%. Or roughly 49% of hands out of 100. The statistical chance of getting a '21' in any form is around 5%~. 

Evidence (MUST provide either UNEDITED photo or video) , notes worth mentioning, steps to replicate: I should have taken screenshots of every hand played but I was more impressed by the statistical anomaly I was witnessing than anything. By the time I realized what was happening, it was too late to gather all evidence. 

Edited February 8, 2025 by deputy865

[Demonmit1]

now... i could totally be talking out of my ass on this, as i dont actually know the answer, but ive seen enough to make an educated guess.

Yes, the casino is rigged. the games are not a 1:1 representation of real world probability, and the win rates have been modified significantly by devs to make the casino an effective money sink for the economy. in the first week of the casino being released, there was several instances of players making 10's of millions of dollars, then a patch came out, limiting max bets, and likely adjusting the backend set win rates to something much lower than real world probability. ever since then its been a lot more common to see situations like you've described.

oh, and the script works in a way that every time a new hand is played, the deck is reset, so its impossible to count cards.

Blackjack is supposed to be a 51%/49% house favor game, but because its a video game and probabilities can be adjusted, its likely set to something more like 60%/40% or higher house favor. Is the casino fair? no. its a dirty cheater and its pretty obvious. is that a bad thing? debatable. the server economy had gotten so over inflated that there needed to be some form of effective money sink. 

Edited February 9, 2025 by Demonmit1

[Diligo]

guys this is a roleplay server and everything should be catered to realism. So like casino being a scam is pretty realistic.
its ironic people come in the casino thinking they can make money because they heard stories. Guess who makes up those stories?
Stop being foolish and come here in OOC Bug report forum to demand explanations. Casino is a meme put there by staff to see how many people will waste their time there.
Treat is as a Theme Park. You think popping those 3 balloons with a softball is easy and the super mega prize fluffy bear will be yours? No.. but it will be fun to try!

Bring back Tequilala poker and server will be happyy

[Daxu]

3 hours ago, Diligo said:

everything should be catered to realism

That's the point. Blackjack might not be realistic in its current configuration.

 

3 hours ago, Diligo said:

Stop being foolish and come here in OOC Bug report forum to demand explanations. Casino is a meme put there by staff to see how many people will waste their time there.

Do you have staff confirmation of the casino being intended as a meme? If not, no need to ridicule others for bringing up a potential problem--If the game is too unbalanced and staff are not aware/intending, that's a real fix needed. 

Also, there's some players here who's whole RP arc is rooted in being "professional gamblers". If the mechanics are broken, that has real impact on people's story.

 

4 hours ago, Diligo said:

Bring back Tequilala poker and server will be happyy

I agree 100% that poker shouldn't be limited to just casino. With that, the casino does have poker, so I'm not sure if there's too many differences. Not sure if you're suggesting that poker is kind of dead, but if so, that might be more of an advertising problem than game mechanics.

[Diligo]

42 minutes ago, daxu said:

Also, there's some players here who's whole RP arc is rooted in being "professional gamblers". If the mechanics are broken, that has real impact on people's story.

This whole bug thingy seems like an IC issue, need to contact authorities IC I believe

[Daxu]

3 minutes ago, Diligo said:

This whole bug thingy seems like an IC issue, need to contact authorities IC I believe

San Andreas Gambling Commission would actually be a cool thing to be able to report that to.

[TheCactus]

Roulette and Blackjack are definitely rigged in a way that you can't make money if you play safe. Slots are probably just as bad as they are irl. I'd rather go back to dice in front of bank

[Diligo]

On 2/10/2025 at 7:29 PM, TheCactus said:

Roulette and Blackjack are definitely rigged in a way that you can't make money if you play safe. Slots are probably just as bad as they are irl. I'd rather go back to dice in front of bank

listen here buster, i love slots, they made me the most money. theyre real for that

[Marigioshi]

That sounds incredibly frustrating, and while variance can be brutal in blackjack, the dealer hitting 21 sixteen times in twenty-four hands definitely raises eyebrows. The house always has an edge, but when outcomes feel statistically improbable, it's natural to question if something else is at play. If you're looking for a trusted site with fair blackjack games, https://rizzy.com/ has solid options.

Edited April 15, 2025 by Marigioshi

[Quietthecutie]

In its current state, per @Demonmit1s very good explanation, basically every game at the casino is rigged (much more heavily than irl, i like your 60/40 estimation it feels about right.) the devs probably thought this necessary as whilst the casino is very pretty and a lot of work went into it, when they actually released it people were making fat stacks of cash on lucky runs (as also happens in real casinos. but the bets people were putting down were just disproportionately high but people wernt playing long enough for the house always wins mechanics to kick in.) people lost also but the devs probably didn't want the casino turning into a place people would sink hours upon hours into just sitting at a table as its a NCZ and it reduces tangible activity in the city. they built a casino but dont want people treating it like casinos function IRL.

In other words, they put a lot of time and effort into this thing, then realised it might not have been the best idea, felt they had no choice but to nerf it, and now we have this white elephant. a beautiful sprawling casino that is mostly dead because everyone knows you go there to lose money.

The one exception to this is poker, as its P2P. you're not playing the house. but the script is so painfully slow most people cant be arsed. there's a reason online poker sites don't simulate a dealer they just bang the cards out.

In summary the Casino was a mammoth project that when implemented fell apart almost immediately.

Edited March 21, 2025 by Quietthecutie

[Dnwlo]

as a blackjack addict, I believe the chance to win against the dealer is %30, and the dealer win rate is %70.
I played a lot and I analyzed, devs made it to like that to take out money and balance server economy.