The B.C. government's aggressive move into online gambling is meant to lure players away from offshore websites like Party Poker and virtual casinos, where people bet
big bucks at the click of a mouse.But online gamblers who try out the B.C. Lottery Corp.'s newly expanded PlayNow website better be ready for a shocking kick in their credit cards: The government's games have an enormous house edge, unfair rules and winning payouts that are substantially worse than the offshore casinos and poker rooms they purport to replace.That's the conclusion of professional mathematician Charles Mousseau, a former computer analyst with the Calgary police who now runs a gambling consulting business. His speciality: analyzing the odds and probabilities of casino games, while offering marketing and technical advice to the $125-billion global gambling industry.
Mousseau analyzed the odds, probabilities and rules of the games offered on the PlayNow website and found they were "grossly unfair" to the player. "The mob offered better odds when they were running the old numbers rackets," Mousseau said, while scoffing at the government's claim that PlayNow is more "safe and secure" than offshore gambling sites."The price you pay for that 'legitimacy' is a horribly higher house edge. It's not worth the cost to the player, in my opinion," said Mousseau, owner of Future Sight Gaming in Winnipeg.
"House edge" refers to how much the government scoops out of every dollar bet on the PlayNow site, compared with how much is returned to winning bettors.Consider Pacific Hold 'Em Poker, the government's new online poker game. The cut taken by big offshore sites like Party Poker hovers around four per cent of the betting pool, with 96 per cent returned to the players.The B.C. government's poker house edge: Thirty-nine per cent. "That's absolutely oppressive to the player," Mousseau concludes.
He also criticizes the "deceptive" rules of the game. Players, for example, are allowed to "raise" their bet up to five times their original stake after seeing their first two cards. Players who are dealt two aces, for example, might be tempted to crank up their bet to the maximum amount.But the cards are not dealt at random in the poker game, which has a predetermined outcome like a scratch-and-win ticket. "The 'raise' option gives an illusion of skill that doesn't exist in the game," he said.
Mousseau said another misleading game on the site is called Dogs Playing Poker, in which players are "dealt" seven cards and win a prize if they make at least one pair."Someone with even modest poker experience might think, 'Seven cards to make one pair? That's not hard at all!' And that's exactly what they want you to think."But it's only when you follow a website link to the small-print rules that you find the warning: "This is not a real poker game. Wins and losses are predetermined at the time of purchase."
Asked for a response to Mousseau's findings, the B.C. Lottery Corp. issued a statement insisting that PlayNow games are fair."Before games are launched, the games, the odds and game conditions are third-party tested and certified for technical integrity," the statement said. The corporation has promised to launch new "casino-style" games on the site next year, including "peer-to-peer poker" that will presumably be a better deal for the player.
We shall see. In the meantime, Mousseau has two words of advice to gamblers about PlayNow games: "Stay away."
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