Should online casino games be open source?

[stompix]

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But to be right and reinforce your arguments you contradict yourself in the same post, in your first answer you say that there are no guarantees that it will be evaluated by experts and in the second you say that attackers will take advantage of its vulnerabilities, now I ask you, isn't an attacker an expert?

No, they are not and it's pretty simple
- there is no guarantee that an expert would look over that code and fix it
- there is the risk of someone knowledgeable looking over it and try to exploit
- there is also the risk of someone hunting a known vulnerability, a guy that normally would not be able to realize the code has a fault
[/quote]

In short, what open source protection base in terms of vulnerabilities would the casino choose? It would choose a reward system for collaborators to report and correct them.

None, as I said.
Contrary to popular belief it's not open source or closed source that defines the level of security is the money involved, no top hacker is going to spend days hacking into a pizza shop, and nobody has managed to date to hack Visa's servers for example, not talking about 3rd party solutions.

[hedgeh0g]

In my opinion, this is a great idea. As a player, I would go to such a casino first and foremost and at any opportunity. Of course, the casino itself will most likely receive more minuses than pluses due to attacks and various not very honest incomes that it could afford before the introduction of such an approach. In general, I also think that casinos do not want to introduce this and be the first because they will face a lot of uncertainty and their risk manager is not ready to say that such a step must be taken. Many casinos are very happy with their current state of affairs and do not want to give up the cash flow that they have now, so why do they need something new?

[o48o]

This idea may seem at first glance like an act of transparency on the part of the casino. Allowing anyone to review the software to ensure the games are fair and not manipulated, or contribute improvements and new ideas, gives users added confidence.

However, there are extremely negative aspects such as the intellectual property of exclusive games, the possibility of malicious individuals modifying the code to create fraudulent versions of the games, and the impact on the compliance with laws and regulations to which casinos are subject.

What is your opinion?

I'm not sure if this topic has been discussed here before; if so, I apologize in advance.

I wouldn't mind of it, but if someone finds an exploit, i can't think of any reason other then having strong ethics, that they wouldn't use to make money.
And frankly i see hackers making money a way more plausible scenario then white hats reporting the bug, especially if there's not big enough bug bounties. And even if they were big bounties, why wouldn't they exploit the bugs first and report them after so they would benefit from both of them?

Other issue is that, there already are legit casinos that don't need to cheat. Math is working for them so they don't need to. Imho cheating might be problem with shady casinos, not legit big casinos. And people who are using shady casinos now, are doing that for a reason. Maybe unrealistic bonuses or something else, but they are risking their money willingly. Why would they change their behavior and move to experimental open source casinos, when they aren't choosing the legit casinos now?

[AmoreJaz]

Maybe get a provider that would be in an open-source type of thing? I’m curious if nobody has tried that or if it’s going to be profitable. Probably, this is not happening just because of the possibility of getting stolen of ideas and codes that are advantageous if you know how to get ahead of the competition.

Aren’t seeds enough to verify your gambling bets?

Actually, there are open source casino scripts already. Now, it is up to you how you will develop it into distinct website that will give certain identity for your site. Because such scripts are already available, however, it is up to the developer how he will develop it into really a working site.
For a time, there were casinos which have been introduced here with the same theme, however, they can improve it by hiring a dedicated developer and create it as a unique one to have their own identity. Just head to github and you will find out some of these open sources.

[Oluwa-btc]

What is your opinion?

There are pros and cons to any innovation. I think most gamblers would support such an idea. The problem is that not all casinos and gambling providers will agree to this and not because someone can use modified software, but because they do not want to be so open to users. If they wanted to do this, we would have long seen this implementation, because in fact, most casinos have the same gambling games using different user interfaces and open source code could well attract users from competitors.

Wether the casinos should be open source or not,it wholly depends on the business owner to decide and compile all the effective means and strategies to the expectations of the players. Ordinarily,it's not supposed to be exposed to users and customers,because they have to meet up with various regulations standards and also comply to every provided standard.

[taufik123]

No, they are not and it's pretty simple
- there is no guarantee that an expert would look over that code and fix it
- there is the risk of someone knowledgeable looking over it and try to exploit
- there is also the risk of someone hunting a known vulnerability, a guy that normally would not be able to realize the code has a fault

This would be dangerous, even for all players involved in a casino that were an Open Source casino.
Seeing how the fact that crazy gambling players and even a reliable programmer can take advantage of any loophole to drain the money of the bookmaker or the players in the online casino.

After all, any bookie that will be willing to open the Open Source Code for their money-making business,
it will be completely closed and will only accept the regulations and audits set by the local government.

Online casinos are full of money and are not expected by anyone else who is not part of the team involved.
Maybe some casinos give the Bug Bounty challenge, but it's certainly not open source, just looking for loopholes that haven't been closed and those who find them will get a reward worth it.

[Yucky]

This would be dangerous, even for all players involved in a casino that were an Open Source casino.
Seeing how the fact that crazy gambling players and even a reliable programmer can take advantage of any loophole to drain the money of the bookmaker or the players in the online casino.

Whether the casino game should be open source or not depends on the casino, because they will be giving people a hint into knowing the structure of the game, which can help gamblers better win. But do you see, it means it can improve winning chances for gamblers, and casinos won't do that. They didn't build it to help people win; they built it to make a profit first, before reaching the customers.

 And secondly, every gambler has had their share of losses. If a casino game should be open source, there's a high possibility that gamblers will hop on it, just to find out tricks or hacks or any way to retrieve their money. Either by hacking the site or creating duplicate sites for those with negative intentions. You know, different things. So, I don't think they will create games as open source, because some people who are shifting into addictive gambling will see it as an opportunity to recover all they've lost in the casino.

[serjent05]

Game providers have the right to secrecy due to the possibility of imitation by competitors.  What open source should be the tool to validate the game fairness.  This way people have access to the tool and validate games provided by the casino.

Game programs are intellectual property, where the person has the right to keep the details of creation secret or protected by the law.  There is no gaining from making the invention or creation of gambling games for the creator, since making it open source will devalue it, making the creation process open to the public, and everyone can easily make the game.  This will deny the game creator of possible future profits.

[KiaKia]

This idea may seem at first glance like an act of transparency on the part of the casino. Allowing anyone to review the software to ensure the games are fair and not manipulated, or contribute improvements and new ideas, gives users added confidence.

However, there are extremely negative aspects such as the intellectual property of exclusive games, the possibility of malicious individuals modifying the code to create fraudulent versions of the games, and the impact on the compliance with laws and regulations to which casinos are subject.

What is your opinion?

I'm not sure if this topic has been discussed here before; if so, I apologize in advance.

That's not on us to decide, it is not gamblers job to go through casinos software and haven't anyone think that if the casino codes and softwares are open source some people will be able to use them against the casino just like how hackers use to do.

Online casino codes and softwares are better keep out of the public reach or else there will be more hacks on online casinos than those on crypto exchanges, also games providers are responsible for most games on online casinos.

I believe that game providers should be the one answering this question, if you can find a glitch in a casino game you won't care about other thousands of games out there.

[purple_sparkles]

This idea may seem at first glance like an act of transparency on the part of the casino. Allowing anyone to review the software to ensure the games are fair and not manipulated, or contribute improvements and new ideas, gives users added confidence.

However, there are extremely negative aspects such as the intellectual property of exclusive games, the possibility of malicious individuals modifying the code to create fraudulent versions of the games, and the impact on the compliance with laws and regulations to which casinos are subject.

What is your opinion?

I'm not sure if this topic has been discussed here before; if so, I apologize in advance.

That's not on us to decide, it is not gamblers job to go through casinos software and haven't anyone think that if the casino codes and softwares are open source some people will be able to use them against the casino just like how hackers use to do.

Online casino codes and softwares are better keep out of the public reach or else there will be more hacks on online casinos than those on crypto exchanges, also games providers are responsible for most games on online casinos.

I believe that game providers should be the one answering this question, if you can find a glitch in a casino game you won't care about other thousands of games out there.

I believe that for players there’s not much benefit or sense in online casinos making their source code open. But for  hackers, it could be very significant. That’s why exposing such information is very unsafe for the casino itself, it could become vulnerable to criminals. Although, I don’t deny that there may be things I don’t fully understand.

[masulum]

I believe that for players there’s not much benefit or sense in online casinos making their source code open. But for  hackers, it could be very significant. That’s why exposing such information is very unsafe for the casino itself, it could become vulnerable to criminals. Although, I don’t deny that there may be things I don’t fully understand.

Okay, let's make it simpler. The bottom line is, the reason online casinos will never open their source code isn't just about security, but more about business. Imagine, the code is like a food with secret recipe. If the recipe were leaked, anyone could make it, and the unique taste would disappear, and the business would go bankrupt. Well, casinos are the same. Their code is their competitive advantage, containing algorithms and features that set them apart from other casinos. they pay a lot of money to license their games, so the code is also intellectual property that must be protected.

[davis196]

This idea may seem at first glance like an act of transparency on the part of the casino. Allowing anyone to review the software to ensure the games are fair and not manipulated, or contribute improvements and new ideas, gives users added confidence.

However, there are extremely negative aspects such as the intellectual property of exclusive games, the possibility of malicious individuals modifying the code to create fraudulent versions of the games, and the impact on the compliance with laws and regulations to which casinos are subject.

What is your opinion?

I'm not sure if this topic has been discussed here before; if so, I apologize in advance.

If casino games become open source, all casino game providers would lose their business. Maybe all the casinos would become useless as well.
Imagine a community of gamblers hosting and playing open-source gambling games. Do they really need a casino owner imposing KYC and handling deposits and withdrawals? Open source gambling games would eventually kill the online gambling business. This is why the "probably fair" protocol exists. The fairness of the games can be proven by reviewing the player seed, the server seed and the identifier (nonce).
I'm sure that rigged versions of gambling games can be created without the games necessarily being open source.

[alegotardo]

This idea may seem at first glance like an act of transparency on the part of the casino. Allowing anyone to review the software to ensure the games are fair and not manipulated, or contribute improvements and new ideas, gives users added confidence.

However, there are extremely negative aspects such as the intellectual property of exclusive games, the possibility of malicious individuals modifying the code to create fraudulent versions of the games, and the impact on the compliance with laws and regulations to which casinos are subject.

What is your opinion?

I'm not sure if this topic has been discussed here before; if so, I apologize in advance.

I completely disagree!
Open source isn't synonymous of security. Transparency is good, but it alone does not solve the problem you are exposing.
These days, our open source projects have at least one of two options: a large and active community behind them or a large company and highly skilled technical professionals. Why is that? Because the same source code we, good people, are seeing... is also visible to a hacker who wants to steal an online casino platform.
So, what better way for them than to have the entire website source code exposed, making it easier for them to find vulnerabilities?
This is only useful if there are also other good peoples constantly looking of this code, proposing solutions and fixing any problems they find. Do you agree?

Casino trust will also be negatively impacted if someone finds a flaw, points it out for correction and the casino takes days or weeks to fix because it lacks a qualified team technical. "Code transparency" canot be turned into a marketing ploy that can be very costly for the online casino site.

But there is a "middle ground": periodic independent audits by trusted companies. These companies would analyze the code and publicly report whether it is clean and fair, without exposing the existing flaws, but rather reporting that they need to be fixed.

[xenomorfo]

Game providers have the right to secrecy due to the possibility of imitation by competitors.  What open source should be the tool to validate the game fairness.  This way people have access to the tool and validate games provided by the casino.

Game programs are intellectual property, where the person has the right to keep the details of creation secret or protected by the law.  There is no gaining from making the invention or creation of gambling games for the creator, since making it open source will devalue it, making the creation process open to the public, and everyone can easily make the game.  This will deny the game creator of possible future profits.

I certainly don't expect them to share things, they spend a lot of time making cute games, i really don't think they're happy to give away the fruits of their labor for free
then maybe some don't want to give the program to everyone because they fear their dirty tricks will be discovered, in certain cases

[goldkingcoiner]

This idea may seem at first glance like an act of transparency on the part of the casino. Allowing anyone to review the software to ensure the games are fair and not manipulated, or contribute improvements and new ideas, gives users added confidence.

However, there are extremely negative aspects such as the intellectual property of exclusive games, the possibility of malicious individuals modifying the code to create fraudulent versions of the games, and the impact on the compliance with laws and regulations to which casinos are subject.

What is your opinion?

I'm not sure if this topic has been discussed here before; if so, I apologize in advance.

I personally would prefer the online casino games to all be open source. There is no disadvantage to that because the games are all based on probability anyway. But at the very least we should know if they are as fair as the casino says they are.

It would definitely help with player confidence and definitely contribute to further improvements, especially when it comes to fixing bugs that could be exploited. So the casino should also have an interest in making them open source.

[Plaguedeath]

Open source isn't synonymous of security. Transparency is good, but it alone does not solve the problem you are exposing.

That's why the casino have to run a bug bounty program and offer the reward as high as the amount that the hacker could exploit. Most companies doesn't care with their security, some of them don't even have bug bounty at all, while some of them only give small compensation.

This make high skilled people choose to be a black hat hacker than white that hacker, white hat not getting a worthy reward.

[swogerino]

This idea may seem at first glance like an act of transparency on the part of the casino. Allowing anyone to review the software to ensure the games are fair and not manipulated, or contribute improvements and new ideas, gives users added confidence.

However, there are extremely negative aspects such as the intellectual property of exclusive games, the possibility of malicious individuals modifying the code to create fraudulent versions of the games, and the impact on the compliance with laws and regulations to which casinos are subject.

What is your opinion?

I'm not sure if this topic has been discussed here before; if so, I apologize in advance.

What you are asking is an interesting and fair though I think this remains fully in the hands of the casinos, if they want or not to show they are fair in the claimed RTP as I want to focus here right now as my primary concern. The reason I focus here is that there are some slot providers which offer 3 different type of RTP-s from highest 96% to lowest 84% and I don't know if the casinos want to show for real which of the RTP they are using in a specific moment in time. Now I know that some casinos show the RTP of their games though we have no way of verifying what they say is correct. Once these doubts are cleared I think we can move to fair and open source.

[joniboini]

That's why the casino have to run a bug bounty program and offer the reward as high as the amount that the hacker could exploit. Most companies doesn't care with their security, some of them don't even have bug bounty at all, while some of them only give small compensation.

If companies here refer to gambling platforms, which gambling platform runs a bug bounty program successfully? How would they even determine the maximum reward if they don't have any experience of being hacked before? I don't think it's sustainable to offer all of their cold wallet stash as a bug bounty reward. That would leave them with no capital to continue their operation. CMIIW.

[AbuBhakar]

What you are asking is an interesting and fair though I think this remains fully in the hands of the casinos, if they want or not to show they are fair in the claimed RTP as I want to focus here right now as my primary concern. The reason I focus here is that there are some slot providers which offer 3 different type of RTP-s from highest 96% to lowest 84% and I don't know if the casinos want to show for real which of the RTP they are using in a specific moment in time. Now I know that some casinos show the RTP of their games though we have no way of verifying what they say is correct. Once these doubts are cleared I think we can move to fair and open source.

IIRC the reason why casino doesn’t want to make their games open source code is to protect their properties from being exploited or easily copy by competitors.

But we don’t what’s the real reason behind since this is already an old in gambling board that doesn’t have exact answer from game provider.

Players still playing close source code game that’s why developers doesn’t have any reason to make it open source code.

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

What you are asking is an interesting and fair though I think this remains fully in the hands of the casinos, if they want or not to show they are fair in the claimed RTP as I want to focus here right now as my primary concern. The reason I focus here is that there are some slot providers which offer 3 different type of RTP-s from highest 96% to lowest 84% and I don't know if the casinos want to show for real which of the RTP they are using in a specific moment in time. Now I know that some casinos show the RTP of their games though we have no way of verifying what they say is correct. Once these doubts are cleared I think we can move to fair and open source.

IIRC the reason why casino doesn’t want to make their games open source code is to protect their properties from being exploited or easily copy by competitors.

But we don’t what’s the real reason behind since this is already an old in gambling board that doesn’t have exact answer from game provider.

Players still playing close source code game that’s why developers doesn’t have any reason to make it open source code.

I think it's obvious by now that casino base operators are not going to open source their code. They won't allow anyone to see how they created this problems and how to implement the RNG as others will try to found loopholes on it.

And they have spend millions of dollars writing the code or hiring some group of programmers to developed new games for this operators. So it's not that easy, as this is business and you have to protect your self from competitions.