The enshitification of online gambling

[alani123]

I hold the thesis that online gambling reached its peak in the 10s decade.

Provable fairness, low house edge, no KYC, instant crypto deposits and withdrawals, original browser-based games without add-ons or third party providers, custom win-rate games like with crypto-dice. It was all achieved within this timespan.

The trend now especially post-pandemic has been a reversal of nice trends that we saw in iGaming.

I'll summarize some of the worst trends I see now:

Promotion of slots: casinos realized they can rake in millions by promoting the most addictive games. Nice animations but terrible RTP.
Increasing house edge: Many casinos that focus on slots have been silently increasing the RTP on their slots. Stake is a major example. Some crypto casinos now even completely removed any crypto-dice games they had.
Increased volatility: Now without games like dice where players can play for low multipliers and enjoy longer runs, risk of ruin is higher and runs last a shorter time as aiming for high payouts can result in going bust much faster. It's all about fast money for the casinos now.
Step back from provable fairness: Many major casinos that used to host a plethora of provably fair games now feature thousands of games that aren't provably fair.

There are exceptions of course. For instance Stake recently made the slots they've made provably fair, which means hundreds of slot games on their site are now provably fair. But this also happened with an increase in house edge... Interesting to consider that while the game results are now proven to be pre-determined, the odds became worse alongside that.

There's very little innovation nowdays. Interesting how crypto casinos have come to function without competition in terms of innovation even though they're holding competing products, supposedly.

The only innovation they make is to make them more money.
The other day I was looking at live dealer baccarat, a very traditionally low risk casino game, and the dealer was forced to promote side bets every 2 rounds. Kinda makes sense because the house edge of baccarat is around 1.24% whereas side bets have a whooping 10% house edge which is so crazy to consider.

[Oshosondy]

Step back from provable fairness: Many major casinos that used to host a plethora of provably fair games now feature thousands of games that aren't provably fair.

There are exceptions of course. For instance Stake recently made the slots they've made provably fair, which means hundreds of slot games on their site are now provably fair. But this also happened with an increase in house edge... Interesting to consider that while the game results are now proven to be pre-determined, the odds became worse alongside that.

I have mentioned on some of my posts on this board before that there is nothing like provably fairness when it comes to gambling, but some people will go against me. They said the games are provably fair, but we should know that there is also house edge which is the opposite of probably fair. I think something that is provably fair should have 50:50 chance of the gambers and casinos to win or lose, but this is not how gambling is on the gambling sites

Anyone should not go against me because I know about what they will post to try to prove that there are provably fair games which I only see as money making casino fair games.

[ruykeri]

These changes may have come since the revolution of online casinos. And at that time, casino companies were also largely dependent on luck. Now there are many online casinos that cheat people. People are more attracted by these advertisements and hoping for big profits and suffer losses. And at the time you mentioned, people used to gamble offline. They enjoyed gambling more. Currently, most gamblers have moved online, but many are falling victim to scams there.

[swogerino]

For Stake they did it since early 2024 as I instantly saw changes, a lot of changes for the bad, they increased the minimum bet with a terrible RTP that followed, all of this was disguised as "maintenance in slots" for a couple of days that made me experience my worse gambling experince so far with 29 consecutive buy bonuses lost in a row, yeah you heard that right.

Now a lot of people don't like the "stuck" phase where we are in gambling but I think this is the maximum gambling can offer us.

[cryptoaddictchie]

These changes may have come since the revolution of online casinos. And at that time, casino companies were also largely dependent on luck. Now there are many online casinos that cheat people. People are more attracted by these advertisements and hoping for big profits and suffer losses. And at the time you mentioned, people used to gamble offline. They enjoyed gambling more. Currently, most gamblers have moved online, but many are falling victim to scams there.

Sometimes an obvious advertisement from casino ua very easy to read. Like promotional with huge bonus and potential winnings but users must expect a big spend here cause thats how these promo works.

I like the past set up too on gambling but since every era is changing so as these casino and what worse is they took advantage on the modern upgrade some casinos doing. But is there really a casino doing as fairly as it is for their users or its all about business after all?

[stompix]

Counterpoint: Drug dealers are getting even worse!

First, they give you a few samples for free.
Then they support you, they introduce you to more friends to have fun, they give you discounts
Once you're hooked on they don't even visit you anymore, you have to go to certain spots
The prices rise, no discount, the stuff is diluted despite it not being that fun anymore!

Oh wait....
You were talking about a business making money out of people that stopped being enjoyable once they need to fleece you dry?
Mistook the two!

[fruktik]

Competition without innovation? I almost choked on my dumpling just now from that statement. On the contrary, every casino is coming up with something new and functional. And I'd like to clarify. What do you mean by innovation? You've written in somewhat abstract terms, but I wanted to delve into this issue in more detail, so I could have much more factual information.

[alani123]

Counterpoint: Drug dealers are getting even worse!

First, they give you a few samples for free.
Then they support you, they introduce you to more friends to have fun, they give you discounts
Once you're hooked on they don't even visit you anymore, you have to go to certain spots
The prices rise, no discount, the stuff is diluted despite it not being that fun anymore!

Oh wait....
You were talking about a business making money out of people that stopped being enjoyable once they need to fleece you dry?
Mistook the two!

You will excuse me but I don't get the reference to drug dealers.
The world is full of vices. Even drug dealing can afford some innovation. But we're talking about that isn't killing you from within your veins so I can't find this example fitting.

The part where casinos try to get players hooked is a marketing tactic done within a week or so. If someone sticks, very well. It's not something done over the span of years. The lack of innovation in favour of profits is something that took years for large casinos to get to. And what's interesting is that among them there have been surprisingly little developments in terms of technology in the last few years.

Competition without innovation? I almost choked on my dumpling just now from that statement. On the contrary, every casino is coming up with something new and functional. And I'd like to clarify. What do you mean by innovation? You've written in somewhat abstract terms, but I wanted to delve into this issue in more detail, so I could have much more factual information.

If you go through the OP I mentioned several examples of functional innovation in gambling. Can you bring up something as significant that came out recently? I'd be very eager to learn if I have missed something.

[Wapfika]

The only innovation they make is to make them more money.
The other day I was looking at live dealer baccarat, a very traditionally low risk casino game, and the dealer was forced to promote side bets every 2 rounds. Kinda makes sense because the house edge of baccarat is around 1.24% whereas side bets have a whooping 10% house edge which is so crazy to consider.

I’m playing online baccarat for a long time including other live dealer games. Dealer are always promoting the side bet as part of their regular routine on engaging to player since they are using the high payout table for that side bet to lure user on placing money on this high house edge bet option. It’s a silent money drainer on table games.

I’m not familiar that some casino increasing the house edge of the game especially slot but I thought only game provider has access on the RTP. Casino can just request for a higher RTP but not lower to based theoretical RTP set by the provider. This is an old knowledge that I read on some gambling forum.

[alani123]

The only innovation they make is to make them more money.
The other day I was looking at live dealer baccarat, a very traditionally low risk casino game, and the dealer was forced to promote side bets every 2 rounds. Kinda makes sense because the house edge of baccarat is around 1.24% whereas side bets have a whooping 10% house edge which is so crazy to consider.

I’m playing online baccarat for a long time including other live dealer games. Dealer are always promoting the side bet as part of their regular routine on engaging to player since they are using the high payout table for that side bet to lure user on placing money on this high house edge bet option. It’s a silent money drainer on table games.

I’m not familiar that some casino increasing the house edge of the game especially slot but I thought only game provider has access on the RTP. Casino can just request for a higher RTP but not lower to based theoretical RTP set by the provider. This is an old knowledge that I read on some gambling forum.

Yeah I'm not saying casinos increased the house edge of Baccarat but instead some casino I had in mind made sure to force their delaers to mention sidebets to an extent that it becomes very annoying, whereas they didn't say anything about sidebets before.

[danherbias07]

I feel it more in local online casinos. But the reason behind the high house edge and low RTP is the taxes. Plus, they do too much advertising and promotions using TV stars to get more attention, which requires a lot of money to pay for. Of course, they will take all the money back from the customers and not their own wallets.

I tried playing a lot of slots on our local online casinos, and it's proven and tested that the RTP is very low. It comes after like 1000+ rolls, and a gambler will need a lot of money before he can see some "imaginary luck" on his side. This is one of the reasons why I stopped playing slots for a long time. I'd stick with sports betting, but I will play slots only with just a little money or maybe none.

[Dunamisx]

Online gambling presence as draw more attention unlike before that they were not recognized or introduced, today, many are seeing this as an opportunity to explore for business potential in rendering online gambling services, so I can't blame anyone for doing soon because things are fast advancing than we knew before, and the purpose to why every one is making their offers is to engage others to benefit from their services and also for them to make earnings through this medium.

[programmer3666]

Somehow I agree with this. Because lately it actually feels like online gambling is more about making players lose faster than actually enjoying the game. Before, there were more fair games and better chances to play longer, but now everything is designed to push you into riskier bets with higher house edge. Even those flashy slot games look nice, but they drain money quickly. A clear case!! is how casinos now keep promoting side bets or bonuses that look attractive, but actually have worse odds. So in the end, the player thinks they have more chances, but they are actually losing more.

[michellee]

The attraction of online gambling makes gamblers moves from offline to online. They see the easiness and convenient of playing online gambling as they can play anywhere. The online casino see this as the opportunity to attract many gamblers so they will make a huge profit.

They still competing each other in getting more and more customers to be their loyal members. They also release so many promotions to attract more people attention and that is work for many casinos.

Some of them realize innovation could gives more chances to attract more gamblers to come. They see innovation can be a key to be big. They will create something that will benefits their members especially their loyal members.

[EarnOnVictor]

You're on point! What's constant is a change, so we should expect more, and it could shift back due to competition. And one thing about competition is that if the top casinos don't care, many others will follow suit, especially when they've already hit their huge customer-base; they care less. Also, we’ve traded transparency for how the platform looks, if they are cool, there we go.

Nonetheless, the "2010s" were the golden age because the houses were reasonable and competitive. Gains are their top priority now, even as aggressive marketing and sponsorship bills are there to pay. What do you expect? But still, some casinos are doing just fairly, and it's our choice to go to where we are treated badly.

[bubilas]

I hold the thesis that online gambling reached its peak in the 10s decade.

Provable fairness, low house edge, no KYC, instant crypto deposits and withdrawals, original browser-based games without add-ons or third party providers, custom win-rate games like with crypto-dice. It was all achieved within this timespan.

The trend now especially post-pandemic has been a reversal of nice trends that we saw in iGaming.

I'll summarize some of the worst trends I see now:

Promotion of slots: casinos realized they can rake in millions by promoting the most addictive games. Nice animations but terrible RTP.
Increasing house edge: Many casinos that focus on slots have been silently increasing the RTP on their slots. Stake is a major example. Some crypto casinos now even completely removed any crypto-dice games they had.
Increased volatility: Now without games like dice where players can play for low multipliers and enjoy longer runs, risk of ruin is higher and runs last a shorter time as aiming for high payouts can result in going bust much faster. It's all about fast money for the casinos now.
Step back from provable fairness: Many major casinos that used to host a plethora of provably fair games now feature thousands of games that aren't provably fair.

There are exceptions of course. For instance Stake recently made the slots they've made provably fair, which means hundreds of slot games on their site are now provably fair. But this also happened with an increase in house edge... Interesting to consider that while the game results are now proven to be pre-determined, the odds became worse alongside that.

There's very little innovation nowdays. Interesting how crypto casinos have come to function without competition in terms of innovation even though they're holding competing products, supposedly.

The only innovation they make is to make them more money.
The other day I was looking at live dealer baccarat, a very traditionally low risk casino game, and the dealer was forced to promote side bets every 2 rounds. Kinda makes sense because the house edge of baccarat is around 1.24% whereas side bets have a whooping 10% house edge which is so crazy to consider.

For some reason, after 2020, the crowd stopped demanding fairness and verifiability, and for the most part, they began to prefer lighter images and sounds, and this despite the fact that, as you correctly noted, this type of gambling has a low percentage of player winnings.
This is probably all due to the fact that the casino's business model has changed from the goal of attracting as many techies as possible and showing them that the casino is fair and fun to the goal of attracting the masses and squeezing everything out of them.

[fruktik]

If you go through the OP I mentioned several examples of functional innovation in gambling. Can you bring up something as significant that came out recently? I'd be very eager to learn if I have missed something.

Some casinos have a very interesting feature. It's a reward system for loyal players. The more money you deposit, the faster you reach a higher rank, which grants you benefits. For example, this includes the number of daily bonuses, which are quite attractive. Furthermore, the higher the rank, the more free spins you receive and the chance to win very generous prizes in tournaments.

[nimogsm]

The attraction of online gambling makes gamblers moves from offline to online. They see the easiness and convenient of playing online gambling as they can play anywhere. The online casino see this as the opportunity to attract many gamblers so they will make a huge profit.

They still competing each other in getting more and more customers to be their loyal members. They also release so many promotions to attract more people attention and that is work for many casinos.

Some of them realize innovation could gives more chances to attract more gamblers to come. They see innovation can be a key to be big. They will create something that will benefits their members especially their loyal members.

Even in the last two years, many top online casinos have begun to acquire their own ambassadors, some of whom are quite recognizable. Large casinos are sponsoring top clubs and supporting local sports, which is good on one hand, but also creates a dependency on this sponsorship. Online casino marketing has become more popular and much more aggressive, appealing to all age groups. While online gambling was somewhat unpopular 10 years ago, today it's become extremely commonplace.

[mcdouglasx]

And that's why it's better to play for fun than to make a profit. The house edge will always be there, so if you participate in betting, you'll most likely end up losing, and when you win, it's because you were very lucky. Now, what is fair and what isn't fair in games, I think it's subjective, because when they mention fair, it's really 70/30, right? So that's not fair, it's just legally fair.

[TheUltraElite]

Games that are not provably fair should be cancelled by the public, why are they still getting involved in those games?

Dice in stake was brought from primedice, but it is an EV- game and short term wins are possible on low multipliers leading to a massive loss eventually. Innovations are less in number because they need to invent new games in order to bring that. Time tested old games are always club favorites.

One thing I do note is the side bets, they tend to promote the higher risk attempts like hitting 21+3 on the blackjack and forces the gambler to tip the balance towards hit>stand.