Investigation: 500 Casino Towers charges up to 8x the advertised house edge

[ProvablyFair.org]

X Post: https://x.com/provablyfairorg/status/2115911319626928409

Full report: provablyfair.org/investigations/500casino-towers  ·  Data + scripts: GitHub[/center]


TL;DR

500 Casino says Towers has "a fixed house edge set at 5% for all 3 difficulty modes". The game actually takes the 5% again on every row you climb, so the edge grows the higher you go:

Row 1: you get back 95.00%, house edge 5.00%
Row 2: you get back 90.25%, house edge 9.75%
Row 5: you get back 77.38%, house edge 22.62%
Row 10 (top): you get back 59.87%, house edge 40.13%, 8x the advertised 5%

The same paytable is documented since 2023. We estimate players were paid $3.5m to $21.6m less than advertised over three years.

If you played Towers since 2023 and cashed out past row 1, you were paid less than 500 advertised. We're asking 500 to pay it back. Save your bet history and bet IDs.


Check it in 10 seconds

Open Towers on Medium. Row 2 shows 3.61x. A 5% edge pays 3.80x.

On a $100 Medium win:
Row 4: 500 pays $1,303.21. A fixed 5% pays $1,520.00. You get $216.79 less.
Row 10: 500 pays $61,310.66. A fixed 5% pays $97,280.00. You get $35,969.34 less.


How it works

Advertised 5%: payout = 0.95 × (1/p)^n, so you get 95% back at every row.
500 Towers: payout = (0.95/p)^n, so you get 0.95^n back.
p = chance of a safe pick per row, n = rows cleared.

500's own pages define house edge per bet. The Towers game page says "The game's RTP is typically around 95%". Their house-edge article says Towers works like Duels, where 500 takes "a fixed 5% rake for every played duel": once per game.

House edge at row 1, then at the top row:
Stake Dragon Tower: 2%, then 2%
Shuffle Tower: 2%, then 2%
500 Towers: 5%, then 40.13%


It's the server, not just the display

• 500's server records, Nov 2024 (270 row payouts, 27 paid): 270 of 270 compounded
• Public bet feed, Oct 2026 (other players' wins): 330 of 330 compounded
• Our live test, 9 Oct 2026 (33 games): all balances reconcile

The 2023 help pages already list a ~613x Medium top multiplier. A fixed 5% would top out at 972.8x.


Provably fair passes. The payouts don't.

We replayed all 33 test games from the revealed seeds: 2/2 commitments, 33/33 results, 53/53 tiles. The verifier proves where the bombs were. It never checks what a win pays. 500's iTech Labs RNG certificate doesn't cover the paytable either.

Data and scripts: github.com/ProvablyFair-org/500casino-towers


What 500 should do

1. Publish the payout formula's history and the dates each version ran.
2. Review every affected player and pay the difference back.
3. Fix the paytable to a true 5%, or clearly advertise the real edge.


We'll update the report and this thread if 500 responds with reproducible evidence. Happy to answer questions here too, or run any extra check someone suggests.

- PF Team

[ProvablyFair.org]

Update: 500 Casino has responded on X. They dispute our loss estimate, but say they will look into it, fix Towers and make all affected players whole. The official 500 account backed the reply.

https://x.com/VxzD500/status/2115932519862509911

If they share their real numbers, we’ll update the report.

Fixing it going forward isn’t enough. 500 still needs to answer publicly: how a game advertised at 5% ran at up to 40% for 3 years, whether refunds cover every cash-out at row 2 or higher since launch, and whether refunds are automatic or players have to claim.

If you played Towers and cashed out at row 2 or higher, you were paid less than advertised. Check and save your bet history.

We’ll keep tracking this until players are paid.

[rohang]

>> Read, share and comment on the X thread <<

Full report: provablyfair.org/investigations/500casino-towers  ·  Data + scripts: GitHub

TL;DR

500 Casino says Towers has "a fixed house edge set at 5% for all 3 difficulty modes". The game actually takes the 5% again on every row you climb, so the edge grows the higher you go:

Row 1: you get back 95.00%, house edge 5.00%
Row 2: you get back 90.25%, house edge 9.75%
Row 5: you get back 77.38%, house edge 22.62%
Row 10 (top): you get back 59.87%, house edge 40.13%, 8x the advertised 5%

The same paytable is documented since 2023. We estimate players were paid $3.5m to $21.6m less than advertised over three years.

If you played Towers since 2023 and cashed out past row 1, you were paid less than 500 advertised. We're asking 500 to pay it back. Save your bet history and bet IDs.


Check it in 10 seconds

Open Towers on Medium. Row 2 shows 3.61x. A 5% edge pays 3.80x.

On a $100 Medium win:
Row 4: 500 pays $1,303.21. A fixed 5% pays $1,520.00. You get $216.79 less.
Row 10: 500 pays $61,310.66. A fixed 5% pays $97,280.00. You get $35,969.34 less.


How it works

Advertised 5%: payout = 0.95 × (1/p)^n, so you get 95% back at every row.
500 Towers: payout = (0.95/p)^n, so you get 0.95^n back.
p = chance of a safe pick per row, n = rows cleared.

500's own pages define house edge per bet. The Towers game page says "The game's RTP is typically around 95%". Their house-edge article says Towers works like Duels, where 500 takes "a fixed 5% rake for every played duel": once per game.

House edge at row 1, then at the top row:
Stake Dragon Tower: 2%, then 2%
Shuffle Tower: 2%, then 2%
500 Towers: 5%, then 40.13%


It's the server, not just the display

• 500's server records, Nov 2024 (270 row payouts, 27 paid): 270 of 270 compounded
• Public bet feed, Oct 2026 (other players' wins): 330 of 330 compounded
• Our live test, 9 Oct 2026 (33 games): all balances reconcile

The 2023 help pages already list a ~613x Medium top multiplier. A fixed 5% would top out at 972.8x.


Provably fair passes. The payouts don't.

We replayed all 33 test games from the revealed seeds: 2/2 commitments, 33/33 results, 53/53 tiles. The verifier proves where the bombs were. It never checks what a win pays. 500's iTech Labs RNG certificate doesn't cover the paytable either.

Data and scripts: github.com/ProvablyFair-org/500casino-towers


What 500 should do

1. Publish the payout formula's history and the dates each version ran.
2. Review every affected player and pay the difference back.
3. Fix the paytable to a true 5%, or clearly advertise the real edge.


We'll update the report and this thread if 500 responds with reproducible evidence. Happy to answer questions here too, or run any extra check someone suggests.

- PF Team

Thanks for doing this.

Insane how a major casino has this 'bug' for years and paid by millions less. Surely they knew ?

Can you do the same for their other originals ,if you havent already. If its on one game then might be on others as well

[theoddwright]

The verifier proves where the bombs were. It never checks what a win pays.

That's the part worth keeping beyond this one game. Provably fair proves the draw. It says nothing about the price.

You can check the price on any ladder game yourself: take the chance of reaching a step and the multiplier shown there, and multiply them. That's the RTP of cashing out at that step.

Medium Towers is 1 in 2 per row, so with the numbers above:
Row 1: 1.90x × 1/2 = 95%
Row 3: 6.86x × 1/8 = 85.7%
Row 10: 613x × 1/1024 = 59.9%

A fixed edge gives the same answer on every row. If it falls as you climb, the edge compounds, whatever the info page says. Mines works the same way, the chance of n safe picks is just a longer product.

[rohang]

500 has paid everyone back and added 10% on top-


https://x.com/500Casino/status/2116191668638777483


Very very fast response from one of the most legit casinos right now. Seems it was not intentional and somehow a bug that got left out. thanks to provably fair for this!!