I know in any computerized gambling game whether real or for fun they have to cheat in your favor occasionaly to keep you interested
the reason being is when video gambling started it was seen as more boring than the real thing so they programmed “winning streaks” to keep you entertained naturally they tweaked them so you still had to spend 25 to win 20 … they just kept the illusion as tradition …
Any real computer gambling place that tried that would find themselves in prison very quickly. The gaming commissions take that sort of thing very seriously.
The other program I was thinking of was GNU Backgammon, it’s free and it won the last computer backgammon championship back in 2015. (I can’t find a more recent one.) It has the options for analysis I was talking about. Its source code is also available for download, so feel free to poke around it.
I dunno. This is how slot machines are programmed.
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If you know of any slot machines that are programmed that way, you probably want to give the Nevada Gaming Commission a call. I think they offer rewards for that information.
In slot machines, at least, the odds are configured ahead of time. I would not think there’d be anything illegal about setting up the lower value games to win more often, but the higher value games to not win as often. But changing as you go wouldn’t make a lot of sense.
Now virtual card games do have tons of tests to make sure they are fair and balanced. The winnings are just adjusted for the odds. But, with slots, I am rather sure that it’s just a programmed percentage. It’s like those crane games.
I have never heard of a reward for reporting a rigged machine, I’d like to hear more about that.
I do know of Vegas casino Director of Security being fired for reporting a rigged slot.
Slot programmers use all kinds of devious tricks, it’s not as random as they want folks to believe.
For example, for a time the machines were programmed to deliver a “near win” every X spins. This is where two sevens line up on the pay line and the third hangs there for a fraction of a second before ‘falling off’. This method makes the player feel that he almost won and entices him to play longer than he would have otherwise.
The gaming commission caught wind of this and, after much investigation and debate, the practice was outlawed.
Of course that only made the casinos develop alternative methods. Once the ‘near win’ on the payline was abolished, they started programming the machines to produce a near win on lines other than the pay line (because this was not specifically prohibited). In other words, the player would see three 7s line up in a nice row on a non-paying line, which would of course instill in the player a sense that he came very close to hitting it big.
And once the machines transitioned from mechanical to virtual reels, the possible combinations, the closeness of near wins, and the level of control of the programmer multiplied enormously. A mechanical reel has 22 stops, which means there are more than 10,000 combinations possibilities (22x22x22=10,648). With a virtual reel you can program as many possibilities as you like. So, if you set each virtual reel to 100 stops, you would have a million possibilities and therefore many, many more ways a player could almost win.
Yes, there are regulations and inspections, but it is interesting to note that Nevada has 6 times as many slot machines as New Jersey but only half as many slot machine inspectors. There is not enough manpower to inspect every machine, so inspections are random. You won’t see me putting money into one.
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I’ve rage-quit that one many times, so if you going in as suspicious, a good chance you’ll see what you want see.
Two particular aspects have me “pounding the x” - the doubling cube comes out right before a very precise roll to do maximum damage and like the OP’s experience, a cavalier, but yet successful, attitude to leaving solos.
Leaving solos is a basic strategic point to intermediate level backgammon and up. You do not want to be just constantly stacking columns whenever you get a chance. It severely limits your play options. I mean, there are times to do it, and there are times not to, but if you’re always playing to protect your pieces and your board ends up looking like disjointed columns in most of your games, that’s not going to be a successful long run strategy.
ETA: OK, I just noticed that it said three open stones on the home board while the OP had one on the bar. That is perhaps a little bit more unusual, but it’s hard to tell without the whole context of the game at hand. I could see several situations where I wouldn’t care about the blots if it’s there’s more strategic opportunities downfield to create gridlock (like a prime) for the opponent to pass through, or if I’m playing a “back game” where I intentionally want to lag my stones behind because I’m hopelessly behind anyway and building up an anchor is my only good option to salvage a game, or if my dice roll only lets me cover 1 of 3 blots, still leaving two exposed and breaking up a protected point, etc.
I get your point (although I doubt that I can’t imagine that I would ever leave three blots on the home board with the opponent having one on the bar), but within this particular game I saw no reason whatsoever for him (it) to do that. It was just a routine game, the board was pretty even, and we were probably around midway through. Made no sense whatsoever.
Of course it made it even worse when I missed them. 
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Agreed. It’s usually a sign of a beginner / poor player.
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In situations like that, it would be interesting to notate the state of the game and run it through an engine like GNU Backgammon to see what it thinks the most sensible moves are. That could definitely give you an idea of whether some hanky panky is happening or not.
It’s pretty easy for me to imagine a situation like that. I have blots on 24, 23, 22 (or 1, 2, 3, depending on what side you’re on). If I roll, say, 4-6, I may not want to break up a point on 18/7 to save a blot. Who cares? If that 4-6 can be used to claim another point on the board, I’d probably use it for that rather than trying to protect a blot in my home board. It’s just one stone you have on the bar, and the vast vast majority of the time, the worst thing that happens is I get one of my stones on the bar. And if you have blots in your own home bar, that’s another strategic point to consider, and I care even less.
So, without the whole context, it really is difficult to ascertain how weird the move is.
OK, I guess so.
It is pretty weird, though (I’m not saying impossible) for him to leave all three open and for me to miss them on 3 consecutive rolls.
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Ah, yeah, actually, I had forgotten about the three rolls part. That would definitely have raised my eyebrows.
??? They don’t physically inspect every machine, they just just plug in and copy the history/data from the slot machine(s) computer and take it to be analysed. It doesn’t take much time or manpower.