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Start Your Own Casino Review: “By the Way, We Cheat”
Running potentially cheating software is considered a cardinal sin in the online gambling industry. Any casino caught rigging their games in any way is scrutinized by the entire community. However, things were slightly different back in the day.
Enter “Start Your Own” casino. Along with a group of several other casinos, Start Your Own not only ran questionable software, but they didn’t even bother hiding it. On their website, Start Your Own publicly stated that the software was calibrated to take every individual player’s profits into account, and adjust the outcome of games accordingly.
And even if you didn’t see the statement on the website prior to playing there, you would’ve quickly picked up on the fact that the games were tampered with. The casino wasn’t exactly inconspicuous about it. Quite the contrary, they would skew the odds so much that the games started producing statistically improbable if not impossible results — like 20 reds in a row on roulette.
We can’t help but wonder what the people behind Start Your Own Casino were thinking. They couldn’t have possibly thought that such an apparent fraud would last. As expected, the word about what this casino was doing spread quickly, so it ended up having to close its doors for good due to lack of players.
General Information
Start Your Own Casino (stupid name, we know) was rightfully labeled as a blacklisted casino by the community. They were running questionable software and even openly admitted to tampering with the RNG. They used IXent’s software — a company that promised operators that they could easily adjust the random number generator to manipulate games, and even individual tables.
On top of that, the casino held no gambling license, which is another clear sign of rogue behavior. If you experienced issues at this casino, and you most certainly would have since they cheat and don’t pay, there was nobody you could have voiced your complaints to. The casino’s customer support was unresponsive, so anyone who got swindled by this casino had no option other than to make peace with the fact that they were robbed.
Several influential forums and review sites quickly raised awareness and warned players against playing at this and related casinos. Undoubtedly, this played a hand in Start Your Own’s downfall since this once infamous casino is nowhere to be seen today.
First Impression
This casino is a serious contender for the title of the “Worst Named Online Casino Ever.” You’d have to be under the influence or at least severely intoxicated to believe that Start Your Own is a good name for an online casino.
What’s even worse, their idiotic name choice makes it insanely difficult to find any information on this casino group online. A single piece of relevant information is hidden between hundreds of “how to” articles. It must have been extremely frustrating for players to actually find this casino through search engines, although we can’t even imagine why anyone would actively seek it out.
That said, burying all traces of Start-Your-Casino group might not be a bad thing. The casinos once known for running this cheating software are long gone. The only remnant of this software provider is the domain zexcasino.com, although the webpage promotes a seemingly unrelated Russian casino called “Bулкан” (Volcano).
Games and Software
The whole controversy involving Start Your Own and several other casinos revolved around their software. While these casinos were up and running, over a decade ago, they boasted on their websites that the software they were using could manipulate the return to player rates.
In other words, their random number generator wasn’t exactly random. It accounted for the profit the players had already accumulated before calculating the game’s result. This effectively skewed the odds in the casino’s favor by limiting player profit. For example, after you would win a certain sum, the software would automatically compensate for your winnings by cutting your odds, making it impossible to continue making money.
The only way to exit this casino with more money than what you started playing with was to leave the game/table immediately after a decent win. If you continued playing, the software would make sure that you lost all your profit.
And to make matters worse, they admitted to being able to manipulate games on a table by table basis. This meant that they could have targeted individual players to ensure that no one ever won more than they “should.”
It’s mind-boggling that Start Your Own Casino publicly displayed this information. They even tried to spin the entire story to appear as if they developed this “proprietary random number generator” to help the players. The idea behind it was to — and we quote: “prevent you from waking up $20,000 in debt.” Absolutely ridiculous.
This is the very definition of cheating software. Even back in the day, this just couldn’t fly.
User Experience
As one would expect from a casino running rigged games, they were reluctant to pay out player winnings, even minuscule ones under $100. A significant number of players reported that Start Your Own Casino failed to process their withdrawal requests, without giving any explanation.
They didn’t exactly wipe out account balances, but they might as well have. After being unresponsive, they were banking on players continuing to bet with their balance. And they would go out of their way to ensure that you lost.
On one of the forums, a user stated that after not being able to withdraw their money, they decided to try out a few roulette spins. After 20 consecutive bets on red, the ball landed on black every single time. Statistically improbable, if not impossible. This just goes to show that Start Your Own didn’t even bother trying to hide the fact that they were cheating.
Raising your issues with their customer service was pointless. Considering their terms and conditions clearly stated that they could cheat you out of a win, it was to be expected. It’s clear that Start Your Own Casino was in it for the money and couldn’t care less about their players.
Pros and Cons
| PROS Nothing; nada; zero | CONS Cheating softwareNo license Non-paymentUnethical business practices Unresponsive customer supportThe dumbest name in the online gambling industry’s history |
Our Verdict
Looking back at what Start Your Own and other shady casinos running the same cheating software tried to pull off, we can’t help but find it mildly amusing.
Today, when online gambling is a well-established industry and players have more insight into individual casinos, we’re positive nobody in their right mind would accept these terms and conditions.
We haven’t heard of any casino openly telling their players that they were going to cheat them out of their wins. Nowadays, scammers and con artists are a lot more creative. They typically rely on predatory bonus terms, insane withdrawal limitations, and slow payouts to bleed you dry. There is a casino running cheating software here and there, but they certainly don’t flaunt it on their website.
To be safe, make sure to learn as much about a casino as possible and carefully read their terms and conditions before depositing any money.
Casino Rating
Customer Support: 1/10
Cashout Time: 1/10
Software: 1/10
Jurisdiction: 1/10
Total: 1/10
