US-facing online sportsbook BetOnline is the buzz of the internet at the moment after one of its live casino dealers appears to have been caught on video cheating at blackjack.
On Saturday, self-described blackjack professional Michael Morgenstern posted a video to his YouTube account that appears to show a BetOnline blackjack dealer dealing the second card in a shoe to a player, then dealing what would have been the player’s card to himself, causing the player to lose the hand.
You can watch Morgenstern’s full 26-minute video here, but the crucial portion is embedded below. Around the 20-second mark, you can see the dealer nudge the top card up with one finger, while sliding the card below out of the shoe and adding it to the player’s hand.
The result of the switcheroo is that the dealer received the 8-card the player should have received, while the player gets the 6-card that the dealer was originally destined to receive, resulting in a win for the dealer – and for BetOnline.
Reaction to the video has been mixed, ranging from skepticism that the dealer’s antics were anything more than a ham-fisted aberration, to more cynical views that the dealer was responding to a hidden video feed that offered him advance knowledge of what card was next out of the shoe, and thus he was actively attempting to undermine the player’s chances of winning.
BetOnline has yet to publicly respond to Morgenstern’s video, which has attracted a serious amount of attention since it was cross-posted to online forum Reddit. Morgenstern himself contacted BetOnline’s customer support to alert them to his discovery but got no explanation from a call center supervisor.
BetOnline uses Costa Rica-based Global Gaming Labs (GGL) for its live casino service, which also offers live baccarat and roulette. GGL has also yet to publicly comment on the incident.
This is the second time this week that BetOnline has found itself in controversial crosshairs, following rumors that former Absolute Poker payments director Brent Beckley – fresh out of federal prison for Black Friday-related bank fraud charges – had joined the online sportsbook in an undetermined capacity.
