Facebook/Doubledown Casino
Controlling Slot Machine payouts to coerce people into credit card use. Global

Facebook are pushing the app "Doubledown Casino". When they introduced this, the payouts were set to high or maximum bonuses as you played each successive machine. The first site entry, "wheel of fortune" (daily) spin determined your first "banked" amount to play the slots with. 7-70,000 would be forthcoming from that.

Next, you'd play each machine (12 or so of them) and begin to win formidably. After the first bonus round on each machine, and having won a large stash, you'd move to the next machine with the same procedure. At the last machine bonus you could be worth several hundreds of millions of chips.in the spirit of more fun, you'd then enter "tournaments" with high entrance fees of 100's of thousands to tens of millions of chips.

The rip-off side of this is that after you've won on your "first-timer" run of bonuses, with bells and whistles on the single slots, you're not likely to see many more bonus rounds (the ones where you can win the most in exciting fashion - the main reason slot players play!) before your "huge" total of playing chips is fast approaching zero. Despite your "billions", you are staking hundreds of thousands by now with each "pull" or spin of the reels. You use a button marked "max bet".

The rip-off is in the magnanimous initial bonus rounds in which massive wins are almost unavoidable. This shows that the circuitry of a supposed random or legal set of parameters is being "tweaked". First in your favour to hook you in, then against you with a rapid production of a "Buy more credits" page at the end of your run.

Slot machines can be addictive in similar fashion to nicotine or alcohol. The buzz of winning in a blaze of candy coloured lights and sparkles is especially appealing and often addictive to children and young adults bypassing the "you must be 18 to enter" facade. It is also addictive to all adults who simply get drawn in, regardless of age. Either plain, ugly greed or the sense of being a winner in a humdrum world is the draw. The latter reason is the predominant one.

Facebook are cheating on the public at large with electronics that are designed to get people hooked into the idea of winning (as fun initially) and then get them reaching for the credit cards to buy more stake/credit. It's up to the individual whether they play or not but I object to the countenance of cheating in order to coerce money from those individuals. Tweaking the machines to suit the proprietors purposes is cheating and is made obvious by the testimony of many who have noticed the scam over the same period that I have.

Doubledown casino is now changed so that you get 1 million credits on first use but the bonuses have been toned down. You'll get a biggish win run early, but your running total will now or very soon get down to the "YOU ARE OUT OF CREDIT" page to have you fill in the easy payment, volume discount, credit/debit card purchase arrangement. Now, and randomly every few days, Doubledown "give away" a few tens or hundreds of thousands of chips. These can now disappear in minutes as you play down to the "YOU ARE OUT OF CREDIT" PAGE.

By this time, many have been cheated into being hooked. Getting hooked on their own is one thing, being cheated into it is quite another. Their are laws in the UK about slot payout % AND OFFENDERS MAY BE JAILED for altering payout ratios. I don't know what laws govern Facebook but I'd hazard it's not very many if this obvious scam is allowable. People end up paying with real money to play "bent" slots so I question the legality of that.

Company: Facebook/Doubledown Casino
Country: USA

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