What's the difference between rubber banding and just bad luck in casino games?
Have you ever played a casino game and thought, “Is this rubber banding? Is the game adjusting?” Or have you assumed that you were simply suffering a downturn? It is important to understand the difference between rubber banding and variance in casino games. Do they mean the same thing or is one of them a fallacy?
2 Answers
“Rubber banding” means that the game starts to fudge its results if you are doing well. Unlucky is part of the game’s random fluctuations.
Honest casinos have random number generators that are proven to be unbiased. They don’t change the payoffs dynamically. There’s variance in all of them – some games are more volatile than others. If you’re having a bad run, most likely it’s just variance.
Rubber banding? Maybe if you think that the match is getting tougher as soon as you get ahead. Can you demonstrate this? Not so easy.
Thus, the next time you lose, don’t worry – it’s probably just variance.
There is no such thing as rubber banding. Casino games don’t have any sort of “memory” or ability to adjust against you. What appears to be a system that is somehow punishing you is simply the natural variance of the game. When you suffer a bad beat, it’s not because the RNG is adjusting against you. It’s just pure randomness and variance. Your brain might want to find a pattern or reason why you’re losing, but there isn’t one. Play responsibly, have fun, and remember that it’s just all luck.