Sort of OT: Online gambling question

Greetings

Some of you have read my posts; I'm an advantage player, but I only spend an average of 3-4 days at the casinos per month, and I play low action tables, so I'm perfectly happy to label myself as "recreational but trying not to be an idiot as much as my limitations allow."

I've been reading posts here for just over a year, and the vast majority of you are incredibly knowledgeable and I think it's fantastic that you are willing to share information and help out newbies as much as you do. Kudos.

Anyway, my questions have been on-topic before, and I apologize that this one isn't -- stop reading now if that sort of thing upsets you.

I enjoy a few other gambling sites, among them Wizard of Odds, and he is a big fan of Bodog, the online casino. Insofar as their "pay for free" games go, I am too; it's a fun way to pass the time at my "real" job.

My question involves the law regarding their "play for free [with 'play' money]" games vs. their "real money" games.

I am an IT professional, for over 15 years, and obviously it is possible and easy to change the probabilities of particular hands/cards (in the case of card games), payout rates (in the case of slots), etc., depending upon the current player situation. More obviously, to do so in a casino or when a player is playing with "real" money in any US jurisdiction is an enormous breach of the law and seems incredibly unlikely due to the enormous fines involved.

However -- is there anything to stop an entity (like Bodog) to artificially inflate the payouts/good hands in their free-to-play "fake money" games to encourage players to create an account and risk their real money in the equivalent (but, unbeknownst to them, less favorable) "real" game? Obviously, if they do so too blatantly, it would be easily detectable, but it seems to me that I win a disproportionate amount when I play "for play" online vs. what I win at a meatspace casino (I've never played with real money online because of the "shuffle every hand" convention in blackjack for online games).

Obviously, if there is no law, there is no way for us to know (short of a Bodog employee posting company secrets here). I was wondering if there was any legislation to this point, and people's opinions on the topic.

Sorry for the long post, I've always been far too verbose.

Thanks for any information
-bb

If by RTG you mean something comparable to RNG or pRNG ([pseudo]random number generator), then I do too.

However, factors can be programmatically attached to them. For example, the real money game might use the RNG exclusively; the "play" money game might use the RNG * [some factor > 1] for those calculations for which higher results result in more favorable conditions for the player.

I want to move the conversation away from what the online casinos are actually _doing_ here -- I feel like we could all agree that they might be nefarious enough to implement something that would be fairly undetectable vs. the "real" money game (in fact, they could programmatically guarantee such results).

My actual question is more regarding the legislation in place for whether "play" money games or free-to-play games at online casinos must mimic the algorithms used for the equivalent "real" money games.

Sorry for any confusion
-bb