The RTP wouldn’t have to be spiked ultra high or anything like that. Even a small amount would make a considerable difference in how the game behaves. Also, say too many people win and casinos are down for the first few days, surely that would still make them highly profitable when the game gets hotfixed and players lose it all back and then some. Also take note that not all wins get withdrawn in the first place, all I see is a win-win for the casinos.
“surely they’d have to announce the RTP at loadup” yea they announce it but it’s a gaming software, how can you legally prove it’s not 96% or whatever they say it is? And just like PC games have bugs and need hotfixes and updates they can always claim “oops, was bugged, oops needed an update” that sort of thing. I’m not conspiratory by nature and I have no problem with being wrong, but was just describing my personal experience. And from what I gather, many have seen similar behavior happening so just think it’s interesting how often it appears to happen. And again, on SOME games, not all, not all the time. But just some good runs I can’t explain unless I won the lottery like 7 times in the past 5 years.
Having said that I do get the skepticism, I fully get where you’re coming from and am just sharing my experience and my opinion on the matter, I do not know anything for a fact.