Busted or Bailed live from Playtech

Welcome to Busted or Bailed from Playtech.

Busted or Bailed was released December 2024 as part of their live games suite. But its rightful place in this category can be questioned, given outcomes are entirely RNG generated.

The only ‘live’ part of the game is a presenter calling the computer generated action from a little inset window, much like Evolution’s Stock Market Live.

But in this game you’re not betting on the rise or fall of a fictitious stock market. Rather, you’re betting on how close the police come to catching their fugitive in a highway pursuit.

The fugitive is driving a white Ford Bronco and the action is viewed from a news chopper in scenes reminiscent of a famous real-life highway pursuit. Playtech could have called the game, Will OJ Get Away?

How to Play Busted or Bailed

The bet proposition is simple. You have 3 options – betting on whether the simulated police chase results in a:

• Busted – the closer the police get to catching the Bronco the bigger the Busted payout, or
• Bailed – the further the Bronco gets from the police the bigger the Bailed payout, or
• Crash – the chase ends in a Crash (fixed 10x payout).

Busted or Bailed Payouts

Once the pursuit gets under way, payout multipliers for Busted bets (in blue above) and Bailed bets (red) are displayed with the values constantly changing based on the vehicles proximity to each other. As the police car gets close on the Bronco the Busted payout increases and Bailed payout decreases, and visa versa.

At the completion of the 10 second chase, final payout multipliers are displayed. In the example round they are:

• Busted bets pay 0.4x (or 0.60 loss for €1 bet)
• Bailed bets pay 1.6x (or.60 win for €1 bet)

You’ll notice during the course of the pursuit that Busted and Bailed multipliers sum to 2, which is how most final payouts end up. This implies an expected value (EV) on the Busted/Bailed bets of zero, which in turn would mean these bets don’t come with a house edge.

Thought of another way, if you bet the same amount on Busted and Bailed each round your win on the one bet would cancel the loss on the other. Kind of like betting the same amount on Red and Black on a roulette game (with no zero) for matching win and loss bets every round.

It gets even better. For the occasional chase, the multiplier for either Busted or Bailed can be up to 5x. In the absence of this game’s green zero roulette pocket equivalent, this implies a positive EV and player edge!

Unfortunately there is a roulette zero-pocket equivalent on this game – the Crash. When there’s a Crash, Crash bets pay a fixed 10x, but Busted and Bailed bets are lost.

The positive EV casino game remains and elusive dream!

Busted or Bailed Theoretical Returns

No player edge, but a pretty respectable theoretical return on the Busted and Bailed bets. Here are the summary payouts and theoretical returns by bet type.

Bet	Payout	Theoretical Return
Busted	0 to 5x	99%
Bailed	0 to 5x	99%
Crash	10x	95%

Special mention must go to the presenter who has to find some way of commentating/reporting on each and every pursuit round. Whatever this presenter is getting paid, it’s not enough.