I agree with the replies above. Customer orders are ahead and supposed to be filled before the specialist or any market maker at the same price. As a customer, you are ahead of any crowd trader (but not any other customer already there) if you are bidding their screen bid.
Gotta say that it makes me mad that anyone could or can crack down on someone trying to take the spread. In a free and truely open market anyone should be able to play market maker ( look what Island did to the spreads on nasdaq). IMHO the reason Island has done so well is the fact that it has helped "level the playing field". Maybe more options would be traded if it was more fair and an average guy could have a chance. Many times I have wanted to short a stock that I could not get and upon looking at the options I see I cant make any money there either due to the spreads. I like to write covered calls and almost always get filled at the bid even though i put in limit orders at or around the ask.
I must say that ktm's experiences echo mine when I trade QQQ opts. I have gotten some incredible fills. Then there are other times when I'm the ONLY guy in America that can't trade at my price.
It has been my experience that this is true in the overwhelming majority of all cases. But I have had counterexamples even in rather illiquid options. This last Wednesday I got filled on the bid on an LPX Nov2002 12.5 Call. The bid had been .35 and the ask around .50 for a few days and I had been waiting on the bid for a few days. As you can easily verify, I got filled just about when the stock started to go up. Two days later (yesterday) I sold the option for .60 (hitting the bid). I agree something like this happens maybe once out of every 50 times you try, but I'll take a 70% gain in less than 2 days when the underlying moves 6% any way it comes. By the way, the exchange was PHLX, which has apparently become faster and fairer (if you can use that word in connection with any exchange) in the last few weeks. Or maybe it is just my imagination...