Cheating at Slot Machines. This is a list of the most popular ways to cheat at slots, although most—if not all—of these are no longer effective. Programming the Machine – Of all the current ways to cheat slots, this is the only method that could reasonably prove effective. The cheater needs to gain access to the machine before it leaves. How to play Fruit Machines - Emptying the Fruit Machine. One of the most popular methods of cheating the system is known as the fruit machine emptying system, which involves emptying the machine of its contents. This cheat is likely one of the more questionable slot machine strategies around, and while not illegal, it is highly frowned upon.
The most popular slot machine cheats are nearing extinction, as casinos go to elaborate methods to thwart anyone brazen enough to walk through their doors and attempt to steal. While this article will detail the most well-known methods of getting something for nothing, I'll also pay equal attention to the consequences of getting caught.
Cheating at Slot Machines
This is a list of the most popular ways to cheat at slots, although most—if not all—of these are no longer effective.
Programming the Machine – Of all the current ways to cheat slots, this is the only method that could reasonably prove effective. The cheater needs to gain access to the machine before it leaves the factory, and then program it to pay out when a specific series of buttons are pushed. Ronald Dale Harris, a former member of the Nevada Gaming Control Board was able to get away with this for two years without getting caught, but his greed finally caught up to him while rigging the outcome of keno. He spent two years in prison.
Coin on a String Cheat – Tie a string to the coin, insert it into the machine, and then pull it back out. This worked in the old days, giving cheaters an unlimited supply of credits. It's no longer effective, however, and anyone trying it is going to get laughed at by the cops.
Top Bottom Joint Cheat – Created by Tommy Carmichael and Ray Ming, this famed cheating used a piece of spring steel and a guitar wire. The goal was to enter the payout chute with the device until the switch was tripped. The machine would then deposit all its coins, which allowed Carmichael to make $1,000 per hours while on a cheating binge at various casinos. Unfortunately for Carmichael, his luck eventually ran out.
Coat Hanger Cheat – This simple object was snaked inside the machine to interfere with the coin mechanism. It worked for a while, at least until the casinos got wise and countered it.
Shaved Coins Cheat – By shaving the edges of a coin, it would pass right through the slot and still register as a credit. This was effective in the early 1980s, but it was also countered long ago.
The Monkey Paw Cheat Www sportbet com. – A piece of metal bent into the shape of a claw, the Monkey Paw would be inserted into the machine until it reached the coin counter mechanism. From there, it was simple to make the machine overpay…at least until it was countered by new anti-cheating measures from the slot manufacturers.
The Light Wand Cheat – By shining a bright light into the machine, the player could trick the sensors into paying out large sums of coins. The casinos caught on, though, and techniques were developed to counter it. You should also consider that many modern slots don't even have hoppers anymore (winnings are printed onto a ticket).
Fake Coins Cheat – By producing fake coins, a cheater can insert them into the machine and play for free. Unfortunately, the most likely outcome is that the cheater will get greedy and eventually wind up in jail. That's what happened to Louis 'The Coin' Colavecchio, a cleaver cheat who minted fake coins and stole over $500,000 from the casinos. He was eventually caught, however, and his tricks cost him seven years in prison.
What Defines Slot Machine Cheating?
The definition of cheating will vary across the globe, but here's the legal definition of cheating in the state of Nevada:
Alter the elements of chance, method of selection, or criteria which determines: (a) the result of a game (b) the amount of frequency of payment in a game (c) the value of a wagering instrument (d) the value of a wagering credit.'
Even if a person unsuccessfully tried to cheat or just conspired to cheat, they can be detained and arrested under the same law. In Nevada, cheating is illegal at any establishment that offers legal gambling, so the same law that applies to casinos also covers supermarkets, airports, restaurants, and other locations.
How Casinos Catch Slot Machine Cheaters
If the employees of a gambling establishment have reasonable cause to believe that a person is cheating, they are within their legal right to detain them. According to Nevada law, this can only be done 'in a reasonable manner and for a reasonable length of time.' If you're suspected of cheating in Sin City, expect a lengthy chat with Las Vegas Metro's Financial Crimes Unit, as crimes of this nature fall under their jurisdiction.
Cheating in countries other than the United States may lead to much more severe consequences. I've never cheated at a casino in Russia, but something tells me that their security guards might not be as concerned about a lawsuit as their American counterparts.
Back in Nevada, a lawyer will traditionally use one of the following defenses to help their client: (a) police misconduct (b) insufficient evidence (c) the accused didn't cheat. While mistakes can be made, casinos aren't in the habit of randomly accusing their patrons of cheating at slot or any other game. If they detain an individual and call the cops, it usually means that they have the security footage to back it up.
Penalty for Cheating at Slots
The law differs from state to state and country to country, but cheating at gambling in Nevada is considered a category B felony. The first offense carries a possible fine of $10,000, and/or between one and six years in the Nevada State Prison. The guilty party will also be expected to pay restitution to the establishment. Probation or a suspension of sentence is a possibility during the first offense.
Myrtle beach gambling cruise. The same penalties apply during the second or subsequent convictions for cheating. However, this time probation or a suspension of sentence is not an option.
The most popular slot machine cheats are a losing proposition, no matter how skilled the cheater's technique. Modern casinos are filled with trained individuals who watch for any sign of cheating, and cameras are placed strategically to monitor patrons from every conceivable angle. When you factor in the state-of-the-art slot machines and the potential punishment for getting caught, the conclusion should be clear: cheating just isn't worth it.
Fruit machines cheat? Didn't we all know that already?
Fruit Machine Cheating Game
No, we didn't. Everyone knows that UK fruit machines aren't random. No-one is suggesting that they SHOULD be random. However, there's a big difference between simply not being random, and cheating. Take our 'High-Low' example. If you have an 11 showing on a High-Low reel, nobody really expects the next spin to be random, and nobody expects that all the numbers 1-10 and 12 are equally likely to come up. Many people suspect that the machine will predetermine a 12 for the next spin if it doesn't want you to win. However, most people also believe that if you should be brave enough to choose 'High' from the 11 in those circumstances, the 12 would still come up and you would still win. The machine pre-selecting a 12 is NOT cheating. The machine selecting a 12 if you press 'Lower', but selecting a 3 if you press 'Higher', so that it's not possible to win no matter what you do, IS cheating.
Do all fruit machines cheat?
We haven't tested every machine in existence yet. (Not every machine is supported by emulators.) But so far, out of all the dozens of machines we've tried, every single one cheats in the ways described on this site. (With the exception of so-called 'Low-tech' machines of the sort normally found in bingo halls and so on, which don't have a Hi-Lo reel and usually don't allow wins to be gambled at all. These still predetermine results, but don't cheat with no-win gambles.)
Do they only cheat on High-Low gambles?
No. As far as we can tell, practically the entire play cycle of any given fruit machine is completely predetermined. The symbols which fall on the reels are predetermined, the results of gambles are predetermined, the squares landed on during feature boards are predetermined. In every instance, the machine will predetermine a maximum win which the player can achieve on that turn, an amount very unlikely to be the jackpot stated on the machine's cabinet. The only way the player can affect that outcome is if he chooses to collect a lower win before reaching the predetermined maximum one.
Online casino instant play. It is generally (though not always) possible for a player to lose when the machine 'intends' him to win, and hence upset the machine's predetermined sequence, however this simply causes the machine to reformulate the sequence and continue in predetermined manner from that point. It is never, as far as we've been able to ascertain, possible for the player to win if the machine 'intends' him to lose.
But what about 'Skill' features?
There are two kinds of features which fruit machines will flag as 'Skill'. The more common one is not skill-based at all, it merely creates an impression of being so by, for example, lighting a moving trail sequentially rather than randomly. However, when the player finally presses the button to stop the feature, the machine will not necessarily select the light that was lit at that point. Frequently it will 'jump' to a different one entirely. You can see this behaviour for yourself by slowing the machine down using the emulator's 'Delay' function.
As players came to realise that 'Skill' features were misleadingly named, manufacturers instituted the 'True Skill' feature. According to the BACTA guidelines, features described as 'True Skill' must actually be functions of player skill. (Though bear in mind that these are only guidelines and are not legally enforceable.) However, the machine gets round this by only offering 'True Skill' in a limited manner. For example, if a win ladder has 12 positions, the machine may only offer 'True Skill' gambles on the first eight positions. After that it will cease to say 'True Skill' on its display, and normal (cheating) behaviour will be resumed.
If the employees of a gambling establishment have reasonable cause to believe that a person is cheating, they are within their legal right to detain them. According to Nevada law, this can only be done 'in a reasonable manner and for a reasonable length of time.' If you're suspected of cheating in Sin City, expect a lengthy chat with Las Vegas Metro's Financial Crimes Unit, as crimes of this nature fall under their jurisdiction.
Cheating in countries other than the United States may lead to much more severe consequences. I've never cheated at a casino in Russia, but something tells me that their security guards might not be as concerned about a lawsuit as their American counterparts.
Back in Nevada, a lawyer will traditionally use one of the following defenses to help their client: (a) police misconduct (b) insufficient evidence (c) the accused didn't cheat. While mistakes can be made, casinos aren't in the habit of randomly accusing their patrons of cheating at slot or any other game. If they detain an individual and call the cops, it usually means that they have the security footage to back it up.
Penalty for Cheating at Slots
The law differs from state to state and country to country, but cheating at gambling in Nevada is considered a category B felony. The first offense carries a possible fine of $10,000, and/or between one and six years in the Nevada State Prison. The guilty party will also be expected to pay restitution to the establishment. Probation or a suspension of sentence is a possibility during the first offense.
Myrtle beach gambling cruise. The same penalties apply during the second or subsequent convictions for cheating. However, this time probation or a suspension of sentence is not an option.
The most popular slot machine cheats are a losing proposition, no matter how skilled the cheater's technique. Modern casinos are filled with trained individuals who watch for any sign of cheating, and cameras are placed strategically to monitor patrons from every conceivable angle. When you factor in the state-of-the-art slot machines and the potential punishment for getting caught, the conclusion should be clear: cheating just isn't worth it.
Fruit machines cheat? Didn't we all know that already?
Fruit Machine Cheating Game
No, we didn't. Everyone knows that UK fruit machines aren't random. No-one is suggesting that they SHOULD be random. However, there's a big difference between simply not being random, and cheating. Take our 'High-Low' example. If you have an 11 showing on a High-Low reel, nobody really expects the next spin to be random, and nobody expects that all the numbers 1-10 and 12 are equally likely to come up. Many people suspect that the machine will predetermine a 12 for the next spin if it doesn't want you to win. However, most people also believe that if you should be brave enough to choose 'High' from the 11 in those circumstances, the 12 would still come up and you would still win. The machine pre-selecting a 12 is NOT cheating. The machine selecting a 12 if you press 'Lower', but selecting a 3 if you press 'Higher', so that it's not possible to win no matter what you do, IS cheating.
Do all fruit machines cheat?
We haven't tested every machine in existence yet. (Not every machine is supported by emulators.) But so far, out of all the dozens of machines we've tried, every single one cheats in the ways described on this site. (With the exception of so-called 'Low-tech' machines of the sort normally found in bingo halls and so on, which don't have a Hi-Lo reel and usually don't allow wins to be gambled at all. These still predetermine results, but don't cheat with no-win gambles.)
Do they only cheat on High-Low gambles?
No. As far as we can tell, practically the entire play cycle of any given fruit machine is completely predetermined. The symbols which fall on the reels are predetermined, the results of gambles are predetermined, the squares landed on during feature boards are predetermined. In every instance, the machine will predetermine a maximum win which the player can achieve on that turn, an amount very unlikely to be the jackpot stated on the machine's cabinet. The only way the player can affect that outcome is if he chooses to collect a lower win before reaching the predetermined maximum one.
Online casino instant play. It is generally (though not always) possible for a player to lose when the machine 'intends' him to win, and hence upset the machine's predetermined sequence, however this simply causes the machine to reformulate the sequence and continue in predetermined manner from that point. It is never, as far as we've been able to ascertain, possible for the player to win if the machine 'intends' him to lose.
But what about 'Skill' features?
There are two kinds of features which fruit machines will flag as 'Skill'. The more common one is not skill-based at all, it merely creates an impression of being so by, for example, lighting a moving trail sequentially rather than randomly. However, when the player finally presses the button to stop the feature, the machine will not necessarily select the light that was lit at that point. Frequently it will 'jump' to a different one entirely. You can see this behaviour for yourself by slowing the machine down using the emulator's 'Delay' function.
As players came to realise that 'Skill' features were misleadingly named, manufacturers instituted the 'True Skill' feature. According to the BACTA guidelines, features described as 'True Skill' must actually be functions of player skill. (Though bear in mind that these are only guidelines and are not legally enforceable.) However, the machine gets round this by only offering 'True Skill' in a limited manner. For example, if a win ladder has 12 positions, the machine may only offer 'True Skill' gambles on the first eight positions. After that it will cease to say 'True Skill' on its display, and normal (cheating) behaviour will be resumed.
But don't machines HAVE to cheat in order to make a profit?
No, they don't. It's perfectly easy for a machine to attain its set percentage without cheating. All it has to do is run however many non-winning games are required in order to recoup what it's 'lost' by paying out wins to a player. (If it doesn't drop any wins onto the reels, the player doesn't have a chance to gamble them up to higher wins.) This might lead to fairly long sequences without any wins, but fruit machines are susceptible to that situation already (try playing a machine someone just took a £60 streak out of), so it wouldn't affect the likelihood of people playing.
How can fruit machines possibly have continued to operate for decades if their behaviour is illegal?
Because until now it was impossible to prove that they were illegal, because there was no way of reverting to the point before a choice was made. Emulators have finally made that possible.
Also, the Government isn't particularly interested in fruit machines or the people who play them. The incredible lack of legislation with regard to fruit-machine behaviour is evidence of this. There is, as far as we can tell, no specific legislation at all governing how fruit machines operate, and no legally-enforceable minimum payout. Most other forms of gambling are far more tightly controlled, even though they typically offer far better returns to the player and the player is hence in less need of protection. (The house advantage on roulette, for example, is only about 3% of all money staked, compared to the 30% taken by fruit machine operators who are abiding by the minimum-payout guidelines.)
Fruit Machine Cheating Games
The government has failed to implement even extremely easy yet powerful legislation governing fruit machines. For example, there is no way for players to verify that a machine is paying out at the percentage settings claimed on the front of the cabinet. A simple LED readout would solve this problem, and involve little to no cost to manufacturers, who have voiced no significant opposition to such a scheme. But successive governments have ignored repeated requests from players to pass such legislation. UK Governments tend to be far more interested in the licensing of gaming machines, their stakes and prize values, than with whether the machines themselves act in a fair or legal way.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is currently conducting a wide-ranging review of gambling legislation with a view to bringing into law a comprehensive new Gambling Act. We hope that the information contained on this website will have an effect on that review and the legislation arising from it.
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