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Three friends and I found a broken slot machine an a Casino a few years ago the night before Thanksgiving. It was an older style slot where coins actually still

by bradly 12y ago

Three friends and I found a broken slot machine an a Casino a few years ago the night before Thanksgiving. It was an older style slot where coins actually still paid out and the darn thing would just spit out more money they you it was supposed to. Obviously we were blown away. We would put twenty bucks in, play one or two times, and then hit payout and get between $50 and $100. So we started cashing out. A lot. So here's the sketchy part... The machines only hold so much coin, so we kept having to have the attendent call to get the machine filled. I had seen enough movies to know how Casinos feel about this sort thing, so I would go to the bathroom and stuff the cash in my sock. The attendent started to make comments like, "wow, lucky night, huh?". This really spooked us so we eventually took off. The four of us came in two cars so when my one friend was dropping me off at my house, we looked at other, and then took off back to the casino. When we got there there was someone else playing the machine; doing what we were doing but at a smaller scale. We probably sat and waited three hours for him to finish as he gave us a nod as he walked off. We cashed out a few more times and then took off around 6am with a great story to tell the family at Thanksgiving dinner.

bmmayer1 12y ago
Aaaaand queue the federal agents.
- bradly 12y ago
  Ehh... maybe, but I highly doubt it. It was probably 10 years ago now and less then $1,000, and on an Indian reservation (not sure jurisdiction there). I did actually checked the statute of limitations for both California and Federal felony theft before posting. It looks like almost all theft is a 3 year limitation.
dmayle 12y ago
Slot machines are programmed with a table of payouts based on a rate, typically between 80 and 99%, such that the statistical expected payout overtime will be compounded at that rate. In some jurisdictions (e.g. Vegas), it is legal for the casinos to program a machine at greater than 100%. They do this to attract the players, who will attempt to find the winning machine on the floor. Random numbers still work, so not every payout wins, but over the course of the day you can get a payout. So you may have just walked away from free cash. Source: I used to work in casino gaming (I wrote the Megapot server used for multi-casino progressives in France)
- bradly 12y ago
  Interesting. Thanks for the info! Re: Megapot server. I've always wondered if those incrementing jackpot banners are actually tied to a real server of if it just increments based on an average. Are those incrementing numbers actually coming from a server in realtime?
  - dmayle 12y ago
    In the case of most progressives, there is just a single bank of machines, and they are communicating in realtime (wire delay) between them. When I quit the industry, the Megapot was the first server distributing money across sites in realtime (network delay). There was a similar product offered by IGT at the time, but the incrementing counters were entirely based on play within the casino; casino jackpot sums were batched and shared across the casinos according to a fixed schedule. Our displays were certainly based on real money, and I suspect anyone else in the industry would have to do the same to be legally in the clear.

by bradly 12y ago

bmmayer1 12y ago

Aaaaand queue the federal agents.

bradly 12y ago
Ehh... maybe, but I highly doubt it. It was probably 10 years ago now and less then $1,000, and on an Indian reservation (not sure jurisdiction there). I did actually checked the statute of limitations for both California and Federal felony theft before posting. It looks like almost all theft is a 3 year limitation.

dmayle 12y ago

Slot machines are programmed with a table of payouts based on a rate, typically between 80 and 99%, such that the statistical expected payout overtime will be compounded at that rate. In some jurisdictions (e.g. Vegas), it is legal for the casinos to program a machine at greater than 100%. They do this to attract the players, who will attempt to find the winning machine on the floor. Random numbers still work, so not every payout wins, but over the course of the day you can get a payout. So you may have just walked away from free cash. Source: I used to work in casino gaming (I wrote the Megapot server used for multi-casino progressives in France)

bradly 12y ago
Interesting. Thanks for the info! Re: Megapot server. I've always wondered if those incrementing jackpot banners are actually tied to a real server of if it just increments based on an average. Are those incrementing numbers actually coming from a server in realtime?
- dmayle 12y ago
  In the case of most progressives, there is just a single bank of machines, and they are communicating in realtime (wire delay) between them. When I quit the industry, the Megapot was the first server distributing money across sites in realtime (network delay). There was a similar product offered by IGT at the time, but the incrementing counters were entirely based on play within the casino; casino jackpot sums were batched and shared across the casinos according to a fixed schedule. Our displays were certainly based on real money, and I suspect anyone else in the industry would have to do the same to be legally in the clear.