Video Poker Forum

I never heard this story before today. It's about what happens when you find a programming glitch in a Video Poker machine. Do you exploit it yourself, do you share the information with a "trusted" player, and do you think your greed will eventually take over? Most significantly, if you genuinely think you can "get away with it", do you toss aside all ethics and go for it?

Here is the link:

https://www.wired.com/2014/10/cheating-video-poker/

He was too greedy...If I were him, I could have been a billionaire already.

Isn't this the glitch that Fa La La La La.... La la la la claims to have found and exploited for years?

Wow. Never realized you can't even say his name here. It's probably for the best.

They should have drained $1,199 jackpots or less all day rather than get the W2-G's. Could have done it forever.

Old news.

Interesting

We discussed this case on a number of GWAE shows.

Kane and Nestor were not criminal masterminds. They were ordinary guys and didn't have the tools to deal with figuring how to exploit this optimally.

Could they have taken more out? Almost certainly. Staying under the radar and spreading out the action over a number casinos would have been key parts of a successful strategy.

Could they have exploited it forever? Almost certainly not. The article explains how the Fremont noticed something was wrong. Every casino has similar procedures --- which are followed to a greater or lesser degree. Continue this scam long enough and you'll be caught.

One key part the article skips over is that, while it was going on, the guys had no idea of whether they were eventually going to prison or not over this. This would have been a very real fear --- and such fears cause people to do crazy things. Now that it's over and we hear they didn't get prison-time and got to keep all of their winnings, one could conclude that prison was never a consideration. I doubt that very much.

For the record, I have not spoken to either Nestor or Kane. We'd probably put them on GWAE if one or both approached us, but it's not our cup of tea. These guys are a one-trick pony. On our show we are after talking to players whose success is repeatable and there are lessons to be learned going forward.