Two Men Arrested for Exploiting Design Flaw in VP

[spxChrome]

Well I was almost convinced by the people on this site that everything was Random and the Gaming Comission had it all figured out.  And that machines that used to pay pretty well disappeared from my local casino floor with no replacment just out of random acts.  And that updating VP chips for no reasoning had no meaning behind them.  And my loosing streak was just that "bad luck", no matter if the math told me different.
 
And then you get a story like a couple of weeks ago.
 
"Two men were arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud after they exploited a software glitch in video poker machines to increase their payouts artificially."
 
2 Guys arrested in for manipulating Video Poker machines for about 2 months for over $450,000. (find your own links its all over the net by now, story broke Jan 7 this year).
 
And this is what the gaming commission had to say about it.
 
"If you have a machine and you have long enough to experiment, you might be able to find a glitch like this," he concluded.
 
Don't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy that the gaming comission is so on top of things.  If there is this glitch there is no telling what else can be manipulated.  Why am I not surprised. 
 
 

[OTC]

If you have such a distrust about the fairness of the machines the answer is simple - Don't Play. Nobody is forcing you to play and if you feel that you're being cheated than don't play, problem solved. I'll say that personally there are places I refuse to play because I don't feel there is a level of fairness that I can handle (cruise ships being an example) and avoid playing in those casinos.

[shadowman]

This does not sound like a glitch to me. Of course, it could be ... but, when it takes a multiple key combination then it sounds more intentional. Also, there are lots of machines that have the double-up feature activated around Vegas, why ask for a change at home and put yourself on the radar.http://news.softpedia.com/news/Two-Men- ... 6831.shtml  There must be a lot of temptation for game programmers to insert back doors and this could be the result of one that fell victim to that temptation. Doesn't change anything relative to the randomness of the basic game. 

[damule]

After reading that story I can say this about the guy who got caught in Pennsylvania: Greed will get you caught everytime. With the knowledge of the "key glitch" he could have low-rolled his way around the country at the tune of $500-1000/day completely under the radar. Also makes me wonder how many others have figured this out. Keep in mind thousands of folks have video poker machines at home and experiment with them in these ways. This could have been going on for years, and if the casinos were aware of this it could be a reason why pay tables have been reduced so much in recent years. It would be very difficult to detect this happening as long as the pay outs were under hand pay thresholds.


 
My bet is that IGT starts changing the programs in these machines very soon if they haven't already to avoid this from happening anymore. Also, keep in mind spx, this may have been why they were changing the chips at your casino since it's that recent. I know from working in the auto industry that updated programs and downloads are continually being developed and made available for improvements. I'm sure the same thing happens in the slot gaming industry.

[shadowman]

One of the casinos in my area turned off the double option on all the games a couple of years ago ... related? Who knows.

[brmcc74]

ALL that it shows is that we dont know that the machines we are playing are accurately insink with the paytables. If a couple of Joes can still figure out a scheem, than I guess that theyre not so ironclad after all.

[shadowman]

brmcc74, his had nothing to do with randomness or the RNG. It was after the hand had been played and the player chose the double-up option. Please don't try to make this into something it is not. VP machines are exhaustively tested in multiple states to see if they meet the randomness criteria. 

[kjohn]

"It takes a lot of watchers to keep machines from being manipulated.... and then you need more people to watch the watchers."

[brmcc74]

why is it so hard for you to believe that its POSSIBLE for casinos to use tactics to gain an even bigger edge? They are not in the business of giving $ away. How do you know that these machines are regulated and are so straight fowardly honestly. Because its the law? Well good thing that nobody ever breaks the law.........NOT. Happens everyday. All Im saying is that over the years on this and other sites , theres always a few or a group of people who defend against any notion of anything fishy business done by the casino and we always here about how..........You cant cheat "these" mach's (Updated class3), the paytables says it all, theyll lose their license, blah blah blAH. These guys DID IT. The point is that these machines MAY not be as great and RANDOM as you think, although you will never admit it

[Tedlark]

  Some of you are kinda missing the point. The article stated that the coin in feature was being manipulated not the RNG or any of the software driving the actual action of the machine. Video poker chips do not know how many coins were bet on any particular hand. Casinos would still not want to take the chance of getting caught with a machine that has been altered on their floor, especially if they knew it has been altered. Altered by the way here would mean changing the payout percentages, ghosting cards from being dealt in a hand, etc.
 
  The bottom line is that the RNG of a machine does not know if you had bet 1 coin or 5 coins when you hit that royal flush.