Editorial

Tuesday, 06 October 2009 01:50

Ever since their invention, slots machine have peaked the curiosity of players wondering how they can be manipulated or tricked into paying out their coveted jackpots. After all, they are merely machines and machines which have been created by human intelligence can also be defeated by human intelligence, right?

Well, that's a pretty logical theory and one that has a lot of basis in truth. In fact, early slots machines were far easier to defraud than their more sophisticated modern counterparts. Certain players soon learned how to beat them, forcing the makers to dream up ever more sophisticated means of thwarting them. However, the harder the machines were to crack, the more devious and inventive the tricksters became.

Let's look at some of the ways that people have tried to trick the slots machines over the years, although you should remember that to do so is breaking the law and that can be punishable by stiff fines and even jail.

Probably the oldest trick of them all was the coin on a string, which was by far the simplest way of defrauding the old mechanical slots machines. It worked because the coin mechanism in the early machines was a simple spring loaded weighted platform that verified a coin had been inserted for the machine to be played by releasing the pull handle to activate the reels. Savvy players soon realise that by attaching a string to their coin, they could insert it in the slot where its weight registered on the activation mechanism, then withdraw it and get a free play. As long as no one saw them doing it, they could play for free until the machine paid out its jackpot.

Interestingly, this practise spawned the saying, "with no strings attached," which means an honest transaction in preference to a dishonest one such as that involving the coin with a string attached! 

Once manufacturers became aware of this easy means of defrauding their machines, they altered the coin mechanism to place it deeper within the machine with additional locks to prevent the coin being withdrawn.

A variation on this method that gained some popularity in the UK in the early 1980s was to use an alloy blank that was the same size, thickness and weight as the newly created pound coin. Since it was cheaper to make the blanks than the coin was worth, players could tip the odds heavily in their favour.

Another variation on this was to take advantage of the difference in the value of foreign and British currency. Certain foreign coins of much lower value could be substituted for British coins of comparable size and weight, thereby gaining the player an advantage over the machines payout odds.

One major drawback was that slots machines started paying out the same blanks or foreign coins that the cheats had earlier inserted, causing complaints from genuine players.

As electronic slots machines replaced the older, easier to manipulate mechanical ones, many inventive attempts were made to manipulate the reels by electronic means. The problem with this has always been one of size and the ability to conceal a device that was capable of affecting the machine's electronic mechanism. In casinos and bingo halls where the best jackpots are to be had, security surveillance is always at its strongest. Casinos in particular have overhead CCTV cameras watching players as well as staff walking around keeping a sharp eye out for anything untoward going on.

It was discovered in the 1980s that the piezo-electric igniters in simple stove lighters were able to halt the reels on some electronic slots that used mechanical reels and didn't have sufficient shielding. This allowed them to manipulate the reels to produce false payouts by stopping the reels at the right moment as a high paying symbol arrived at the win line. This method was fairly short lived as manufacturers created better shielding for the internal electronics and casinos grew wise to the practise and increased their security around the banks of slots.

Today, the majority of slots machines are sophisticated computerised devices that are extremely difficult to cheat, although some believe that small microwave emitters may be the latest means of overcoming their in-built security measures. The level of sophistication needed to make such a device small enough to be concealed yet workable would be far beyond the capabilities of most players. That doesn't mean it's not possible, just not very probable. In any case, the casinos would soon notice any slot machine fraud and take steps to beat the cheats, as they always do. 

With casino security and surveillance so tight, tricking slots machines is an extremely difficult thing to do these days. The legal penalties that capture will bring really makes the practise hardly worth the bother as well as being highly dangerous.  It's far simpler to go with the flow and watch the slots to see which ones pay out the most often and then play those!