Russians Engineer a Brilliant Slot Machine Cheat -- And Casinos Have No Fix

[renegade000]

Waiting for more information regarding the gambling habits of the Las Vegas shooter. People are understandably jumping to a (reasonable) causal explanation that has to do with major losses, but major losses are not inevitable if you can exploit the system. Especially given the family's impression that he was actually winning frequently on very particular gambling machines (and not skill games), it's worth considering different angles.

https://www.wired.com/2017/02/russians-engineer-brilliant-slot-machine-cheat-casinos-no-fix/

He’d walk away after a few minutes, then return a bit later to give the game a second chance. That's when he'd get lucky. The man would parlay a $20 to $60 investment into as much as $1,300 before cashing out and moving on to another machine, where he’d start the cycle anew. Over the course of two days, his winnings tallied just over $21,000. The only odd thing about his behavior during his streaks was the way he’d hover his finger above the Spin button for long stretches before finally jabbing it in haste; typical slots players don't pause between spins like that.

On June 9, Lumiere Place shared its findings with the Missouri Gaming Commission, which in turn issued a statewide alert. Several casinos soon discovered that they had been cheated the same way, though often by different men than the one who’d bilked Lumiere Place. In each instance, the perpetrator held a cell phone close to an Aristocrat Mark VI model slot machine shortly before a run of good fortune.

By examining rental-car records, Missouri authorities identified the Lumiere Place scammer as Murat Bliev, a 37-year-old Russian national. Bliev had flown back to Moscow on June 6, but the St. Petersburg–based organization he worked for, which employs dozens of operatives to manipulate slot machines around the world, quickly sent him back to the United States to join another cheating crew. The decision to redeploy Bliev to the US would prove to be a rare misstep for a venture that’s quietly making millions by cracking some of the gaming industry’s most treasured algorithms.

[AngryAmish]

1. Back in the 80s a friend of mine figured out the algorithm on a bar game

It was a primitive mob run device that was supposed to be "for fun". Said friend got a perfect math score on the SAT.

He had a string of about twenty bars, milked it for about three years, not taking more than 40 to 50 bucks at a time and letting each place cool off before he hit it again.

[renegade000]

2. Nice

And smart on the part of your friend not to get too greedy!

[MindPilot]

3. As a frequent slot player, I don't buy it.

The idea that it is possible to send some signal from a cell phone to affect the programming in a slot machine is kind of preposterous. Basing this only on my own observations, slots run some version of a Linux-based OS, or some use what looks like Windows CE. When they reboot you can see the startup screens. (I was in a casino when the power went out; got to watch dozens of slot machines' startup screens)

I think the algorithms are designed to give a decent win in the first few spins, after that literally everything in a casino is designed to keep you playing at the same machine thinking "I'm doing OK...my next big win is just around the corner."

Every big win I've had (I define a "big" win as one that requires a schedule G) has been in the first few spins. It is really hard to take that win and walk away.

And then there is that weird thing called "luck"; some have it and some don't.