Around the mid 1980s there were poker machines in the Silver Slipper and Landmark casinos that were 10-7 Jacks or better. I was told by a fellow gambler that these machines were gaffed, but I had to find out for myself.
I talked to a Gambling Control Board agent but he was rather condescending. He did say he would consider any evidence.
The best evidence, I surmised, would be a graph with the distribution of each card value based on the initial 5 card draw. The two thru ten should be higher than the pay pair cards.
I showed up at the Silver Slipper with clip board in hand, looking as official as I could, and proceeded to stand behind players and record the results. The casino noticed me but never asked me what I was doing.
The distribution, accept for one card, was as expected. With a little more data, I thought, all nine low cards would be above the four high cards.
I never got the chance to finish. The next day all the machines were roped off and in the processed of being removed.
Later I heard a story that someone in France? figured out the sequence of hands and took at least a million dollars out of these machines before being stopped. I never saw those machines ever again.
I do believe that the above mentioned method of card distribution would be one way to check the validity of any suspect machine.
steveinnv
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