Elaine wrote:
My favorite is the guys who hit a $250,000 keno jackpot at Bally's.
They wanted the whole thing in cash, and claimed not to have ID when
asked for it. The casino folks got suspicious. Turns out they were
Nevada regulators who had access to the computer program used to run
the keno. They figured they'd use it in AC and strike it rich. One was
busted in the room with all the computer equipment. The second was
busted when he got off his plane in Vegas. Yeah, people can be so
stupid when they're drunk. Why would someone want to carry $100,000 in
cash around AC?
Ron Harris was the name of the Nevada regulator. But if you read the rest
of his exploits, it's not so funny.
For example, people argue intermittently here about whether VP machines are,
or can be, gaffed. Ron Harris was convicted of modifying the program used
by regulators to check chips for gaffs, so that it always reported the chips
OK but reprogrammed the EPROM to add a two-way gaff. On one side, the gaff
made it nearly impossible for the general public to hit a max-coin Royal.
On the other side, the gaff detected a certain sequence of varying
short-coin and full-coin plays, and when it triggered, it caused a max-coin
Royal to be drawn. The gaff was automatically installed on thousands of
machines as regulators went about their normal duties; the players that
Harris brought in on his scheme (including his ex-wife) picked off a number
of royals. But players played many, many cycles on those gaffed machines,
and were accordingly shorted out of many, many royals. No restitution of
any kind was ever made.
Ron Harris has his own chapter, and passing mentions in other chapters, in
Jeff Burbank's _License to Steal_. Burbank's accounts are based entirely on
the public record generated by hearings, indictments, and trials; he didn't
interview Harris nor any of his associates, nor does he seem to have a good
understanding of gambling. But it's an interesting, occasionally
horrifying, read nevertheless.
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--
Randy Hudson