mkl54321@yahoo.com wrote:
> While I am not discounting what you say 100%, there are a few
inaccuracies in your post. Firstly, an EPROM is NOT volatile
memory.
Once programmed, it says there until it is rewritten or erased.
OK, this is splitting hairs. The chip in question, while not
technically an "E-PROM" as you are familiar with, is nonetheless
firmware--not hardware--that is programmed externally by software
and can be easily reprogrammed.
In the older IGT machines, at least through the Player's Edge Plus model, it is definitely an E-PROM. The processor was an 80C34 chip. I don't know what they're using in the new machines, but I'd be willing to bet that the main program is in either PROM or E-PROM, and the game data (payoff table, etc.) is in E-PROM.
> Secondly, you claim that once the machine is powered down, the
incriminating program would be lost. This begs to question, where
did
the program come from in the first place when the machine was
initially powered on? It would have to be stored somewhere in the
machine in NON-volatile memory, which normally is a EPROM or now a
days flash RAM.
In the case of the Odyssey machines, the various game programs are held in CD ROM and loaded into RAM when a game is selected.
The program itself could be innocuous. It would, as you say, be
loaded from RAM upon boot-up. What can be changed on the fly, by
someone who knows how, is the PARAMETERS the program uses. This is
done by a)user input or b)preloaded into memory some other way. A
benign version of this sort of thing is when they hold slot
tournaments and the RNG is fiddled with to make "jackpots"
ridiculously easy.Don't make the mistake of thinking that even if the cheating program
(s) WERE in plain sight, they would be detectable as such. Could YOU
decipher 3800 lines of deliberately obtuse C-code, even if you WERE
an experienced programmer? Not a chance! And BTW, don't think for a
moment that Gaming Control employs anyone competent in this area--if
such a person existed, why would they work for the government, for
peanuts?
If you were to pull the program chip from a machine and plug it into a computer that would let you look at the code, you would not see C code. You would see only machine code, which is even more obtuse. But that doesn't matter.
The Gaming Control people that are sent out to check out a questionable machine don't have to know anything about programming since there's no need for them to look at the code. Every variation on every game must be approved by Gaming Control before it's put into service, and GC has copies of every approved E-PROM. To verify that a game hasn't been tampered with, all they do is pull the chip from the machine, plug it into a tester, and plug an approved chip for that game into the tester. The tester simply checks whether the two chips are identical. If one bit is different, then it's not an approved program.
Anyway, I just wanted to point out one possible method that could be
used to create a dishonest VP machine. I'm SURE there are dozens
more that we haven't even THOUGHT of. Given the amount of money even
a weekend visitor stuffs into one of these machines, I think a
healthy caution and awareness are almost mandatory. Whether
you "agree" with me or not is utterly beside the point. If I AM
paranoid, it doesn't preclude the possibility of them being out to
get us.Am I missing something here?
Possibly.
Your concerns are legitimate, but there's very little chance of a machine being tampered with in a casino in Nevada, Louisiana or New Jersey where they are regulated and spot checked.
Several years ago, a slot route company tampered with machines that they put in bars. They were total idiots, as their modification simply precluded a royal flush. Customers complained, and asked the bartenders if anyone ever hit a royal. No one had, so the bar owners asked Gaming Control to check out the machines. The slot route company was soon out of business. If they had been more subtle, e.g., to preclude every third would-be full house, they would probably have gotten by with it for a lot longer, but one of the gaffed machines would have eventually been spot-checked.
Unregulated games are another matter altogether. No one outside the casino oversees games on cruise ships, in most Indian casinos, in many foreign casinos, or on the internet. That's enough to make me paranoid about playing such games, but I'll go on playing video poker in Nevada with 99.9% confidence that the machines are honest.
Dan
ยทยทยท
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Dan Paymar, author of the book, "Video Poker - Optimum Play"
Editor and Publisher of "Video Poker Times" newsletter
Web site at www.OptimumPlay.com