When you think of cheaters in casinos, you’re likely picturing someone sitting at a game of Baccarat or Blackjack counting cards. While this is the most common form of cheating in casinos, it is certainly not the only method.

Throughout the years, there have been plenty of hustlers that have made slots their game of choice.

Tommy Glenn Carmichael

Carmichael is one of the earliest slot machine cheaters. He started manipulating games in the 1980s, when slots were still mechanical. These types of slot machines were simple to manipulate because they had moving parts which determined the outcome of each game.

With a few tweaks, any sophisticated technician could rig a game so that it would payout whenever they wanted. Carmichael was one such technician. He created a device called “top-bottom joint”, which was a piece of metal that could be placed into the coin slot.

Whenever it was put into the machine, it would trigger a win. Other devices, such as the “slider”, were also used. These would be placed into the machine and cause a flip to be switched, which would control the payout of coins.

Carmichael was arrested a number of times and even the FBI got involved. After serving his time, he is now working on his own anti-cheating devices – although he remains blacklisted from casinos.

Louis Colavecchio

Also known as The Coin, Louis Colavecchio used a different approach to cheating slots since he stayed away from the machines themselves. Rather than manipulating the outcome of slots games, Louis simply duplicated casino coins. He had manufactured thousands of slot machine coins, recreated to look exactly like the coins awarded in casinos across America.

His operation was expensive, as he required his own, homemade minting process. Colavecchio’s fakes were so authentic that casinos’ security agents could not even tell the difference. Over the years, the slot machine cheater had created more than $100 000 worth of fake casino coins.

He escaped a long jail sentence by compromising with the authorities. He offered to show them how his operation worked so that police would be able to catch other criminals attempting this type of crime.

Dennis Nikrasch

Known as one of the most sophisticated slots cheaters, Nikrasch has made over $15 million from manipulating the outcome of slot machines. Unlike Carmichael, he was able to manipulate the outcome to video slots, using hacking methods to control the random number generator of the games.

He and a team of con artists worked together to ensure that security would not catch on while he hacked into slot machines on the casino floor. After successfully rigging the game, Nikrasch would claim the generous jackpot prize. His team carried out this method at dozens of casinos before they were caught.

After serving 8 years in prison, Nikrasch was released in 2004. He has been blacklisted from casinos around the world.

Sources

1 http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-08-11-slot-cheats_x.htm 2 http://cooljustice.blogspot.co.uk/2006/11/louis-coin-nailed-again.html 3 http://www.allthingsdiscussed.com/More/Dennis-Nikrasch-Slot-Cheat