Is There a Future for the Slot Game Cheat?

A slot game is played against a slot machine. The game goes like this: you make a bet by inserting a coin into the machine, pull the lever to spin the reels, and wait for the reels to stop. If the reels come up with any of the winning combination of images shown on the console, your winnings come out of the payout chute and in to the coin tray. A slot game is so simple to play that anyone with a quarter in his pocket and knows how to pull a lever can play it for as long as his supply of quarters will allow him. But as the old saying goes: there is a snake in every forest as there is a cheat in every casino gaming floor. And if this is so, how does one cheat a machine?

The easiest slot game to cheat is the older model that is operated by a mechanical system of gears, wheels and pulleys. The cheat usually makes use of special tools and devices that are inserted into the machine to trip a switch to cause the machine to pay out, disable the coin counter and cause it to overpay or add credits that could later be cashed out. In earlier times, counterfeit tokens and coins tied with strings were used by small time thieves to steal from an equally unsophisticated slot game of those days.

As slot game machines became more sophisticated, the ingenuity of the cheat also kept abreast of technological innovations. For instance, when the new electronic version of the slot machine was introduced, these came equipped with internal optical readers that controlled and kept tab of payouts. In due time, the slot game cheat countered with an ingenious device called the light wand that overcame the safety feature of the slot machine. When the computer controlled slot game machine entered the casino game floor, it was initially thought to be a tough nut to crack. But the resourceful cheat responded by infiltrating the assembly line where the slot machine was manufactured and introduced vital glitches in its computer micro chip. All that he had to do afterwards is to follow where that slot machine will be posted and play its weakness that only he alone knows how to exploit.

Despite his ingenuity, no slot game cheat is known to have gotten away with his nefarious deeds. The long arm of the law and the all seeing eye of the casino surveillance cameras guaranteed that he will eventually get caught, prosecuted and put behind bars.