Slot Cheat Hits Nevada Excluded Persons List!

Nevada gambling regulators on Thursday permanently banned a convicted cheater from entering casinos in the state. he Nevada Gaming Commission unanimously approved Michael McNeive's inclusion in the state's "black book" of excluded persons, Executive Secretary Brian Duffrin said.

McNeive is a slot cheat who uses electronic gadgets to alter slot machines to spill their jackpots. One of his scams was using a light optic device to trick the slot’s bill acceptor into giving a player 100 $1 credits when inserting a $1 bill. He became the 36th person on the current list, originally created in 1960 to combat organized crime. Names are removed from the list only if a person dies or the commission decides he or she should have never been on the list. Walking into a casino is a gross misdemeanor for those on the list, and casino officials also face consequences if they knowingly let someone in the "black book" into their establishment.

McNeive did not appear at the commission meeting in Carson City, Duffrin said. The commission will notify casinos in the state about McNeive being added to the list. McNeive's lawyer, William Terry, had no comment when his office was contacted by The Associated Press. McNeive pleaded guilty to having a cheating device at Harrah's Laughlin in 2001. In 2003, he pleaded guilty to trying to cheat a slot machine at a Rite Aid drugstore in Las Vegas. (This guy had to be on his way down if he resorted to working drugstore slots!)

The Nevada attorney general's office said that McNeive has a lengthy criminal history that includes prison time in the state for theft, forgery and having a cheating device. Authorities say McNeive is an associate of William Klahr Cushing, a 57-year-old Las Vegas man already on the banned list for cheating slot machines. Cushing and McNeive are defendants in another slot cheat case scheduled for trial next month in Las Vegas.