More Serious Problems For Master Slot Cheat Nestor!

Andre Nestor

Source: Las Vegas Review Journal

Two men face federal conspiracy charges in a scheme that exploited a software glitch to inflate jackpot payouts on video poker machines in Las Vegas and beyond.

John Kane, 52, and Andre Nestor, 39, were charged Monday in federal court in Las Vegas with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with the scheme, which netted at least $429,000.

In early 2009, Kane, of Las Vegas, discovered a way to exploit a video poker machine through a rarely used feature that must be enabled by casino attendants, according to the criminal complaint. With the feature enabled, Kane played video poker at the minimum bet until he hit a jackpot. Then, using the feature, he changed his wager to the maximum bet and inflated the payout, according to the complaint filed by the FBI.

The complaint does not name any casinos or the brand of the machine in question.

After Kane's "test run" in Las Vegas, Nestor arrived from Pennsylvania, and together they used the scheme to take inflated jackpots in May and June 2009, the complaint said. Then Nestor took what he learned home to the Meadows Racetrack and Casino near Pittsburgh, authorities alleged.
During a visit to that casino in June 2009, Nestor posed as a high roller, arriving with a former police officer posing as his bodyguard, according to Washington County, Pa., court records.

Nestor found a Draw Poker machine made by Reno-based International Game Technology and persuaded a slot technician to activate the machine's Double Up feature. The technician obliged, but a supervisor overruled him because the change required gaming board approval, according to the records. But when the technician disabled the feature, he forgot to save the change, leaving the feature active for Nestor. Over the next two months, Nestor collected 61 video poker jackpots totaling $429,945, according to the court records.

Gaming authorities first suspected wrongdoing in late August 2009 when a Nestor associate tried to sign for a jackpot Nestor had just won. Within three days, investigators had uncovered the scheme. Nestor and two associates were indicted by a Washington County grand jury a month later.

Steven Toprani, Washington County's district attorney, said he was in touch with federal authorities while his case moved toward trial. As Nestor's trial was about to start Monday, federal agents showed up with an arrest warrant and took him away in handcuffs.

"It looks like this certainly was larger than a thief in Washington County," said Toprani, who said he was told the thefts could top $1 million.

Nestor is being brought to Las Vegas to face the federal charge. Kane was arrested in Las Vegas and appeared in court Tuesday.

Jerry Markling, chief of enforcement for the Nevada Gaming Control Board, said his agency began investigating Kane in the summer of 2009, but when the investigation grew to include other jurisdictions, the FBI took over.
Though not uncommon, the scam is not something investigators see all the time, Markling said.

It was unclear how Kane learned of the glitch. A player can stumble onto a glitch, but one also can be discovered by a dedicated slot cheat who buys a machine and experiments to find vulnerabilities, Markling said. "If you have a machine and you have long enough to experiment, you might be able to find a glitch like this," he said.

IGT, which makes about half of the slot machines used in the United States, did not respond to requests for comment.

David G. Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said the case shows how slot cheats have adapted to new technology over the years. "As the machines change, the cheating technology changes," he said. "Obviously this guy found a back door."

My take: This guy Nestor is as sharp as they come when it comes to cheating slot machines...but his internal security, which is of supreme importance in organized slot and casino cheating, was far below par. How could someone of Nestor's obvious intelligence let his cheat-partner sign for a jackpot that he himself had won? This of course would alert even the dummest of casino dummies that a scam was in the works. Perhaps Nestor was unaware that his cohort was trying to cash the jackpot, which could be the case if the partner was out to rip Nestor off. In any case, nearly all great casino scams (and this was one of them) come apart for some stupid reason that has nothing to do with the mechanics of the cheat scam themselves.

Nestor is now looking at a serious interstate conspiracy charge and probably five years in prison. This is up there with the Tran Organization Baccarat Scam (search this blog).

Pennsylvania Slot Machines Accused Of Being Rigged!

The State of Pennsylvania, brand new to legalized casino gambling and just getting its nose wet, is now getting its nose dirty as well, according to some reports in the news.

One form of casino cheating involves computerized slot machine spins to deceive players into thinking they almost had a jackpot, if only the spinning wheel in the last window had gone one more notch.

These near misses are not by chance, but are programmed into the computer to tantalize players who might otherwise be ready to give up. The "near miss" swindles are illegal in some places, but are legal in Pennsylvania. So the casinos, even though they are cheating, are not breaking the law!

Apart from all that, there is an even stronger reason to suspect rigged slot machines.

I know how film crews work, having made many TV shows about cheating in casinos and poker rooms. You probably have seen movie scenes or television spots depicting a joyous player winning a big jackpot.

Do you think movie or TV people will assign a film crew to watch that slot for 11 years, waiting for a jackpot? They will not. As soon as cameras roll, the casino's computerized system arranges that jackpot.

If they can arrange jackpots on cue, they can arrange other results when cameras are not rolling. If that is not a rigged system, I don't know what is.

Shame on Pennsylvania´s casinos!

Slot Cheating: Who is the Slot Machine Cheating King?

Who is the world's best slot cheat? Many sports have two great players that are debated about to determine which is the greatest ever. In the slot cheating world, which may be considered a casino sport so to speak, there are two notorious cheaters who vie for the crowning title of "Greatest Slot Machine Cheater Ever." They are Tommy Glenn Carmichael and Dennis Sean McAndrew, better know by his original name, Dennis Nikrasch.

TOMMY GLENN CARMICHAEL was born in July, 1950, and is considered the second best slot cheat of all time. An ingenious inventor, he conspired with an elite group of thieves to bilk millions from casinos. For almost 20 years Carmichael designed slot cheat devices that made it possible for him to steal from slot machines across the Caribbean and the United States.

In 1980, Carmichael was sitting inside his Tulsa, Oklahoma TV repair shop when Ray Ming walks in. He was an old friend living in Las Vegas, and he had something to show Carmichael. Ming had a Bally’s slot machine in his car trunk, and a ” top bottom joint”. Carmichael began his first “operation” with the device, bilking a 5-cent machine at a casino near the Vegas strip, proudly strolling out with $35 in nickels. But Las Vegas had begun replacing the old machines with newer ones, forcing him to the smaller casinos around him. He was caught at one of them and was sentenced to 5 years in jail.

Inside, Carmichael met Mike Balsamo. They agreed to find each other after their release, but when freedom came in 1987, Carmichael found the machines replaced. Bally and International Game Technology had begun rolling out a new high-tech slot and video poker machines, which used microprocessors and random number generator software. Undaunted, Carmichael purchased an IGT Fortune One video poker machine. He invented the monkey paw (slider) made from a guitar wire and spring steel, which he inserted into the machine through the payout chute to trip a switch. This caused the release of coins from the hopper, the bucket holding in the quarters.

By 1991 the slider was useless, owing to the computerization of the machines. Fooling a manufacturer into thinking he was a customer, Carmichael was shown the inside of the latest slot machine. From there, he learned how to beat it. He bought one and in a few days invented a new device – the light wand. The wand was built with a camera battery and a miniature bulb, used to shine into the machine and blind a sensor, causing the hopper to pay out coins. It was nearly undetectable, and Carmichael made a fortune selling it to other cheats, although that money-making idea may not have been a good one in the long-run.

On October 4, 1996, Carmichael was caught with the light wand while escaping from security. He was charged with possession and manufacture of a cheating device, which were later dropped. In 1998 he was arrested of similar offenses in Laughlin, Nevada. The following year in Atlantic City, his luck ran out. The authorities had tapped his phone and recorded conversations with other cheats using his device. Carmichael, with six others, was charged and pled guilty to running an illegal gambling enterprise, serving 326 days and 3 years’ probation. He lost his two homes and was ordered to stay out of casinos. He is now in Nevada's Black Book, officially excluded from the state's casinos.

Carmichael is currently tinkering with a supposedly anti-cheating device, the Protector. He claims that his invention will stop all known cheating devices.

DENNIS SEAN McANDREW, better know by his original name, DENNIS NIKRASCH, was born in September, 1941, and has been called the greatest slot machine cheat in gambling history. He was the mastermind of several different slot cheating rings over a twenty-year period that rigged an estimated $16 million in jackpots, mostly in Nevada and Atlantic City. In fact, officials from the Nevada Gaming Control Board Enforcement Division have stated that McAndrew even threatened the integrity of the entire slot industry.

What brought him down? His nastiness. He was nasty and stingy with those who worked for him, and they eventually turned on him and brought him down in a setup for the FBI.

In spite of all the security precautions taken by casinos to ensure the integrity of their games, in spite of the video surveillance cameras that monitor every inch of the gaming floors, in spite of the personnel that scrutinize everyone and everything that goes on, McAndrew found a way to beat the system. He figured out how to electronically manipulate the computer chips that govern slot machines...the chips that guarantee the random nature of play of the machines and preserve the integrity of the games. With an assortment of high-tech tools, always higher tech than the times, he and his slot cheating teams, usually consisting of a virtual glass managerie of characters, set up jackpots for huge amounts of cash as well as automobiles and other prizes. His method of attack was to have several of his team members serve as lookouts and "blockers," positioning themselves in ways that hindered floor security's vision and even that of surveillance cameras above. With them in place, McAndrew was able to open up the machines and use a computer device to alter the random number generators and rig the jackpots. Then another of his teammates would come along, put some coins or tokens in the machines and "win" the jackpots.

In November 1998, while trying to hit the huge $17 million Megabucks jackpot, McAndrew was set up by his mates and busted by the FBI and Nevada Gaming Control Board agents. Back in 1986, he was convicted for being part of a slot machine cheating ring that illegally won $10 million at Las Vegas casinos. He was sentenced to prison and released on parole in January of 1991. He'd also been convicted for rigging mechanical reel slots in the late 1970s. The slot machines of the 90s were computer marvels compared to their older cousins, and were thought to be tamperproof, yet McAndrew found a way to beat them, too, then had the intestinal fortitude to put his knowledge to work again and again and rake in millions. This guy had balls of stone! Or balls of slot!

After the FBI busted McAndrew in 1998, they agreed in conjunction with Nevada gaming officials to give him a reduced prison sentence in exchange of his secrets. Apparently, they had a lot to learn. They were also very concerned that he may have given his secrets to others, but you can bet his knowledge was the guarded secret of his very own band of thieves. Why would they want to share the technology with others? How he did it was of vital interest to the gaming industry so that they could take precautions to prevent it from happening again. McAndrew apparently did tell authorities that there may be others engaging in similar activity, which may have accounted for other heavy slot losses suffered by the gaming industry over the years. McAndrew is now listed in Nevada's Black Book of persons excluded from the state's casinos.

I guess after reading this, my vote goes to McAndrew!