Cheating has been a nuisance for slot operators from the earliest days. Players fed the machines slugs; manufacturers fought back, incorporating slug detectors in the form of windows that let the operator see the last coin played. “Escalators,” introduced in 1925, paraded the last four or more coins in full view. Thieves drilled holes into the sides of machines and used wires to manipulate the reels; designers added steel plating to the inside of the cabinet. In the 1940s, experienced slot mavens found that they could beat the machines by precisely timing the pull of the handle. They developed a rhythm to their play that allowed them to gradually overcome the house odds. Manufacturers installed variators to thwart this chicanery.
The slot operators have not always been simon-pure themselves. They sometimes slipped “bugs” into the notches of the star wheel that prevented certain symbols from ever coming up, increasing the take and frustrating the player.
The cat-and-mouse game continues today. Basement electronic wizards search for, and sometimes find, ways to beat the increasingly sophisticated computers that control the machines. In 1999 a Nevada man was sent to prison for a scheme that rigged slots to pay out jackpots of up to $3.8 million.
—J.K.
