I’m a novelist and my work-in-progress involves programming the payout rates of high-dollar slots. The time period is near future, so while the process can be a little advanced, I’d like it to be mostly feasible with today’s tech and regulations.
How do casino management/employees go about adjusting the payouts on slots, video poker machines, etc.?
In Nevada, are machines’ RTP rates adjusted by changing out EEPROMs or can it be done by simpler software alteration? How is this process controlled by the gaming authorities? Does a gaming commission representative have to be there to witness any such changes?
Any help on crafting realistic scenarios will be hugely appreciated!
Not in Vegas, but I’ve seen them locally service machines by opening them up and connecting a small PC. I’m not positive that they change the rate of payout that way though. I think they would be hesitant to do it over a wire because of the potential for hacking somewhere away from the machine. Again this is local practice, the machines are subject to periodic audits by the gaming commission.
There used to be a show on Discovery (maybe History) called Breaking Vegas. I’m just going off of memory here but one of the episodes revolved around a person whose job it was to service slot machines. I believe the software for the machine was stored on an EEPROM just like you suggested above. He was able to add a little extra code in there that would automatically add credits if a certain pattern was followed when entering coins to play. For example, 3 coins, then 5 coins, then 2, then 4, etc… Once the pattern was complete the machine just added credits. When he’d service the machines he’d swap EEPROMS. I think his undoing was that he wasn’t allowed to actually play in the casinos in which he serviced the equipment so he’d have to have somebody else go in and play his altered machines.
Most people don’t know a thing about how to cheat in Vegas so modifying a real life heist adds authenticity for those who’ve never heard the story, is plausible enough that people who do know the story can be entertained by it, and won’t be controversial because Vegas already has controls in place to prevent the same crime from occuring again.
Please note that the discussion of illegal activities is prohibited on the SDMB.
From the registration agreement:
You can discuss things like how they adjust the payout and what restrictions and procedures the Nevada Gaming and Control Board have in place. These are factual questions that are perfectly acceptable in GQ.
You may not give how-to instructions on how to circumvent these controls (i.e. how to swap out EPROMs, etc) as this violates the SDMB registration agreement.
I realize this is a bit of a fine line, but basically you can’t discuss how to do something illegal.
The guy’s name was/is Ron Harris. He worked for the Nevada Gaming Commission, and was responsible for creating the device that was used to “audit” slot machines. This device checked that the EEPROM (memory chip) that controlled payouts contained approved code, thus showing whether the casino had illegally altered the machine to cheat their customers (cases of which had happened).
Harris started out honest, but “went bad” - he produced a modified device that would re-program the EEPROM, introducing the “cheater” code that worked as you described. This re-programming happened automatically whenever a slot machine was audited - Harris did not need to be present.
I saw a show on this type of stuff (Discovery?) and if I remember correctly they had some special tape they placed on the chips so they could detect if anyone had tampered with the electronics.
There’s nothing technologically infeasible with linking up all the slot machines in a casino with a central server (i.e. central computer) and having the payouts be dynamically adjustable from the central casino office with the click of a mouse. Regulators could even have login permissions on the system, or, if the laws required it, the server itself could be under the control of the government, e.g. it could be sitting in the basement of a police station or on the third floor of City Hall, and casino employees would have to be vetted by the Government in order to get access to the computer, either physically or by remote login (e.g. https:// sunshinedollarcasino. gamingcommission. nevada. gov/login). Communication across the network or Internet could use a strong public-key encryption to help ensure that nobody else can change or intercept stuff.
The laws of today might not currently allow this, and that may be why it doesn’t happen. So, if you wanted to do this, just make up a “Gaming Devices Act of 2015” that makes this type of arrangement legal.
A lot of the newer games are server-based. IIRC, the current regs state that the machine must be dormant for a certain period of time before any changes in the payback rate can be instituted, and the casino still has to has a person from the Gaming Board present when the change is made. So they can’t just adjust the rate downward if they see you are “winning too much” or nonsense like that. But they can tweak things with “the click of a mouse” to those machines that are server-based, like Lord of the Rings and others.
On non-server-based machines, it requires the swapping out of chips or some other physical adjustment to the machine. All adjustments must be made by authorized personnel in the presence of a Gaming Board employee, and there are parameters to how much can be changed.
Last time I was in Vegas, I noticed out-of-order slot machines that were clearly frozen in the middle of a linux kernel bootup, and I did see ethernet cables peeking out in areas where they were physically changing machines out.
Now, I have no actual knowledge of what any ethernet communication was for at this time, but if we’re talking a near-future scenario, being able to change everything from payout rates to what game is being played seems plausible.
A good friend is a manager of a casino. In Oklahoma at least, the machines must be opened up and the EPROMs switched out. And a member of the Gaming Commission must be present. In reality they almost never do it because they simply don’t need to. They are all networked but that’s to report payouts, problems, verify ticket values, give player points etc.