Technology Helping Cheaters Find New Ways to Scam Casinos

The coinless slot machine technology that has revolutionized slot play and has been a hit with players has also generated a new problem -- cheaters who have found ways to compromise the system.

Panelists discussing slot and table game cheating at Tuesday's Global Gaming Expo convention and trade show at the Las Vegas Convention Center agreed that as fast as technology is developed to speed play or make gaming more attractive to players, cheaters will discover new ways to get an illegal edge that can result in lost revenue to casinos.

The four-day G2E has attracted more than 25,000 people to the city to see new products and hear speakers discuss a multitude of issues related to the gaming industry.

Derk Boss, vice president of surveillance for the Stratosphere and the two Arizona Charlies' properties in Las Vegas, said new scams have followed on the heels of new technology on his slot floors.

"We've all figured out that the bad guys are going to develop a way to beat the system," Boss said.

With "ticket-in, ticket-out" systems, Boss said there has been a growing number of attempts to cash photo copies of tickets generated by slot machines. Boss said it is critical that cashiers immediately validate tickets that are brought for payment so that a copy is not cashed in and the original ticket replayed.

He said the scam has been discovered at some casinos during audits of the system.

Panelist Dave Norcutt, also of Arizona Charlies', said "distract and grab" crimes involving the theft of slot tickets also have been on the rise.

"We used to be on the alert for purses and winnings being stolen," Boss said. "Now, they're taking tickets by distracting players."

Panelists, using casino surveillance tapes, showed examples of numerous slot machine cheating techniques and the experts listed "tells" -- behavioral tip-offs that casino workers can observe that indicate cheating in progress.

Among the slot cheating methods panelists warned about:

Use of slugs. One of the good things about coinless slots, panelists agreed, is that there are fewer slugs on the market. But they're still a problem.

Counterfeit and shaved tokens. Panelists encouraged casino operators to patrol high-denomination games closely to discourage the use of phony tokens.

Devices used to disrupt coin readers. Boss said the illegal devices, which help cheats empty machines by disrupting the coin-counting mechanisms, can be found on the Internet. He showed a videotape of a cheat being caught with an illegal device. "He rented it on the street outside the casino for $1,500," Boss said.

Employee impersonators. They're dressed similarly to casino employees and loiter in slot areas, taking cash to make change for customers and then disappearing.

Boss said slot cheaters frequently exhibit behavior that makes them conspicuous to security officers. Cheats often work in teams and most of them "rubber-neck," or spend time watching out for casino security personnel while attempting to do something illegal.