The House Always Wins
Sounds like an odd bug to be coincidental.
A duo who used a software bug in video poker machines to milk thousands in unearned jackpots have been charged with computer hacking and conspiracy offences. John Kane, 52, of Las Vegas, allegedly learned that a glitch in the software that meant it was possible to change the stake and multiplier of payouts after first …
All he did was take advantage of shoddy programming on machines put in place by the casinos.
Maybe, some time in the not-too-distant future, a casino customer can lose thousands, but then sue the casino for taking advantage of the fact he was drunk, and a bit thick even when sober, in order to fleece him of his earnings!
I don't get why the casinos should win on this. The whole point of gambling is not just about chance but finding a way to beat the odds. Just because they found a methodology to do that that was basically a glitch in the system should not mean they face jail for it. If anything they should perhaps (at most) be ordered to give the money back and that's that (and have the glitch fixed).
All is fair in love and war IMHO.
My favourite glitch was a machine in my local that both paid 20p for a 10p play on three oranges and also offered holds on the winning line indefinately!
You could sit there playing no-lose double your money for small stakes as long as you could be arsed to keep it fed (usually just long enough to earn an evening's worth of beer vouchers).
I've seen documentaries of convicts in Nevada gaols who were serving 10+ year sentences for card counting. Think it can attract a life sentence - of hand sorting decks of cards discarded by casinos back into sequential order with staring over the prison walls onto sun baked/snow covered desert for variety. So comparing gaming a slot machine to card counting probably wasn't the best defence...
So the casinos are happy for the punters to press the buttons in an order acceptable to them, so that the odds are in their favour, and the punter will loose, but they are not happy for the punter to press the buttons in an order of their choice and win. Makes you wonder what the point of playing is?
The casinos should accept the loss gracefully.
But if I were his lawyer I'd probably still recommend he cut a deal with the state on the basis that he'll be safer if he serves a few in the pen than if he wins in court. I don't care what the ads say the casinos are still connected to some high ranking low life types.