Slot Machine Cheats

Any form of gambling can attract a certain element of society that will not rest unless they are spoiling it for everyone else, this is very true of the gambling industry. Since the very first days of slot machines there have been a constant stream of people devising ways to rip off, scam and cheat slot machines.

In this slot article we shall take a closer look at some of the ways slot cheats have pulled of their scams, and see how the slot machine industry has had to develop their slot games in an attempt to cease this kind of activity.

Cheats For Slot Machine - Slugs

Land based slot machines require either a banknote, coin or token to be inserted into them to allow players to credit the slot machine, and it will come as no surprise that this was one of the very first parts of a slot that came under attack by slot cheats.

A slot machine coin mechanism, in the early days of their existence, would simply check to see if the coin inserted into the coin slot was the correct diameter and thickness and this coin would pass along a coin channel, if it was the correct size it would then allow a credit or credits to be given to the player on that particular slot machine.

It didn't take slot cheats long to realise that if they made slugs (foreign objects) that were simply the same size as the coin then they could obtain fraudulent credits on any slot machine. All manner of materials were used to make these slugs from lead to ice cubes! The beauty of using an ice cube with the same measurements as a coin is that by the time the slot operators would open up the machine and empty the contents the ice had usually melted and the water would have evaporated leaving no signs of them!

This led to slot machine manufacturers inventing much more advanced coin mechanisms that nowadays measure not only the size of the coin inserted into them but also what material they are made of, this ensures that only real, government minted coins of legal tender can be used to credit slot machines!

How To Cheat Slots - Sparking

Slot machines in recent years have also come under attack from a fairly new slot cheat, each slot machine has an earth wire, this connects all metallic parts of the slot machine to the earth plug, and its job is to simply stop players getting electrocuted should any aspect of the slot game fail and send electrical current where it shouldn't go.

Often however this earth wire will, after a slot machine has been serviced or had parts swapped due to maintenance, be left off certain parts of the slot game, and this led to slot cheats being able to manipulate the slot machine into doing things it shouldn't by simply introducing a spark or electrical "shock" to the slot machine

The most common type of apparatus used to do this is an electronic cigarette lighter, by simply removing the top of the lighter the slot cheat can give the slot machine a zap this would then, depending on where he made contact with the slot machine, make the slot machine award credits or even payout money from its coin hopper!

The only way to stop this kind of slot scam is for slot operators to ensure a complete earth shield is always in use on a slot machine, and machines are tested annually by way of a PAT test which ensures they are fully earthed.