A Russian Slot Machine Hack Is Costing Casinos Big Time

Interesting, geeky piece by Brenden I. Koerner for WIRED about a scam successfully bilking casinos of cash, using an iPhone and an internet connection back to St. Petersburg:

casinos can be certain of how much they’ll earn over the long haul—say, 7.129 cents for every dollar played. But on June 2 and 3, a number of Lumiere’s machines had spit out far more money than they’d consumed, despite not awarding any major jackpots, an aberration known in industry parlance as a negative hold. Since code isn’t prone to sudden fits of madness, the only plausible explanation was that someone was cheating.

And the scammers are getting craftier as the federal cops close in.

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