Slot machines are among the most lucrative games in any casino, but they also present a tempting target for cheaters. Thankfully, the vast majority of casinos adhere to strict gambling regulations and are unlikely to rig their slot machines. However, this doesn’t mean that rigged slots don’t exist.
To understand how a slot machine works, you must first know that every spin generates a new random image on the reels. These images are then combined by the microchip inside the slot machine to generate a new sequence. This sequence is then fed into the slot machine’s random number generator (RNG), which determines how much of a payout you will receive.
The RNG is one of the many essential factors that make slot games fairer and less prone to being rigged. However, there are a few other factors that can also influence your outcome. These include the number of coins you insert into the machine, your luck, and the type of slot you play.
How to rig a slot machine
There are a few different ways that people have tried to cheat slot machines over the years, but most of them are pretty outlandish and would probably get you arrested if you did them in real life. For instance, one famous cheater used a light wand to trick the machine into thinking he was a magician, and this technique worked well until he got greedy and tried to cash out a big jackpot win.
Another common method of rigging a slot machine is to use magnets to manipulate the reels. This was a popular way to cheat on old mechanical slot machines, but it won’t work on modern computerized machines.
A few of the more creative methods of rigging a slot machine involved tampering with the microchip that controls the machine. Dennis Nikrasch is an infamous slot machine hacker who reverse engineered the machine to see how it ticked, and then used this knowledge to rig the chip to give him a huge payout. Unfortunately, he was caught by security cameras and had to split his winnings with his fellow cheaters.
Another common way to rig a slot machine is to use a flashlight or a camera flash to confuse the sensor that keeps track of the payouts. This method was used by a group of gamblers in Las Vegas who managed to make the machine pay out more often than it should, but they eventually got caught after getting greedy and trying to withdraw their winnings.