An Insight into How Fraudsters Cheat Slot Machines and the Methods They Use

Slot Machine Cheats Still Pulling the Same Scams They Did Years Ago

You are never far away from a slot machine, and whilst they can offer plenty of fun and entertainment, they do attract plenty of attention from those looking to cheat them.

Ever since the first slot appeared, those with ill intentions have looked at ways of defrauding them, and over the years cheating slot machines has become an industry in itself with millions of pounds/dollars/euros and in fact any other currency of the world being lost to slot cheats.

Some of the ways those fraudsters used to cheat those popular gaming machines have changed over the years, as technology has been used to deter and stop them, but even today some slot cheats are using methods from years ago.

In this guide I will look at some of the ways cheating devices for slot machines have been used and how they are still being used to this day. 

Common Slot Machine Cheating Methods

Whilst it is true to say that there have been and continues to be many unique and novel ways to defraud a slot machine, some methods have been around for years and continue to be used by fraudsters such as the methods listed below.

  • Resetting 
  • Strimming
  • Rodding
  • Smash and Grab

Take for example the resetting method, that will see someone playing a fruit machine, which is a type of gaming machine popular in the UK and entails that player playing the machine in the normal way but amassing a high amount of winnings in the credit meter.

What happens next on that scam is the player will collect those winnings, but as the fruit machine is

paying them out, they turn it off and back on again, which often results in the machine forgetting” it has just paid out and whilst it remembers the value of the credit meter the machine then pays out the same amount of winnings as were just achieved.

So, if a player won a jackpot, then they will win it again. This method works due to the short-term memory of the CPU in the machine being disrupted and fruit machines are designed to payout to and achieve a certain RTP.

Strimming and Rodding a Slot Machine

The term strimming a slot machine refers to a method in which a fraudster attaches a coin to a piece of strimming wire, that wire being the type found on garden strimmers.

The method of attack is quite straightforward, for the fraudster simply inserts the coin with the wire attached to the coin mechanism on the slot machine and then manipulates credits onto that machine by inserting then pulling out the coin via the wire.

Rodding is a slot machine scam that is now dying out, but a few years back when the coins inside a slot machine were contained in a tube rather than a hopper, it was possible for someone to drill a small hole in the side of the wooden cabinet of a fruit or slot machine, then insert a rod into that hole.

The rod was positioned so that it could manually manipulate the coin slide which would then enable the coins to be released from that tube at great speed. That method often went unnoticed for quite some time due to the hole often being filled in before the fraudster made their escape. 

Smash and Grab Method

Finally, there is of course the oldest method for robbing a slot machine and that is the smash and grab method.

It entails simple brute force, and this method is still used to this day and will see someone desperate for cash simply opening up a slot by brute force. Of course, with the advent of CCTV this method is one that whilst initially successful, the perpetrators are often very quickly caught.

Be aware that any attempt to rob or cheat a slot machine is illegal so please do not attempt to try any of the above methods, which I have listed purely for information purposes. 

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