Never mind the casino heists you will have watched in the Ocean’s 11 movies, here are some casino cheating geniuses who succeeded (for a while, at least) in cheating the casino and making off with thousands and sometimes millions in cash. From techniques including gadgets, insider help or their brain power, they managed to cheat their way to the prize money and got away with it for a while. But, of course, like the majority of cheaters, they got caught eventually and had to pay the price of their crimes! Although some didn’t quite learn their lessons after serving jail time and continued to try and cheat after they were released – click to play slot games. Let’s take a look at some of the most famous slot game cheaters of all time and how they did it.
Slot Cheater: Louis B. Colavecchio
Nickname: “The Coin Colabecchio”
The Crime: Colavecchio is infamous for making fake coins for putting into slot machines and he made moulds that allowed him to make bogus replica coins which tricked the slot machine into thinking real coins had been inserted. Together with his team of tricksters, Colavecchio managed to mass-produced coins from these moulds and melted down metals, often from other shaved coins and used them in casinos all over Atlantic City and Connecticut. Although the accurate figure is not known, it has been calculated roughly that Colavecchio managed to bag himself around $500,000 through his cheating fake coins. One of the main reasons the true figure Colavecchio made away with isn’t known is because many casinos didn’t want to admit that they were easily fooled by the fake coins and so stayed silent. He was discovered by the casino security and for his crimes, he spent seven long years behind bars and was released in 2006. As with many casino cheats, Colavecchio
Didn’t learn his lesson and was soon up to his old tricks again, foolishly, as the FBI was keeping a close eye on him, suspecting the temptation to cheat once again would be too much for him to resist.
Slot cheater: Ronald Dale Harris
Nickname: “The Programmer”
The Crime: Ronald Harris is a prime example of a cheater who used insider knowledge to manipulate the system and cheat. Known now for being a renowned slot machine cheat, Harris actually used to work for the Nevada Gaming Control Board. Harris used his skills and expertise as a computer program to hack slot machines for his own financial game, going against everything his job stood for as it was his role to look for flaws and weaknesses in modern slot machine programming to help protect casinos from cheats. Harris rigged slot machines which he knew were flawed so larger payouts would be triggered than normal when a winning combination landed. Amazingly, Harris got away with his for almost two years before he started to rig the RGN on certain games before arousing suspicion and eventually being caught and being sentenced to seven years behind bars. However, he got off lightly and only served two years of his sentence.