Casino [ptz]

SITE NOTES

Sorry for the lack of weblog for the past few days. I've had some great content I've been itching to post, but the university web connection has been totally fried. This morning, though, things are back to normal, so here goes:

CREDIT CARD DEBT? SUE YOUR CREDITORS

A California couple, suddenly mired in debt after racking up over $100,000 in debt thanks to online gaming, is suing the credit card companies that let them gamble online. Their credit card company had sued them, seeking payment of the debt, but the couple has filed a counter-suit, according to Business Week:

Lisa and Andrew Harding racked up tens of thousands of dollars in online gambling debt during 2002 and 2003, prompting a lawsuit from credit card company Retailers National Bank, which accused Lisa Harding of failing to pay the bills.

Last week, the pair filed a countersuit against several credit card companies, including Visa International and its USA division, MasterCard International and Discover Financial Services. They also sued banks that issued the cards, including Retailers National Bank and Citibank, and companies they said electronically transferred funds for some of their bets, including Western Union Holdings.

The countersuit, filed in Superior Court in Alameda County, Calif., claims that the companies ran afoul of California's unfair business practices act by processing the gambling transactions and violated a state prohibition against providing credit for gambling. The suit also claims the companies violated the USA Patriot Act, which prohibits illegal money transmissions.

"We brought this so this will not happen to anybody else, so companies will stop making money off of illegal gambling loans in California," said Ira Rothken, an attorney of the Hardings.

Many major credit card companies have policies of not doing business with any sites they know offer online wagering. Rothken said it's up to the companies to enforce those policies--something he said they didn't do in this case. "Evidently, there are bugs in their system," Rothken said.

This case illustrates the precise problem with the status quo of online gaming. It's accessible to anyone, but not exactly legal, so genuises like the Hardings can rack up tens of thousands in credit card debt and still be under no legal obligation to pay it off.

Who should get stuck with the bill on this one? The gaming companies? Ethically, would they have paid the Hardings if the Hardings had won? If so, they deserve to collect the Hardings' losses. Legally, though, if they are in the business of illegal gaming, they shouldn't profit from it. But are the online sites illegal? Not in the nations that license and regulate them.

Who will get stuck with the bill? The millions of card holders of Visa, Mastercard, and Discover, who now have to go to court to prove that they don't owe the Hardings relief from their debts. The attorneys aren't going to work the case pro bono, and I doubt that the comapnies are going to just eat the costs of legal fees and any settlements. Instead, they will be passed on to the cardholders in the form of higher fees and interest rates.

Cases like this are disturbing because they show how a few people, acting irresponsibly, can burden millions of others with their problems. Had the Hardings been more realistic in their expectations and bet less, and if the gaming sites (who weren't named in the article) had some precautions in place to prevent people from charging up such huge debts, this wouldn't be happening.

FINED FOR INTERNET GAMING

Here's an interesting article from the LV Sun:

FARGO, N.D. -- A former Harwood man has pleaded guilty to placing sports bets over the Internet, in what one gambling law specialist says is a rare case.

Jeffrey Trauman pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge in East Central District Court in Fargo on Monday. Judge Norman Backes gave him a one-year deferred sentence and fined him $500.

I. Nelson Rose, a professor at Whittier Law School in California who has studied gambling law for 23 years, said about half the states still have laws against gambling.

The North Dakota attorney general's office said it began investigating Trauman last spring, after receiving a tip.

Your neighbor annoys you by blasting crappy music late at night? Give your state AG's office a tip that he's an online gambler. Apparently, they've got time to investigate and charge this offense in North Dakota.

This is a reminder that, whoever has the jurisdiction over internet gaming, the situation at the state level is less than clear. It all depends on the queston of where the gaming transaction takes place--where the bettor is, where the server is, or both places. Stuff like this gives me a headache, which is probably why I report on cases like this and don't work as a lawyer prosecuting or defending them.

INSERT ARNOLD CLICHE HERE

Yes, I suppose it's inevitable. The California governor recall issue has a casino dimension. This is from Rod Smith at the LVRJ:

Arnold Schwarzenegger seems to have had a change of heart. Not about running for governor of California, but about having his face plastered all over talking slot machines spitting out "Hasta la vista, nickels."

The "Terminator"-actor-turned-political hopeful agreed to the use of his name, image and voice on a new International Game Technology nickel slot machine in April before he announced his bid to replace California Gov. Gray Davis.

It is thought to be the first time the name and image of a candidate for major political office has been used to promote gambling, and several industry officials suggested Schwarzenegger could have a conflict of interest if elected governor.

Although most of the officials did not want to be quoted on the record, they agreed he could be vulnerable to the conflict-of-interest charge if he wins the governorship since he would be responsible for enforcing and negotiating gaming compacts with California's Indian tribes.

Gaming expert and University of Nevada, Las Vegas, professor Bill Thompson said when the governor negotiates the Indian compacts and the discussions involve how many additional slots the tribal casinos will have, "then (Schwarzenegger) would have a conflict."

A bigger question is how Schwarzenegger would handle the continuing debate over how many slot machines each casino should be allowed, he said.

Presumably, any new slot machines would include some bearing Schwarzenegger's name, image and voice, under the agreement he reached with IGT.

"(Schwarzenegger is) doing a commercial deal. Questions are going to come up since California is on the verge of becoming the No. 1 gambling state in the nation. He's going to have to explain it. He may have a conflict of interest and he may have to recuse himself," Thompson said.

Terminator slot machines are set to make their debut at the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas Sept. 16-18, said Rick Sorensen, spokesman for Reno-based International Game Technology.

Sorensen said previewing the Terminator slot machine at G2E has nothing to do with Schwarzenegger's decision to run for governor, but instead is another component of the broad base of slot machines IGT has developed to offer casino and player customers.

I don't even know where to go with this one, except to wonder about other candidates with slot machines. Why isn't there a "Different Strokes" slot machine out yet, anyway? I'm sure Gary Coleman could use the $$$ from licensing his name and likeness. You could have Mr. D, Willis, Mrs. Garrett, and the whole cast. It would be epic.

MY FUNNY INBOX

I get dozens of emails every day. Most of them are just spam, but some of them are interested, targeted spam. Take this one, from the CEO of a company based in the Phillipines:

DEAR EXPORT MANAGER,

WE ARE LOOKING FOR ;

CHANGEABLE NUMBER SIGN TO BE USED FOR VEHICLES.
THIS HAS TO BE ELECTRONICALLY CHANGEABLE AND CONTROLLED FROM SOMEONE NOT WITHIN THE VEHICLE.
SIZE OF THE NUMBERS IS ABOUT 4" TO 5" IN LENGTH AND SHOULD NOT HAMPER THE SIGHT OF THE VEHICLE DRIVER.

PLEASE RESPOND RIGHT AWAY IF YOU CAN SUPPLY

Originally I thought that this was just blind spam, but after looking at my webpage statistics, I noticed that someone had found my site after googling "changeable number sign" and hitting one of the Neon Survey pages. Apparently, this meant that I was in the business of supplying changeable number signs.

And here's another:

Dear sir:
Face you formally recommend a the piece collects and keep the preciously.
[ the four greatest works of Chiness handwriting by ShenHongSheng]

Your company is well-known forced sale line, want to pass you auction off this product.
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The hand-written copy has a lot of, but this different is its political influence.Have no to compare with Тз .Have always been the handout that have no to was at the same time led by 21 nations( or region) to collect and keep over an art works .
But this set of books is through expensive forced sale a words for clapping out, not only there is economic benefits, more important at the same time increases the good reputation of the expensive line.But to collect and keep come to say, this work are also to guarantee to revalue of collect and keep the works .Is not everybody to make profit.
Did not elaborate on here as for the introduction of this book me.If have intention to can use the mail to obtain toward me, make a phone call to me perhaps.
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Still have, relevant this matter each big newspaper all contain report way.You can check.Or you can key-in on the manhunt engine of any website:The Shenhongsheng, will see every kind of related report way.
As to I, I am a son who Shenhongsheng, so you can trust.Just is boring by no means hair this mail.
Bother 100 in you, feel very sorry.Always hope everybody the cooperation the delectation.

This was followed by a string of Chinese characters, which I imagine were the text of the letter in its original form. I believe that someone just ran it through an automatic translation program, which explains the almost, but not completely, incomprehensible nature of the letter. Although I always want to increase the good reputation of the expensive line of UNLV, I don't think that this is really up my alley.

Still, if you are interested, do like the letter says and just key-in on the man-hunt engine.

Another strange email request: a cheap online viagra site has posted a link to the GSRC site, and wants a reciprocal link. Why? I doubt that anyone is going to come to this site looking for revenue data and suddenly decide they need a little blue friend.

SUBURBAN XANADU UPDATE

No changes on Amazon or barnes and noble this week. The signing at the Summerlin B & N is still on, though.

That's all for now--maybe I'll have an update later if the news warrants. If not, have a great weekend, with or without electical power.

posted by Dave at 8:57 AM

SITE NOTES

Nothing much, except that I have posted the coolest book cover ever as the photo of the week. We'll see if this good deed goes unpunished. The meaning of the subtitle, "shall we improve the breed of horses or men?" is reference to the claims of horseracing advocates that betting on horses contributed to the breeding of faster, more endurant(?) horses, thus "improving the breed."

I came across this book while researching my new book, which is tentatively titled Uneasy Convictions: The American Pursuit of Gaming and the Wire Act. One lesson I learned from Suburban Xanadu was that it is definitely a plus keeping titles short and comprehensible to people who aren't familiar with old Samuel Taylor Coleridge poems. If everyone who gave me a quizzical look when I told them my book's title actually bought the book, I'd be sitting at the top of the Love and Casino War list of best-selling Vegas books. Because this is not how things work, I am currently not on that list, though. If you want to help, buy a copy at amazon.com. That way, when I'm back in Atlantic City next week I can truthfully bill myself as a "best-selling Vegas author."

SHALL WE IMPROVE THE BREED OF SURVEILLANCE OR INNOCUOUS BUT PECULIAR INCIDENTS?

A friendly reader sent in an article from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer about a recently discovered casino surveillance "blooper tape." Actually, they are called composite tapes, and usually they contain specific incidents, such as slip-and-falls, jackpots, etc, so that the video becomes more permanent than the tape in circulation, which is usually recycled every week or two. Here's a sample:

Other footage captures seemingly inappropriate conduct by patrons on casino grounds -- surveillance that would seem rightfully part of the security unit's responsibilities.

That includes car crashes in the casino's parking lot; patrons caught on tape apparently smoking marijuana in their cars; gamblers, both male and female, urinating outside the casino; and an intoxicated man vomiting.

Other footage seems to document the apparent follies of employees and patrons alike.

It includes separate clips of a patron and an employee that zoom in on their unzipped trousers. A security guard is caught on tape with bathroom tissue dangling from the back of his pants. There are clips of overweight patrons dancing and a gambler scratching his genitals while sitting at a card table.

Innocuous, but peculiar, incidents are caught on tape, ranging from a dog that runs into the casino to a security guard apparently confiscating an inflatable woman. Footage also shows the casino during the Nisqually earthquake and a major storm.

There are also clips that seem to focus on women and parts of their anatomy.

As a former surveillance operator, I can say that this tape is pretty much standard. In defense of CCTV, if someone on the floor calls in a disorderly patron who happens to be partially naked, you still have to cover the incident. When viewed out of context, things may seem inappropriate, but if they are called in by someone else, CCTV is obligated to follow it.

Other than that, this is really funny. I have always wanted to make a CCTV movie by splicing together footage and overdubbing dialog or just a surreal soundtrack.

Read the full story here.

SHALL WE IMPROVE THE BREED OF SLOTS OR OF CHEATERS?

There was an AP story about Tommy Glenn Carmichael's cheating ways bouncing around this weekend. Nothing spectacular, just the usual story of "I made money cheating at slots and lived a dissolute lifestyle until the law finally caught up with me." But a few NJ papers printed a local angle:

Thieves seek ways to beat machines amid constantly changing technology
By WILLIAM H. SOKOLIC
Courier-Post Staff
ATLANTIC CITY

For almost two decades, Tommy Glenn Carmichael designed tools to steal millions from slot machines across the United States and the Caribbean.

His arrest here in 1999 put an end to one of the more innovative slot machine cheaters in the annals of gaming.

But it didn't put an end to efforts to beat the slots illegally.

Just as manufacturers and regulators have worked to foil slot bandits, thieves have looked for new ways to beat the machines. It's a battle of wits and technology that Atlantic City regulators believe they're winning.

"Manufacturers take this very seriously. If they get beat, they make the machines better," said Richard Williamson, who oversees slot machines in Atlantic City as director of the state Division of Gaming Enforcement's Technical Services Bureau.

Since Carmichael's arrest, Atlantic City regulators believe they've cut down on the number of slot machine scams taking place here - or at least on the number of successes. Arrests totaled 27 last year, down from 66 in 2000.

"I like to think we're moving them out of New Jersey," said Lt. Gerald Stoll of the New Jersey State Police special investigations unit of the Casino Gaming Bureau.

Cheaters succeed by attacking on one of three fronts: the money going in, the money coming out, or the computer programs that control the game.

Attacking the computer programs requires an intricate understanding of the operation of slots, and often requires inside help from an employee. The state police assigned to the casinos take a six-month course in slot mechanics to understand games from the inside out as a way to stop cheats.

In the days before computer-controlled machines, cheats used slugs to foil the money-in element. Others used a yo-yo, in which a coin was attached to a string and dropped in far enough to set the reels in motion, then pulled out.

Today's machines, which use light sensors, can sense if a coin is going in the wrong direction, Williamson said.

Money-out devices are inserted up the payout chute in an effort to fool the hopper into delivering more coins, he said.

A kick stand, also known as a monkey's paw, was used when coin drops into the hopper were controlled by a lever, which opened and closed with every coin passing into the hopper. By holding the lever up, coins would keep falling out. Carmichael developed a variation called a slider. The trick was to keep the device in play just long enough to avoid tilting the game, which shuts down the machine and alerts authorities. "Timing was everything," Williamson said.

When casinos got wise, manufacturers replaced the lever with optics, so coins would pass through a light field, breaking the beam with each one until the proper amount fell into the hopper and the coin tray.

Cheaters like Carmichael came up with a device known as a light wand. Simplistic in form, it's little more than a bright light bulb attached to a battery and switch by an arm. But in the hands of a someone with skill it can blind the optical sensor so it never sees the coins. Again, the game would eventually tilt.

"You can't leave it in too long without drawing attention," Williamson said. [One could say the same thing about a stray piece of toliet paper (see above article)--Dave]

A clever cheat can pop a $100 bill into the bill validator and walk off with $700 in coins without a single spin of the reel, Stoll said.

A firm called iGames Entertainment Inc. has invented a device called the Protector. Easy to use and transferable from machine to machine, it prevents entry up the coin chute by sensing something going the wrong way, disabling the game and alerting authorities.

"It installs on the inside of the door. You would not know it was there unless you're familiar with the inside of a slot machine," said Steven Berman, vice president of sales and marketing for the Las Vegas company.

New Jersey's Division of Gaming Enforcement has approved the Protector and it's slated for trials in the resort.

Meanwhile, the emergence of cashless slots will make the wand and its ancestors obsolete.

With cashless slots, players receive a voucher instead of coins. The voucher is redeemed by cashiers or ATM-like machines. Just about every game at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa is cashless. The only time the hoppers come into play is when the ticketing server goes down on occasion.

"In 10 years there will likely be no hoppers left," Williamson said.

Still, even a cashless game requires insertion of bills to play, offering some potential for compromise, said Ed Rogich, vice president of marketing for International Game Technology, one of the largest slot manufacturers.

Cheats can attack the bill acceptors with counterfeit money. But manufacturers, working with the U.S. Mint, have developed programs to combat the practice, so it's easier to pass a fake bill with a cashier than with a slot machine, Rogich said.

More recent scam attempts involve copying the cashless tickets. But the various systems do not allow vouchers to be cashed twice.

"If you try and cash the original ticket after redeeming a copy, it comes up as already redeemed," Williamson said.

Some thieves take advantage of older cabinets by forcing them open and stealing coins. Unlike table games, which have dealers and pit bosses galore, there is far less surveillance in the expansive slot areas. Once a cabinet is opened, legally or not, it sends a signal to authorities, but by the time they arrive, the thief may be gone.

More sophisticated scam artists break into the machines by circumventing the locking system and altering the computer program to trigger a jackpot. While such scams often require the help of a casino employee, a knowledgeable thief can do it. Dennis Nikrasch led a ring of thieves who generated jackpots in minutes in Las Vegas in the late 1990s.

Nikrasch knew how to disable the sensors, which signal an open slot machine door. Then he would download the winning combination into the machine's computer. He was arrested and sentenced to jail in 1999. To the best of anyone's knowledge, he didn't operate in Atlantic City, where surveillance is stricter than in many Las Vegas casinos.

The state Attorney General's office went through hoops to persuade the FBI to share what it knew about how the scam worked, Williamson said.

"Once we knew, we knew what to protect against it," Williamson said. "Machines have since been retrofitted."

I posed the whole story because it is interesting in its entirety.

When I tell people what I do, they usually do two things: laugh, and/or ask me what the secret to winning is. I now tell them the secret is to cheat, and this article shows that a determined slot cheat will usually come out ahead in the short run, although he or she usually gets caught in the long run.

But don't they say that in the long run, we're all dead?

SHALL WE IMRPOVE THE BREED OF HORSES OR...NEVER MIND

Not too much other news, except that there is a brewing scandal at the New York race tracks and the Australian gaming industry is in a rough spot.

That's all for today. Until tomorrow, don't cheat at slots, check your zipper and watch for dangling toilet paper. Am I the only one who read that and thought of Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid?

posted by Dave at 3:43 PM