Nevada regulators OK repairs of defective slots

David Strow

Thursday, April 26, 2001 | 11:08 a.m.

WMS Industries Inc. is moving quickly to fix slot machines at casinos across the nation, following the discovery of a "security anomaly" that could allow players to cheat some WMS-made machines.

WMS, one of the largest slot machine makers in the country, sent a notice to Nevada casinos last week, following discovery of the software glitch at Detroit's MotorCity casino. Similar efforts are under way in gaming markets across the country.

"They have a bug in some of their machines that allows people who are skilled enough to figure out a method to cheat the machines," said Scott Scherer, member of the Nevada Gaming Control Board. "It does require you to do some things out of the ordinary, things that would not reveal themselves in normal play of the game. It's a serious issue, a serious design flaw, and we've been pretty clear with them (WMS) that they need to take rapid action to fix it."

To date, there have been no reported incidents of patrons attempting to cheat WMS machines in Nevada using the method discovered in Detroit, said Keith Copher, chief of the control board's enforcement division. Copher said casinos were given a 30-day notice to fix the machines several days ago.

Chicago-based WMS controls about 10 percent to 12 percent of the Nevada slot market, Scherer said, though the bug doesn't affect all of these machines. He declined to discuss the nature of the security weakness, citing security concerns.

"We certainly don't want to encourage anyone to cheat these machines or give them a blueprint for how to do this," Scherer said.

The Detroit Free Press reported that the problem involves the machines' bill acceptor. The paper reported that the acceptor can be manipulated, allowing the player to accumulate more credits than have been paid for.

Orrin Edidin, executive vice president and general counsel of WMS, declined to specify which WMS slots are defective. He did, however, say that the glitch only affects a portion of WMS machines.

"I don't want to comment on the games or where they're located," Edidin said. "All regulators, including Nevada regulators, have been notified of the issue. We're working with them and are in the process of implementing the upgrade, which resolves the issue."

WMS is the producer of a number of popular video slot machine products, including Monopoly, Reel 'em In, Jackpot Party, Top Banana, Winning Bid and Boom.

The software that will be used to fix the problem was approved on an emergency basis by Nevada gaming regulators. To correct the problems, a slot technician simply replaces one chip in the machine with one containing the new software.

The cheating method apparently isn't an easy one to execute. But that hasn't stopped Nevada casinos from stepping up their vigilance to prevent a wave of would-be slot cheating attempts.

In Detroit, the hoppers and bill acceptors on affected WMS machines were disabled shortly after the problem was discovered. But in Nevada, the control board has not ordered any machines disabled, nor is it requiring casinos to shut down the affected machines.

"If we started seeing a significant amount of cheating activity, we'd probably look at shutting them down, or if this fix doesn't work, we would look at some more serious action," Scherer said. "Obviously the casino has more to lose than we do if the machines are being cheated. It's a balance between how much you can lose by having the machines shut down, and how much you could lose from the occasional (cheating) incident."

So far, it appears no one is willing to yank the slots because of that fear. On Wednesday evening, WMS machines at five Las Vegas casinos -- the MGM Grand, New York-New York, Excalibur, Tropicana and Suncoast -- were being played as normal by players. None of the machines had disabled bill collectors.

The defense against cheaters won't be visible to players. Instead, the control board is suggesting that casinos step up video surveillance of the machines to keep an eye out for would-be cheaters. Scherer said undercover control board agents will also watch for potential cheating activity on the affected WMS machines during their regular patrols of state casinos.

"We will attempt to apprehend them if they do (attempt to manipulate a WMS slot)," Scherer said.

At least one local operator -- Boyd Gaming Corp. -- has taken the control board's advice and stepped up surveillance activity at all seven of its Las Vegas-area casinos.

"When you're dealing with a situation like this, you tend to step up surveillance across the board," said Rob Stillwell, spokesman for Boyd.

But the issue isn't just the WMS machines affected. Stillwell noted that the glitch is fairly difficult to take advantage of, and the payoff for doing so is fairly limited. But a big problem is the impression it creates in players' minds, he said, particularly as information filters out about the glitch and how to take advantage of it.

"The feeling with some people is, 'If I can get away with this on one company's machine, maybe I can get away with it on another (manufacturer's) machine,"' Stillwell said.