Sweepstakes slot machines are the most productive games in any casino or online gaming platform. The player wins, the business owner wins, and sadly, the cheaters win too. Even if behind sweepstakes slots is a very well built software and not a traditional roulette dealer, cheaters still make their way in.
What made sweepstakes slots so famous is the adrenaline rush they provide. By betting a small bet, sometimes a few quarters, you can win the jackpot or lose it all in the blink of an eye. This uncertainty is what gets the people going. Sweepstakes slots are easy games to play and work on simple rules. They have attractive backstories and characters, high definition graphics and outstanding sound effects. But the essential feature of these games is the prize. This prize usually means enormous amounts of money. With this said, it is not hard to see why gamblers always return to play and why some of them try to cheat. Further on, we will look at eleven most popular sneaky ways to cheat at sweepstakes slots.
#1 Using Cheat Codes
As we all know, sweepstakes slots and any other casino or gambling game, are heavily-regulated by the law. Authorities are always there to ensure that the casino and online gambling industry is running smoothly and correctly.
Gaming software developers are always coming up with new features and updates to upstage cheaters. Each sweepstakes slots machine is monitored and audited, meaning that the engineers behind the games know every code that runs it. Sometimes, they can use it for their benefit.
Let’s take Ronald Dale Harris for example. This notorious cheater was actually on board in the Nevada Gaming Commission. The Cheat Code method was his ” weapon” of choice. For many years, he cheated sweepstakes slots by knowing their codes. Usually, cheaters work in pairs or groups, and Harris wasn’t an exception. In 1998, his partner cheated a keno game and won over 100,000 dollars. Investigators discovered their scam shortly after.
#2 Blast From the Past: The Shaved Coin
Before explaining the scamming method, let’s find out what is a shaved coin. People use this practice since Roman times, and it seems it won’t retire any time soon. Shaving or clipping bits of metal from the edge of a coin would modify the currency but not alter it. Today, with technology moving at a fast pace, sweepstakes slots upgraded their system too. The games use a light sensor that registers the payment. In general, this optical sensor doesn’t transmit data to the physical comparison system. So, if you insert a shaved coin in the machine together with an object that matches the shape and size of the coin, the game will start. The trick here is that the game returns the shaved coin to the player and the one that runs the game is the actual object.
#3 Counterfeit Coins
Counterfeit or fake coins are as actual as they were in the past. Even though they require a lot of time and attention, cheaters still like to use this method.
Professional deceiver, Louis ” The Coin” Colavechhio got his nickname because of this scam. Using coin duplication, he cheated plenty of casinos of thousands of dollars. Police caught him in 1998 and served jail time until 2006. Shortly after his liberation, he went back to his old ways. He now serves time for counterfeit 100 dollar bills.
#4 The Light Wand Technique
This technique is one of the most famous cheats in gambling history. It takes a lot of creativity and knowledge for this scam, but Tommy Glenn Carmichael was no stranger to sweepstakes slots cheats.
When you hear the word ” light wand” you might think of Harry Potter or Dynamo. But this infamous cheater is far from being a magician. Charmichael manufactured the wand from a camera battery and a small bright LED. The light wand’s system was simple: by shining it into a slot machine, the sensor would go blind. After this, the game would pay out because the computer behind it wouldn’t know how many coins the player inserted or how much to give. Using this method, Carmichael was cashing in around $10,000 per day. He got caught in front of a sweepstakes slots machine in Las Vegas trying to cheat. Later on, after being incarcerated, he received a lifetime ban from entering a casino.
#5 The Piano Wire Method
As it shows by now, most of these scams came to life in the Casino Golden Era, the ’80s. The first record of this cheat surfaced in 1982 in Atlantic City. This scam involves a group of people and a 20 inch long piano wire. The wire is attached to the front of the game. This action allows the cheaters to stop the reel controller and move the reels as they like. When the reels line up, the machine pays out the jackpot.
By using this technique, a group of men collected jackpots worth 3.25 million dollars. This scam remained the most massive sweepstakes slot cheating scam in casino history. Security cameras filmed them while rigging a slot machine and winning the $50,000 jackpot in a casino in Atlantic City.
#6 The Front-Back Joint
This scam hit the headlines in the ’70s and ’80s. It is one of the most clever cheating methods ever used. Cheaters use a homemade tool split into two parts. The top part is a metal rod bent in the shape of the letter Q. The second part is a long wire. By putting the bottom piece through the coin chute and the other part through the coin slot, the machine forcibly releases all the coins it stored.
#7 Carmichael’s Monkey Paw
Tommy Carmichael hits again, folks! This professional cheater invented the monkey paw scam. He came up with this method after researching some video poker machines. Let’s go back a little bit and remind ourselves that this happened in the 1980s. Video poker machines were new at that time, and the software running them was harder to jam. But Carmichael had a plan: he connected a guitar line to a bent metal shaft. By pushing this device into the machine’s air drain and moving it around, he would switch on the coin dispenser. Therefore, hello, jackpot! The coins would flood out of the sweepstakes slot.
#8 Ticket Validator Device
This technique is effortless to apply, and it is not as risky for fraudsters like other scams are. This cheating method comes in after paying out or gambling at a sweepstakes slot machine.
In some casinos, filling up sweepstakes slots with coins takes up a lot of time and effort. As a solution, they implemented tickets as a form of winning, that the player can cash in whenever he wants.
This scam also called “ticket in- ticket out”, goes like this: the slot cheat inserts a $100 bill from his banknotes, into the note acceptor. By pushing the cash out button, they receive a ticket. Later on, this ticket gets photocopied in such a way that it looks like a real voucher. The last step is passing trough casino ticket check-up. If the staff is not using a mobile device for checking the tickets, cheaters can end up cashing in the fraud voucher as well.
Nowadays, it is tough to get away with this scam because of the technology used. Every casino has pro devices and advanced security cameras systems, making it hard for fraudsters to fool them.
#9 The Chip Replacement Method
This method is the artwork of another sweepstake slots scam master. His name is Dennis Nikrasch, and his slots cheating concept remains a highlight in casino frauds history.
Everything started in his garage when he bought a slot machine. He opened it up to figure out how does it work and what are its main flaws. Nikrasch found out that the computer chips inside the game are reprogrammable. This scammer did it in such a way that the slot machine would pay out the jackpot in an instant.
After solving out that matter, he ordered a bunch of chips and hacked those as well. What he later made sounds like it’s out of a movie script. He hired a group of scammers that helped him fraud casinos for years in a row. They were entering casinos to play sweepstakes slots, but when no one was paying attention, they changed the regular slots with the fake ones. Using this strategy, Dennis Nikrasch made more than 15 million dollars in the ’80s. He got his conviction in 1998.
#10 The Software Glitch
Software glitches serve as a tool for slots fraudsters. By playing in a certain way or using a distinctive pattern, cheats could trigger a slots bug that pays out the jackpot. The bad part is that a lot of honest players that conquered the big prize legitimately cannot get a hold of it because of this situation.
This scam threatens the online sweepstakes slots as well. For example, a teenage boy from Finland scammed an online casino out of more than 130,000 euros. He took advantage of a software glitch and the casino’s policy to register under a fake name and transfer amounts of money to an online bank account.
#11 The Classic Yo-Yo Scam
This scam is an actual classic. You might have seen this on cartoons before. Mickey Mouse may have used it to steal a cupcake from a bakery. Well, the technique we saw on T.V. is the same one that sweepstake slot cheats use.
You attach a coin to a string, and then you insert it in the slots machine. The coin will immediately start the game, and you are supposed to retract the string. Therefore, you can play sweepstakes slot games for free. Nowadays, this scam is rather useless because of the advanced technology and software.
Tips for Sweepstakes Slots
Because we presented some of the sneakiest cheats for sweepstake slots, we will also show some useful tips for winning at them. Just because sweepstakes slot machines are present in every casino for as long as we ‘ve known, it doesn’t mean that they are less sophisticated. Behind every sweepstakes slot, there is a gaming strategy. Check out below some tips and tricks that will help you win at every slot machine:
One play: it’s a simple strategy that turned out the most effective as well. This idea states that you should play a slot machine once with the highest amount you can get. If you win, play again if not, try another device. You should have a bit of luck in store for this, but it will sure keep you from getting bored.
Small Jackpots
If you want to win at sweepstakes slots in a short time, reach out for the ones with the smaller jackpots. The lower the pot, the bigger your chances to win. If you play sweepstake slot games that pay out a big prize, the harder the strategy behind it, therefore, if you try to succeed in the short-term, most likely you will fail.
It takes up to several hours to gain huge jackpots. Giving out the fact that slots are called games of chance, it means that playing such huge bets will lower your winning chances. Your best option is to stay away from novelty themed sets with a big payout and stick to the ones that offer a smaller prize.
Video Reels
Best way to deal with this kind of machines is to avoid them. These sweepstakes slots are attractive, because of their outstanding graphics and cool sound effects. But as it turns out, these machines pay back far less than the normal ones. Video slots can offer 5% less money than a regular device would give out. Sure, 5% means nothing, but in the sweepstakes slots world, it makes a huge difference.
Is there a reason behind the difference? Yes, there is. Slots that display videos and other entertainment features take a bit longer to load. The casino considers this a stand by; in other words, they are not making money. Because of this reason, they chose to raise their charges for customers opting for these games. So, sticking to a classic slot machine is an excellent way to go, with higher winning stakes.
Stick to Fixed Payouts
Some video slots have fixed payouts, and others have progressive jackpots. This means they use a tool that increases jackpots with every losing play. In a more straightforward approach; the more people play, the higher the prize gets. Even if progressive slot games seem more attractive because of the big prizes, your odds are much lower than they would be at a regular machine. So, sticking to fixed maximum payout machines is a better choice if you want to take some money home.
In conclusion, there are many scamming methods and cheating tools out there. The casinos and sweepstakes slots industry are improving their security and software every day to avoid losing money due to cheating. Engineers and software developers are upgrading the games and platforms constantly. But the hacker became more and more experienced, and they get quickly accustomed to new codes and algorithms. What’s interesting about these sneaky cheats is that the ones that work are using easy tools. Most of these methods emerged in the 80s when names like Carmichael and Marcus were hitting the headlines on a day to day basis. It turns out; they earned their notoriety for a good reason. Luckily, with technology moving so fast, sweepstakes slots will eventually become cheat-free.
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