http://www.wired.com/2014/10/cheating-video-poker/

You macro enabled bunnies are weak sauce.  This is a real playa. 

iliveyourdream13 wrote on Oct 12^th, 2014 at 5:42pm:


That is awesome!   

If they had of cheated by modifying the machine in any way, then so be it.  But they used the machine and the code made publicly available - that is not hacking.
It could be considered "unfair", but it was not illegal.

IGT should wear responsibility for their dud code.
Imagine if Turdbine made slot machines - ahhh, we'd be rich.....

DropBear wrote on Oct 12^th, 2014 at 8:15pm:


That's the way it should be... So much is wrong in this story:

"At 1:30 pm on October 6, 2009, a dozen state and local police converged on Andre Nestor's split-level condo on a quiet, tree-lined street in Swissvale... The battering ram hit the door seconds later, splintering the frame and admitting a flood of cops into the house...Nestor says he started toward the stairs, his hands over his head, when he came face-to-face with a trooper in full riot gear. “Get on the floor!” yelled the trooper, leveling his AR-15 at Nestor's face. Nestor complied. The cop ratcheted the handcuffs on Nestor's wrists, yanked him to his feet, and marched him into the kitchen."

Really? A scrawny guy plays the game in a way not intended, but without modification, and you need a 'dozen' heavily armed, combat trained men to apprehend him (ar-15's for a gambling offense...). Sounds like the typical testosterone filled adrenaline junkies that make up a percentage of the US police forces. Any excuse to get their rocks off.

"Prosecutors hit him with 698 felony counts, ranging from theft to criminal conspiracy."

Overkill much? Seems like someone's trying to make a point, or a P.R. stunt for publicity, not find justice.

"But on January 3, 2011, when it was time for jury selection, Nestor was hit with another surprise. Two FBI agents showed up and pulled him from the Washington County courthouse. The Justice Department had taken over the case. Nestor and Kane had both been charged federally in Las Vegas... The Las Vegas prosecutors charged Nestor and Kane with conspiracy and violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Passed in 1986, the CFAA was enacted to punish hackers who remotely crack computers related to national defense or banking."

Hacking? Really? May as well charge him with cyber-terrorism at this point...

"Nestor says the Meadows still has his winnings, and the IRS is chasing him for $239,861.04 in back taxes, interest, and penalties—money he doesn't have."

Ah, the government/IRS. Gotta love it. Seize his assets, including the gambling winnings, because it was obtained 'criminally', but still try to make a buck off of it. Shouldn't making money off illegally obtained money count as illegally obtained money?


Love/hate reading stories such as this.


Edit: Wouldn't this be better in the politics forum, and not the ddo forum?

Some Guy Here On The Boards wrote on Oct 13^th, 2014 at 12:01am:


Allow me to play Devil's Advocate here.
I think he got off lightly on this occasion.
Given they had to get up in the middle of the day, don all their gear and knock his door down - I mean those battering rams are heavy and it was a split level, so they probably had to carry it up stairs for god's sake!

At the very least he should have been tasered ten times for his audacity to even look at the stairs. 
And ideally, I would have thought it perfectly reasonable to unload a few clips into him, and then demand his surrender and to put down his beer can (while they reload).
Jeezuz - the guy was practically rubbing their noses in his illegal wealth - what did he expect?
The guy had a checkered history - he deserved what he got.
This "innocent until proven guilty" crap is for the lawyers, not the cops.

Some Guy Here On The Boards wrote on Oct 13^th, 2014 at 12:01am:


Perfectly reasonable too.
Every button press could and should be construed as an attempt to defraud and hack the system.  The charges would be in the 1,000's - need a xerox for all those forms!
What they should have done is adopt a less liberal policy, and one more like Extreme Prejudice! (tm) and really nail his ass to the wall for things he hadn't even done yet.

Some Guy Here On The Boards wrote on Oct 13^th, 2014 at 12:01am:

Yup.  Absolutely agree.  He probably had a home computer - good enough case for me.  Anyone with a home PC must be up to no good - why else would you need one?

Also in their targets are those filthy scum that use ATM's to withdraw cash, peeps who use service counters paying by credit cards (by definition, money that isn't theirs) and the worst, iTunes users who must be hackers if they know how to work the Interwebs.


Some Guy Here On The Boards wrote on Oct 13^th, 2014 at 12:01am:


Some would argue that the money seized should be returned given the charges were dropped.  But this untrue, I've already spoken about the efforts of all those officers and the FBI agents - after they took their cut, there was only pocket change left.  Cost of fuel to return it, made it uneconomic.

Also, it could be argued that the IRS has no basis for levying tax on winnings he does not have, but this is a beginner's mistake.
The IRS is always right.  Period.
If you disagree, then see you in court where their legal equivalent of a 300lb gorilla will butt-fuck you till your eyes pop out (figuratively speaking - they're not recognized legal terms, although they are used regularly.... Off the record of course).

Some Guy Here On The Boards wrote on Oct 13^th, 2014 at 12:01am:

Absolutely not!  This is the perfect breeding grounds for miscreants like Kane and Nestor.  Better they learn their lessons here and now, than the hard way!

Some Guy Here On The Boards wrote on Oct 13^th, 2014 at 12:01am:

The point was to show the "baby dupers" here that real dupers try to beat systems that know what the meaning of "extreme predjudice" is.   

Exploiting Turbine is something my grandmother could do.  Exploiting Vegas and gaming companies takes steel nuts and real skills. 

iliveyourdream13 wrote on Oct 13^th, 2014 at 3:24pm:


Exactly how would your grandmother go about doing said exploiting?

Very true aeolwind. Sadly though, most of the exploiters these days are the type that will spam their gain on the AH's, talk about it on motherforums and such, etc. Not very wise, and then complain when they get caught and banned. They would be the greedy, unwise folks in this story Epoch though, I could see him being a grumpy old alaskan, sitting in a corner, winning ~$500 at a time, playing it cool, and sitting on an offshore account of $1m+...

DropBear wrote on Oct 13^th, 2014 at 7:08pm:

Hindsight is 20/20.

Yes, they were both absolute fools.  Once they knew just asking the attendents to "turn on" the feature enabled them to win, the bug could have likely been milked worldwide.  A living space, car, fat bank account, these two were absolute hoarders.

There are casinos all over the country now.  I would've hit a tiny handful in Vegas, lightly padded an account and flown to a new city, then start chasing machines all over the world.  Stay in hotels, party with club girls, pick up a jackpot every day or three as you need more cash.  Change my citizenship to avoid the IRS entirely.  You can give someone an exploit, but you can't give an imagination. 

Their problem, like most dupers, is they're addicted to gambling/cheating/exploiting, not actually living.