Vegas Free-for-All - Are slot tourneys rigged?

erininsd

Jan 10, 2015
9:02am

I think they are! Back in the day, they used to to have a bingo ball type of thing that would give you your machine, which seems more legit, today it's all electronic.

So today we sit down at our machines and about 2 mins before the tourney starts some people notice the name on their machine changed, mine was not one of them. . They end up shuffling people around, last minute to the changed machines. The person 2 machines down from me was the person who first noticed the name change and guess what, his machine came in first place. If that happened to me I would've been ticked off.

It seemed very fishy to me. I've always thought drawings are rigged too and joked to hubby that they only call 7*'s names in drawings lol.

rayxtwo

Jan 10, 2015
12:21pm

Block User

When Harrah's was in St. Louis they gave away umbrellas to people that had cash prizes in some of them. The only thing was, the people that were handing them out could feel the slips of paper that had the winners in them. They would hold back the "winners" till a preferred player would walk up. Some how the scam came to light and they got nailed.

Ray

BAGIANT

Jan 10, 2015
1:32pm

Block User

What a joke!

O2bnVegas

Jan 11, 2015
6:50am

Block User

I used to play in a lot of slot tourneys, mostly Harrah's LV and a few at Rio...years ago.
Players got their machine by reaching into a bowl of numbered balls or such as that.
And this was done prior to each round, so you usually had a different machine each round.
If perchance you drew the same machine number of a previous round, you had the choice of keeping it or re-drawing.
I think it didn't matter.
We would run around looking to see what machines had high scores after the round and what they did in the next round.
Often a machine that scored high one round wouldn't score high the next round. And vice versa.

The last tourney I participated in, (not a CET casino), I was given my machine numbers for each round when I first signed in. Already assigned.
I thought that was a little fishy, but what can you do?

Some time ago somebody got in trouble in one of those drawings to win a car or big cash or something.
It was found to be rigged so that a certain big whale would win the big prize.
I forget which casino, but I'm thinking I read it here on LVA.

Blonde4ever

Jan 11, 2015
6:59am

Block User

I suppose it is always possible.
I have only been in two tournaments.
One at Bellagio and one at the V.
I came in 6th at the Bellagio one and won $1000 freeplay,
so if it was rigged, it was rigged in my favor!

Terry Locke

Jan 11, 2015
7:34am

Block User

Quote

Originally posted by: O2bnVegas
I used to play in a lot of slot tourneys, mostly Harrah's LV and a few at Rio...years ago.
Players got their machine by reaching into a bowl of numbered balls or such as that.
And this was done prior to each round, so you usually had a different machine each round.
If perchance you drew the same machine number of a previous round, you had the choice of keeping it or re-drawing.
I think it didn't matter.
We would run around looking to see what machines had high scores after the round and what they did in the next round.
Often a machine that scored high one round wouldn't score high the next round. And vice versa.

The last tourney I participated in, (not a CET casino), I was given my machine numbers for each round when I first signed in. Already assigned.
I thought that was a little fishy, but what can you do?

Some time ago somebody got in trouble in one of those drawings to win a car or big cash or something.
It was found to be rigged so that a certain big whale would win the big prize.
I forget which casino, but I'm thinking I read it here on LVA.

That was the Venetian that rigged the drawings. Employee directly involved in this said he was taking orders from above. The Venetian was fined $1 million, if I recall correctly.

MIKEY7777

Jan 11, 2015
8:42am

Block User

I am diamond and I have never won at Harrahs/linq. my daughter-gold won $600 free play, my brother whom plays very seldom won to $50 wild cards

Captain

Jan 11, 2015
9:08am

Block User

When I used to plan my trips around tournaments I used to win something about 70% of the time, usually $50 or $75. Hit 1st place one, 2nd place a couple of times and 3rd place about the same. Boyd and Stations always had the ping pong selection, but CET sometimes had them preselected for you. Problem with CET is there were always too many participants and play time was pretty short, 2 minutes, 5 minutes, etc. Liked Boyd and Stations better with their 15 minutes play times X 3 sessions.
For the last couple of years I book trips when its convenient for me (usually out about 2-3 months) and if there is tourney that happens to hit on the trip, great...doesn't happen very often.

erininsd

Jan 12, 2015
8:10am

Block User

Yes, there were a lot of sessions, 15 minutes apart starting at (9:30 - 2:30), with I think about 50 people per session and 3 minutes.

The only other tourney's I'd been in were at the Peppermill in Reno and way back in the day they had the bingo ball deal. A couple years ago they'd changed it and just gave you a card with your 2 playing times and machine numbers already on it.

I did have my name called once at Rincon for a drawing for $500 in free play. We had 45 minutes to pick up the winnings and I was in the room watching TV when my name was called (it was around 9:30 pm). I just happened to look at my phone and noticed a voicemail, usually I would ignore it because I didn't know the number. I actually listened to it and it was my host calling to tell me my name had been called. I quickly dressed and ran down and got it, I had about 15 minutes to spare.

This last slot tourney thing just seemed weird that at the very last minute peoples names were switched around to different machines.

KingBarkus

Jan 13, 2015
5:50am

Block User

I don't think they are rigged as the casinos would open themselves up to big fines. That's not to say there isn't room for shenanigans. At Harrah's New Orleans a year or so ago, there was a VIP deal over the course of 2 days with drawings of $500 in freeplay. I have a small group of 7* friends that attended both nights. No one in my group was selected the first night and we gave our hosts some good-natured hell. The next night every member's name of the group (4) was drawn in succession. It came off as shady to me. Back on the slot tourney, at the Orleans last week, you drew bingo balls out of a container for your machine. Hard to rig a tourney that way. Btw, I'm still looking for my first win although I did win my session at Beau Rivage one day for $500.

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