How Would You Do It?

On the videopoker.com forum, a player recently wrote about coming across a quarter Five Play Super Times Play machine that consistently had a 5x multiplier. Every hand. He milked it for 45 minutes or so for almost $4,000 and left — happy to get away undetected. 

Let’s say, however, that you want to milk the machine as long as it lasts. How would you go about doing it? 

An STP machine with a continuous 5x multiplier is clearly malfunctioning. Most machines have a “Malfunction Voids All Pays” sticker on it somewhere. It is possible that you would be identified and arrested and have legal expenses. Probably not, but maybe. 

This last possibility would stop me from playing the machine. I am a public figure, so to speak, in the video poker world and do not need newspapers reporting that a video poker writer had been arrested for cheating. Whether I was found guilty or not, the publicity would damage my career and possibly kill off any welcome I still have at many casinos.

But you may not be in the same position. You might be a “nobody,” insofar as the casinos are concerned. The risk might be worth it.

As to whether it’s a malfunction, you’re going to get a 5x multiplier on your next hand about one time in 60 (rounded), which I will notate 1/60. On your next two hands, 1/3,600. On your next four hands, 1/1.3 million. On your next eight hands, 1/1.7 trillion. This guy had hundreds of these in a row. It boggles the mind mathematically how unlikely that was. Bottom line — it was a malfunction.

The first thing to consider would be:  Are you already well known at this casino? If the supervisors looked at tape of who was playing, would they recognize you? If so, they probably have your name and address. If so, you’re probably better off “selling” the information to someone who doesn’t normally play at this casino.

Teammates are required to do this right. You would need a player, of course, but you would also want “blockers” who are people playing next to you on either side — playing whatever. This would block the eyesight of other players and disguise what you’re doing. These blockers would need to be paid, of course, but there would be plenty of money generated to keep everybody happy.

You could get one (or maybe two) W2Gs with a 5x multiplier without drawing suspicion. More than that, and even blind employees would begin to notice. To avoid W2Gs, you would want to choose your game well and change your strategy.

The best game would be Jacks or Better — any pay schedule. A dealt quad on five play pays less than $800 — which is below W2G range. If you were dealt a straight flush, like say a 56789 of hearts, you would want to throw away either the 5 or the 9. You might get another straight flush or two on the draw, but not enough of them to trigger a W2G.

You would NOT want to get a royal flush. So, on a hand like Q♥ J♥ 9♣ 6♥ 3♣, you should hold either QJ6, or maybe just one of the high cards. This would prevent you from getting a W2G. For those who are worried about throwing away your profits, remember you would be playing a game worth, say, 480%. You WILL win. The object of the game is to preserve your longevity, not squeezing the most out of every hand.

You would want to cash out fairly frequently. Tickets under $1,000 are usually no problem. Cashing several of them is no problem. You would not want your credits to mount on the machine, so you eventually would have to go to the cage to cash them out.

Also, you would want to stop before accumulating $10,000 in tickets in a day. (And by “stop” I mean hand it over to a teammate to play for four hours or so.) If the casino was trying to punish you after the fact for taking advantage of them, a case could be made that going to various ATM machines and cashing out for $10,000 or more in a day without having a Currency Transaction Report filed is “structuring.” This is a felony. Even if you were found innocent, lawyers are expensive.

You would need to “train” your players. They must avoid royals and avoid switching games to where W2Gs are more likely. This training should be done “off site,” if possible. Organizing this and pulling it off is not a trivial feat and there are a number of ways it could go sideways.

You and your team members should avoid using players cards for as long as this play is active. You should probably wear baseball or other caps to make getting a good picture of you more difficult. When your shift was done, cash out and leave the casino immediately. If the ATM has a camera on it (many do), stand to the side when you cashed out. You would probably want to be looking at your cell phone as you walked through the casino. There are often cameras where you don’t expect them.

You would not want to park in the casino garage or in other locations that might have cameras. You probably would want to park some distance away and either walk or Uber to the casino.

After this play ends, and it will relatively quickly, you would not want to go back to that casino for at least a year.

Would all this work? I don’t know. But if I were an anonymous player who needed money, I’d probably try it should I find such an opportunity.