![]() ![]() The slider - constructed of spring steel and guitar wire - essentially snaked its way into the machine through the payout chute and tripped a microswitch. In 1990, Carmichael returned to Las Vegas and bought IGT’s Fortune One video poker machine.įor six months, he toiled over a device - known as the slider or monkey paw - trying to compromise the machine. “They had to get more sophisticated,” said Mark Robinson, former manager of the Nevada Gaming Control Board’s Electronic Services Division. People who attached quarters to strings or used slugs found their techniques outdated. The new machines that played catchy tunes and offered megajackpots also made it harder to cheat. “It went from a machine to a computer game,” said Frank Legato, an industry expert who writes for gambling trade publications. The old hybrid machines relied on a combination of electricity and physics. They agreed to find each other after their release.īut when freedom came in May 1987 - the same year he divorced for the last time - Carmichael found a technical revolution sweeping the industry.īeginning in the early 1980s, the leading manufacturers, Bally and International Game Technology, rolled out new high-tech slot and video poker machines that used microprocessors and random number generator software. It limited where you could play.” Behind bars, Carmichael also met Mike Balsamo, who would help form a slot-cheat gang. “I was playing a dinosaur,” Carmichael said, referring to the top-bottom joint, which worked by short-circuiting machines. “You think about what you did and the mistakes and how to correct them. “In the penitentiary there’s not a whole lot to think about,” Carmichael said. He claimed it was used to start his car.Īt 35, Carmichael’s rap sheet now included his first cheating blemish to go along with two small-time drug convictions and some juvenile mischief. Inside his pocket was the top-bottom joint. Moments later police slammed him against a wall and searched him. on July 4, 1985.Īfter drinking a cup of coffee, Carmichael began playing a slot machine. ![]() The Denny’s Restaurant just west of the Strip was practically empty at 3 a.m. “You are thinking you are going to have yachts and cars,” he said. He first bilked a 5-cent machine at a casino near the Las Vegas Strip, strolling out proudly with pockets bulging with $35 in nickels. He and his fourth wife left for Sin City. The lure of Las Vegas proved irresistible for Carmichael, a native of Tulsa whose thick brown hairstyle recalls a youthful Johnny Cash. He immediately decided to close the repair shop. “I could see where it was pretty easy to do.”Ĭarmichael had discovered his knack for cheating. “We got to playing around,” Carmichael said. In his car’s trunk, Ming had a Bally’s slot machine and a “top-bottom joint” - the Cadillac of cheating tools 20 years ago. Carmichael, 30, is sitting in his Tulsa television repair shop called Ace TV Sales and Service when in walks his old friend, Ray Ming, then living in Las Vegas. ![]()
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