slot machines

14 Stories

He Made a Living Losing $300K at the Slots Last Year
He Made a Living Losing
$300K at the Slots Last Year
in case you missed it

He Made a Living Losing $300K at the Slots Last Year

Inside the world of casino slot streamers

(Newser) - Brian Christopher makes a living by losing money, and a lot of it—$300,000 last year. The California man is part of what Katherine Sayre, writing in the Wall Street Journal, terms a "new class of niche celebrities:" People who play slot machines in casinos with the...

He Won $230K on Vegas Slots and Didn't Even Know It

After casino machine malfunction, Nevada gaming agency's meticulous detective work finds winner

(Newser) - A tourist who visited Las Vegas last month got lucky not once, but twice after he won a huge jackpot from a slot machine and never even realized it. CNN reports on the Nevada Gaming Control Board's "exhaustive" search for the Arizona man after the slot machine he...

Woman Sues Casino That Won't Pay Her $43M Jackpot

Casino says slot machine was having 'obvious malfunction'

(Newser) - "I feel like they did me real dirty," Katrina Bookman tells the New York Daily News . Last August, Bookman was on top of the world when a slot machine at Resorts World Casino in New York informed her she had won nearly $43 million . According to CNN , it...

No Easy Fix for Russian Hack That Scams Casinos
No Easy Fix for
Russian Hack
That Scams Casinos
LONGFORM

No Easy Fix for Russian Hack That Scams Casinos

'Wired' dives into how St. Petersburg group figured out slot machine patterns

(Newser) - An iPhone and a few well-timed button pushes by a mysterious patron was all that was needed to make a Missouri casino's slot machine pay out lots of cash. But this wasn't just a random scammer who'd figured out how to play the machine: It was part...

A Slot Machine's Deception, a Man's Tragic Death
A Slot Machine's
Deception, a Man's
Tragic Death
in case you missed it

A Slot Machine's Deception, a Man's Tragic Death

Scott Stevens killed himself after a 6-year gambling addiction—were the machines to blame?

(Newser) - About 1% of the US population (around 3.2 million Americans ) has a gambling disorder, per the National Center for Responsible Gaming —and the Atlantic tells the tragic story of one of those addicts and how a lawsuit took the entire industry to task for his death. Scott...

Woman 'Wins' $43M on Slots; Casino Says Not So Fast

The slot machine giveth huge payout, the slot machine 'malfunction' taketh it away

(Newser) - There are mechanical malfunctions on the order of you losing out on some pocket change and a bag of Fritos, and there are mechanical malfunctions on the order of the one Katrina Bookman faced in August, which amounts to a loss of $43 million and a steak dinner. As ABC7...

After 20 Years Without Win, Slot Machine Pays $2.4M

Couple played 'Lion's Share' for 5 minutes before winning

(Newser) - The most popular slot machine out of 1,900 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, the "Lion's Share" has had a reputation since it was installed in the '90s for boasting a sizable jackpot—thanks to no one ever having won it. It's so popular...

Why You Lost Your Money Playing Slot Machines

All those bells and whistles made you think you were winning: Study

(Newser) - There's a reason casinos sound the way do, with their endless barrage of dinging slot machines: It's all about taking your money. So say gambling researchers who looked into why slots are so brutally effective in extracting every last coin, reports Pacific Standard . Sorry, conspiracy theorists, the games...

Casino Refuses to Pay $43M Jackpot

Slot machine was faulty, Colorado casino insists

(Newser) - A customer at a Colorado casino was offered a free breakfast and $23 in lieu of the $42.9 million jackpot she won at a penny slot machine. Gaming authorities and officials at Fortune Valley Casino say the machine malfunctioned and that its top payout is only $251,000, but...

Penny Slots Bring In Big Bucks
 Penny Slots Bring In Big Bucks 

Penny Slots Bring In Big Bucks

(Newser) - Casinos are making big bank off the tiniest—and oft-most derided—denomination, USA Today reports. Gambling outfits have added penny slots at an amazing rate—in the last 2 years, Nevada has removed 12,000 more costly machines to make room for 7,000 penny slots—and the move has...

Russia Bans Gambling as Mega-Casinos Crap Out

Planned mini-Vegases stall in financial crisis

(Newser) - Gambling has played a major role in Russian life since 1989, with high-rolling casinos—more than 30 in Moscow alone—echoing the cowboy capitalism of the post-Soviet years. But July 1, Russia is shutting down all gaming and slot machine halls, confining gambling to four Vegas-style zones across the country....

Casinos Score Big With 1¢ Slots

(Newser) - Penny-pinching gamblers are flocking to casinos for a cheaper bet these days: penny slots. The machines enable them to play longer with the same amount of cash, and, thanks to modern paper payouts, no longer burden them with noisy bucket-loads of coins. Casinos don't mind the games, either. "...

School Offers Slot Machine Repair Course

Envisions bright future for graduates

(Newser) - A Florida vocational school is helping students hit the jackpot in the lucrative world of slot machine repair. The Sheridan Technical Center recently became the first school to offer a state-approved slot repair course, the Miami Herald reports. The inaugural class of 25 students is already underway. “We try...

Grannie's Slot Machines Get Hip
Grannie's
Slot Machines
Get Hip

Grannie's Slot Machines Get Hip

Casinos make play for the young and active

(Newser) - After years of catering to the little old lady crowd, slot machine manufacturers are reaching out to the video game generation with a line of skill-based games, the New York Times reports. “We need to appeal to new buckets of players, or we’ll die,” said one slot...

14 Stories