Since the very first appearance of slots, players have always been tempted to cheat at them. The reason is simple - slot machines offer the biggest jackpots, both at land-based and online casinos! And who wouldn't want to hit the jackpot? The only problem here is that breaking the bank at slots is not that simple as it may seem - because the chances are rather rare.

So that's why some players take the risk of cheating at the machines in order to get a chance to win big. But is it actually possible? Well, let's take a look at some techniques professionals have used to beat slots, and then see how you can do it today!

Slots: Outlook 

Slots, pokies or poker machines, or are casino games of chance with an inbuilt computer program to help generate random outcomes. Once you spin the reel (or press the button in online slots), the machine randomly picks one of the many possible results, and depending on the outcome, you either win or not.

The most important thing you should remember while playing slots at most secure online casino is that each spin on the machine is truly random, and there's actually no possible way of cheating them. However, we can still check how cheaters have tried to beat the slots and to combine their experience with today's reality to finally find out the best way to play and win at slots.


Monkey's Paw


Back in the early days of slot games, when they were mechanical instead of electronic, cheating was quite easy. The most popular method was the Monkey's Paw, which was invented by Tommy Glenn Carmichael, the famous American cheater. The device had a hook on end, so when the player slid it into the coin chute, it would hold the coin hole to release all the coins. However, this tool wasn't hard to create at all - any player could make one. But once the casinos noticed that the slots had been completely emptied out, they learned how to prevent any unwanted fraudulent actions.


Stringed and Shaved Coins


Attaching a coin on a string, also known as the ‘yo-yo trick,' was another way of cheating way back then. This technique required the player to attach a piece of the fishing gut to a coin and then pass it through the slots, making a credit registration. Once this had been made, the player had to "fish out" the coin and continue playing. This meant you could have potentially won a significant amount of money without even investing a single penny!


Foreign Coins



In the 1980s, a Nevada hardware manufacturer sold out a line of coins that, just by some curious chance, were exactly the same weight and size as American coins. That's when the slot cheaters took full advantage of the situation, eventually leading to these coins found in machines all over the state.

After that incident, fraudsters attempted to use coins from other nations to play slots. For instance, the Mexican peso issued in 1985 was worth about half an American cent but was accepted as a quarter in some American slot machines.


Cheating Undercover


When the Nevada Gaming Commission employed Ronald Dale Harris as an engineer to work on monitoring and auditing systems for gaming devices, he instantly used it to his advantage. He knew some slots' source codes and used them to win more than $100,000 on video keno!


Cheating at Online Casinos


While fraud is mostly common in land-based gambling venues, there are some techniques to beat online slots.

Software Programs


The power of the Internet offers you hundreds, if not thousands, of different software programs to help you cheat the slots. For instance, some hackers offer engines, similar to those in video games, that (in theory) are able to scan the whole game and trick the slots into delivering you bonuses. However, using them to cheat at slots will probably lead you to being fooled.


PRNG


All slot machines, as we mentioned before, use RNG to define the results of each spin. However, they are actually Pseudo-Random Number Generators (PRNG), as they pre-define the value and combine it with other inputs. There were several cases where players find out bugs in PRNG and make good money from it. Although some really profited, this only shows that the algorithms are somehow not secure at all.


Useful Tips


While there isn't any actual technique in existence that can help you cheat, we can provide you with some principles to profit from while playing
for real money pokies:

● Don't get too emotional
● Set budget limits
● Know when to quit

Plus, while choosing the slot to play at, remember to take the RTP and payout table into consideration. These numbers will show the probability of a payout and the winning combinations.

On top of all these tips, don't overthink the game. Always remember that slots experience should bring you only fun and relaxation, no matter how profitable it could be. Don't let worries about payouts distract you from the pleasure.