Fruit Machine Scams

[secsee1]

I ask this question because I went to my local pub for lunch yesterday and there were 3 blokes I have never seen before standing around the fruit machine (which by the way is in a concealed alcove in the bar) I thought at the time that they were up to no good, I mentioned it to the barmaid but she is very young and inexperienced and simply said there was nothing she could do as the landlord was out. A short time later the blokes left
and just after that the landlord returned whom I told of my suspicions, he got the keys to the machine and checked the payout meter and it seems that it had paid out £184. that morning. as these were the only people to play the machine that morning it must have been them, about an hour later the landlord got a phone call from the pub just up the road to say look out for 3 blokes as they had just emptied his fruit machine. the point of asking this question is how are they doing this as I thought the machine companies had fixed all these scams a few years ago. Also is there any way of stopping these thieves without affecting genuine players?

[squarebear]

Many years ago you could buy electronic jammers which would give random credits and wins. It was a case of pressing it until you had a good one. I bought one out of curiousity and can assure that they work (although I never profited from it and always told the landlord what I was doing). Sounds like they've still got one although I thought modern machines were protected against this sort of attack.

Was the machine an old one?

[squarebear]

Also, was it a fruit machine or was it one of those quiz machines? Rumour has it that dishonest programmers put ways of winning the jackpot in some of these games .(pressing certain parts of the screen to activate easy questions and so on)

[secsee1]

No squarebear it's quite a new machine as it is changed every other month by the company that rents them out, we have been told by another landlord that most of today's machines have a "Refill" key slot somewhere in the payout chute which apparently these scammers are using somehow, although just how is a mystery but I did see one of the blokes bending down and fiddling about in the payout chute just before they left.

[squarebear]

Sounds like they've got their hands on a key used by the company themselves. Maybe one of them worked for the company but somehow kept his key?

[weecalf]

While being dishonest is wrong .These machines are a menace and one has to ask should they be in bars and other places .They are addictive and cause untold misery

[secsee1]

Apparently these "refill" keys are freely available on ebay, but quite how they use them I don't understand as all they let the landlord do is to refill the coin tubes via the coin slot without it registering up plays

[squarebear]

I assume they also allow the owner to empty the machine in case it is being moved somewhere or decommisioned. Easier than holding it upside down and banging!

[Booldawg]

I remember years ago someone using strimmer wire bent in a certain way to clock up credits by inserting into the coin slot and hooking around the coin strike bar. Everytime you pulled the wire up the machine thought another 10p was being inserted.

[snags]

''They are addictive and cause untold misery''

Better ban tobacco, alcohol, chocolate and The Jeremy Kyle show too then...

[ChuckFickens]

+1 vote for the JK show.

[mccfluff]

nooooo not jeremy

i remember when i was working in the pub and one of the landlords daughters emptied it for change, she put put back but left it in test mode or something, next one in one £250 off a couple of quid. Her parents were not impressed! (btw its a club so can have machines paying that much out)

[secsee1]

Thanks for your answers, what a nice way to earn a living, going into pubs, pretending to play the fruit machine whilst all the time you are emptying it, seems to me that you could be on a Thousand pounds or more a day!! (and I meant that sarcastically about a nice way to earn a living)

[rowanwitch]

found a machine once that for some reason returned your coin after every play...so played for about an hour collecting a bit here and a bit there....because it wasn't paying out nobody noticed anything odd ..... then went up to the landlord and told him and handed the money back.... it was fun and killed an hour

[secsee1]

I have just found a website selling these keys for £5.99 each, I wont say what site but here's a bit of what it said....

ALSO INCLUDED:

An extremely easy to follow instruction manual to make the most out of various fruit machines
Details on how to guarantee a jackpot when using it - get your key today!

What does it do?:
When you insert the refill key into the fruit machine it will allow you to access information about the fruit machine - this is the info that the owners of the pub/club/arcade don't want you to know.

This will give you a massive advantage over the other players.
You can check how much money is in the hopper.

If a machine has £125.00 in the hopper it is about to pay out.
You can also check to see how much the last player won.

You can check even previous wins - just think how quickly you will make back your initial investment,you could be in profit within minutes.

I have made & still can make in excess of £100 in less than 2 hours, just think how much you could make over the weekend in an arcade !

[redman41]

Many Years ago I was a Service Engineer for a Yorkshire Company where I was responsible for the Servicing and Maintainance of Pub/Club fruit Machines,Juke Boxes, Pool Tables etc. I saw many scams and attempts to defraud the Machines.
One Fruit Machine had 3/4 of the contents of the Cash Box filled with fake £1 coins.
These men were probably using an Electronic device in order to 'confuse' the Machine's Computer into paying out money !

[McMouse]

Back in the 60's when in a military convalescence centre in Malaysia they had an old fashioned 'one armed bandit' that took tokens available from the WVS shop. The machine had been fixed to pay out on almost every go and the tokens could be exchanged for cigarettes that had been donated to the hospital after being seized by Customs. Some of the blokes really believed they were being lucky.

[joko]

my friend does this as his day job...he goes out about 11 every day and comes back at 6ish with a few hundred quid

its is no scam though...he wins fair and square and legally. he has no gadgets or anything...just his memory etc

the pubs etc may not like it but he is not doing anything wrong...he just knows when the machines are 'ripe' and goes round regularly

he just know how to play them as he was taught by someone and has spent years teahcing himself to play...
he just knows the way they work - apparently lots of people do it.
he knows ALL the quiz questions, and knows all the buttons and symbols an whats coming etc

he does have to put in around £30-40 of his own money - but usually doubles it at least
he does sometimes come back having not made anything or even lost money...but other days he is lucky

[billnye7]

You have to get megastreak on the fruit machine, if your lucky it will do a £210 payout. You also get things called £500 jackpots, they can pay out £500 suprisingly so might want to watch them paying out £184 as it is entirely legal and we wouldn't want that now would we...
No offence but if you look through youtube you will find loads of £210 megastreaks, suprised they only got £184 out of it tbh

[billnye7]

You have to get megastreak on the fruit machine, if your lucky it will do a £210 payout. You also get things called £500 jackpots, they can pay out £500 suprisingly so might want to watch them paying out £184 as it is entirely legal and we wouldn't want that now would we...
No offence but if you look through youtube you will find loads of £210 megastreaks, suprised they only got £184 out of it tbh