License To Steal: Nevada'S Gaming Control System In The Megaresort Age (Gambling Studies Series) | 
 enlarge | Author: Jeff Burbank
Publisher: University of Nevada Press
Category: Book
List Price: $18.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 803428
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.3 x 0.7
ISBN: 0874176247
Dewey Decimal Number: 306
EAN: 9780874176247
ASIN: 0874176247
Publication Date: August 24, 2005
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Book Description
Seven precedent-setting case studies taken from the files of the Nevada Gaming Control Board illustrate vital issues addressed in the first decade of the megaresorts. Murder, the Mob, prostitution, drugs, innovative (but illegal) financial dealings, and the brilliant use of technology for ill-gotten gain, all have been involved in the schemes of unscrupulous casino owners, employees, and gamblers throughout the decades of legal gambling. Gaming in Nevada is more stringently controlled than anywhere else in the United States, and in License to Steal, investigative reporter and editor Jeff Burbank provides a lively and highly readable case history account of some of the most significant - and most fascinating - cases adjudicated by the Nevada Gaming Control Board and Commission during a pivotal time for the growing gaming industry. It is the responsibility of these two agencies to review the licensing of new and established casinos, investigate reports of suspected wrongdoing, and punish those found guilty. In providing a balanced and objective yet very entertaining account of these sometimes complex cases, Jeff Burbank uses legal documents, meeting transcripts, insider interviews, and contemporary newspaper reports. The book is enhanced by the author's lively and informative recent interviews with key figures in gaming regulation, past and present.
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Feeling Lucky? February 5, 2007
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
If you've ever put a quarter in a slot machine, you might have wondered if the game is fixed or if you actually have a chance of winning. You know that the house always has an edge, but you assume you have a chance of winning, otherwise you wouldn't play, right?
In Nevada, where the economy depends on gambling, there are two regulatory agencies, the Gaming Control Board and the Gaming Commission. In general, the Commission licenses casinos and the Board enforces the laws regarding gambling. Together they have a responsibility to make sure the public has confidence in the gambling system.
Jeff Burbank used to be a business reporter for the Las Vegas Sun and then the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the two major newspapers in Nevada. He investigated the casino industry from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s. During that time there were a number of landmark cases that the Commission and the Board dealt with. In License to Steal, Burbank describes seven of the most controversial and entertaining cases.
One story tells of the casino owner who had a Nazi memorabilia collection that he liked to exhibit to a few hundred close friends from time to time. He'd throw a party, sometimes on Hitler's birthday, to show off the collection. The parties were held in his casino, but not in public view. Word got around (apparently the collection was really something) and the Commission wondered if it shouldn't do something, since one of their mandates is to ensure the licensees (casino owners and operators) don't do anything to give Nevada a bad reputation. It was a touchy problem: a lot of people were offended, but what about freedom of speech? And wasn't it somewhat hypocritical to censure someone for offensive behavior in Las Vegas, which has a bit of a reputation for bad taste? In the end, they fined the casino owner. Even in Las Vegas, there are limits to bad taste.
Another story explained how a slot machine manufacturer had programmed its machines to make it look as if losing spins had just missed being winners - "near misses." The owners claimed that the machine wheels would spin randomly, as they are supposed to, but that once the spin had randomly been determined to be a loser, the wheels would re-adjust to show a near miss. This made it more exciting for the player, who would play more. But the regulators thought it might compromise the appearance of randomness. They decided the near miss feature would not be allowed, but when the company appealed on the grounds that retrofitting thousands of machines would be too expensive, the Commission cut them some slack. They still went bankrupt.
Then there's the story about a Gaming Control Board employee who found a way to rig the slot machines he tested so they would pay off when a certain sequences of coins was fed into them. Burbank tells how the employee also learned how to predict keno draws, using a computer program, and was trying out the system in Atlantic City, when casino security became suspicious. This was different from the slots - he hadn't rigged the keno game, he was using an algorithm that found an element of non-randomness in the draws and exploited it. I'm not even sure that qualifies as cheating according to Commission rules, but it certainly does by casino rules. The casinos can make up their own rules and anything that gives a player an edge over the casino is considered by the casino to be cheating.
Once Atlantic City authorities notified Las Vegas authorities, the employee's boss at the Board examined the employee's office computer and examined the records of payoffs the machines he had tested and found he and his friends and relatives had been hitting regular jackpots on the machines. This caused a real public relations headache for the Commission and for the casinos. Just the fact that an employee of the commission had been rigging slots for several years was bad enough. But then ABC-TV reported that the employee claimed that commissioners had abruptly stopped an investigation into rigged machines, and that they knew that the jackpot for the Megabucks statewide progressive slots could be triggered from the central computer center, and that several other companies were programming the slots to display illegal near misses. These were claims that should have been investigated immediately and vigorously, if only to maintain the appearance of an honest system. But they weren't.
License to Steal is fun to read as a collection of eccentric character sketches and descriptions of clever scams. But it's also disturbing. The Commission and Board members are all political appointees and the casino owners contribute to most of the political candidates. So when you drop a quarter in the slot and pull the lever (or more likely slip a $20 into the currency scanner and press the button), are you playing a fair game? Or would you rather not know the answer to that question?
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