Riviera allegedly rigged slot to not payout jackpot, fires employee for reporting it.

Found this interesting article trowling thru huffington post. Former directly of security fired for contacting gaming board, sueing under whistleblower laws. Whats really surprising is the allegation that the Riv rigged a game not to payout jackpot.

Did not see the NGC response on this. Makes you kinda wonder.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/15/douglas-poppa-riviera-casino-rigged-slot-machine-lawsuit_n_2480626.html

 

I've always thought this stuff was going on and the standard defense of "No Billion Dollar Casino would risk their license" was bullshit.

It's not a billion dollar casino making the decision, its some putz casino executive on the edge of losing his job or bonus who could give a shit less about the casino's license and even less about the players.

If there is anything we know the American version of capitalism in our money-hungry society of "greed is good" produces, it is cheating whenever possible.

 

Yes, all the "logic" about "it can't happen" was really blowing in the face of slot players who have been playing for decades who have seen by *experience* how jackpots have exponentially decreased over time.

The whole argument was delegitimizing a whole group of people's perception as anecdotal.

Who's to say regulators were doing their job in the first place?

With all the backhanded things these casinos have been doing recently (and as infrequently as you hear about jackpots these days...to the extent that execs wonder "how did she/he DO it" when they actually DO hit a jackpot") , this is no surprise at all. Even if rules were followed, there is a loophole (or several) to every rule. I anticipate that majority of the casinos on the strip do these things. And Riviera was super dead even on New Years eve. Poor Riv.

 

Damn! I really gotta get better at proof reading my posts, the post drinking effect is getting outta hand when I mispell the riveria in the message title.

Maybe Sonya can correct my terrible spelling this morning.

 

It's Riviera

 

Putting my conspiracy theory aluminum foil lined Tricorn hat on for a second...who believes the Lions Share progressive at MGM is also rigged to never hit?:confused2:

 

Is decreasing comps a conspiracy? Stripwide resort fees a conspiracy? Rising limits? Decreasing odds? Things just are.

 

I dont disagree. But there is a HUGE difference in rigging a game to never hit, and just providing shittier gambling odds and comps and adding additional fees. The former being illegal and the latter being poor long range strategic planning on the part of corporate giants who dont understand their own business but erroneously believe such things will impact their bottom line in a positive manner.

 

I get you. I put both of those, and other possibilities, in one pot. For any person "caught", there are multitudes getting away with it. I am noting the possibilities.

 

So, has anyone found what happened with the original allegation against the hotel? Did the gaming board act or find any wrong doing?

 

I don't believe this is an isolated situation....just an isolated instance of getting caught.

 

IF they did it to one machine.......

 

Indeed, funny part is on a couple of slot player forums most of the "that is not possible crowd" has as usual come to the defense of the casino itself and instead saying the former employee is lying. We have wondered at a local about this, there is a 1$ WOF machine that has never paid the jackpot and it has been there for 5 years, easily the worst dollar denom machine I have played anywhere, even worse than the Lions Share.

 

Da, tovarisch! Fight the capitalist pigs!

 

Since the rigging of the slot has not yet been proven the title of this thread could just as easily be:

"Riviera fires employee for defaming casino with false allegations of slot rigging"

The burden of proof is on the accuser, not the accused. As far as rigging slots go, it doesn't seem rational to me that a highly compensated ceo would risk jail time or running afoul of the NGC just to squeeze a few more bucks from people short term. They can accomplish the same thing simply by providing worse odds legally.

You say they would or are but there is no proof and the motivation is questionable.

 

In regard to Lion's Share - I would think that at some point the control board would look into it. A huge progressive that hasn't paid off in 20(?) years has to draw some attention. That assumption leads me to believe that the machine is a legitimate anomaly.

 

I really only question the hardware behind such a thing. I'm not familiar with the game they're talking about, but as I understood it, the general programming of slot machines has more to do with the number of positions on a reel occupied by particular symbols.

It defies logic that the slot manufacturer would create code that permits the display of the machine to not match the number generator. It also defies logic that the manufacturer would design the random number generator to be capable of skipping certain combinations. Further to that, if it's not part of the slot machine code, reprogramming the device entirely is not feasable as reverse engineering would be required.

I'm not saying it can't be or wasn't done. I'm just thinking out loud here.

If the machine is a progressive, then the money banked isn't casino coffers anyways. Unless of course they're so broke they can't operate without spending from the progressive accounts.

I don't doubt that casino's sometimes cheat. I don't buy the "too much to lose" argument. Madoff had a lot to lose too, didn't stop him. Management also often has multiple levels of plausible deniability in many cases.

 

And it has to be annoying for the MGM Grand to be not allowed to remove the antiquated not even TITO machine because of this. Control freaks hate being told no.

 

I have been shouted down for saying this before; but the Wall Street types do things that would make a Mafioso blush. And, I have more respect for somebody who has the good grace to use a gun to rob me.

I hope this becomes a broader investigation. I do believe it's possible that this happened. And I know they don't whip out that whistle blower protection for every body. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

 

Actually its neither truthful or a falsehood in this case, so to your point
its neither defamation or fraud on behalf of employee, so the revised title might be:

Riviera allegedly rigged slot to not payout jackpot, fires employee for reporting it. Riviera denies allegations.