Originally Posted by Count Room View Post
I'm going to remain neutral as to whether this should be considered theft. I wanted to draw attention to another story that was far more widespread back in the 1940's. After World War II, Las Vegas casinos lost hundreds of millions of dollars (in 1940's dollars, no inflation adjustment!) to large crowds of people called "rhythm players" that took advantage of a faulty mechanical lever in slot machines. The procedure required some precise timing maneuvers with the slot handle to artificially create jackpots. All of this got started with a discovery by an Idaho farmer and it eventually became taught in formal classes. If this could also be considered theft, it made the Nestor & Kane case look like small potatoes (no Idaho pun intended). The situation was eventually quashed by a new item called a variator for the gears in the slot machines.

I think I read about this incredible story from an old edition of "Scarne's Complete Guide to Gambling" that my dad had in his library, so information from Google may be scarce. "Rhythm Players", "Slot Machines", "Variator", "1940's", etc. may be promising search terms if interested in a little known fact of history that once shook Las Vegas' slot revenues to the core.
This would actually not be theft, whereas the Nestor & Kane one should be.

Using timing, you are simply using your own skill to beat the game under its own rules. (There are no requirements in slot play that you have to pull the arm at a given time. It's your choice!)

Nobody could be convicted of anything by using this exploit today, and I am assuming it was the same in the 1940s. (It would, however, be a crime to use an electronic device to help you determine the exact timing!)

The Nestor & Kane one is different, as they were actually NOT playing by the machine's set rules, and rather exploiting and obvious bug to force it to pay a winning hand 11 times.

The bigger risk of doing this in the 1940s would be getting discovered and killed by the mob!