What do people who win jackpots do? It is believed that they should violently express joy or other emotions. And when the winner is very calm, it's alarming. Two crooks who dishonestly won a hundred thousand dollars in keno did not consider this aspect.
Cheating at Bally's Park Place
This significant event happened in January 1995 at Bally's Park Place Casino in Atlantic City. Some Errol McNeal played keno surprisingly successfully. He bought ten tickets, ten dollars each, and one matched the eight numbers.
The probability of such a coincidence is 230,000 to 1.
It is not significant, as you see. The chances of getting a progressive jackpot in a slot machine of any well-known brand are much more miserable, yet gamblers hit them from time to time.
The casino security staff got more alerted by McNeal's calmness. He quietly took the winning as if he had never doubted his luck. Besides, he did not have an ID and wanted to be paid out in cash.
But by the law of New Jersey, gambling clubs pay out more than thirty-five thousand after experts of all local gambling commission check and approve the winning. McNeal was asked to wait, and he went to the hotel room. After some time, specialists arrived there accompanied by two police officers.
Ron Harris History
They also met a guy in the hotel room who introduced himself as Ronald Dale Harris. Naturally, they decided to see where he worked and quickly discovered that Ron was their colleague from Nevada, working as a computer technician in the Department of Gaming Control. Needless to say that this fact only strengthened suspicions.
It turned out that Ron Harris had access to the source code of a random number generator, which is used in electronic keno.
He cleverly used this information to predict the results of the draw (which is not so simple ), which made it possible to "guess" all the numbers on the ticket.
McNeal was arrested at Atlantic City, and the police took Harris to the airport in Las Vegas. Authorities in New Jersey put accusations of computer fraud and attempted fraud in the casino. Later, McNeal was released in exchange for testifying against Harris in court.
Of course, Ron was fired from his job. In addition, a thorough verification revealed that Harris had previously swindled in several Nevada casinos and cheated on slot machines he had to test as an officer. His wife and two friends assisted him.
Prison Sentence
In 1997, Ronald Harris was sentenced to seven years. Two years later, he was released and now lives in Las Vegas. His name is in the "black book" of Nevada. Several major television networks, including Discovery, Travel, History, and Bio, made documentaries about Ron.
It is not known how much money Ron managed to "win." This talented cheater was caught because of his carelessness. And casinos in both states had to completely change the software in video slots and keno machines.
