 We know that there are gaming regulatory agencies that are supposed to provide the public with poker protection from playing on a rigged machine but how is it done? and how effective is it?
 In the United States there are only four states that have their own facilities for testing electronic gaming machines pokerstrip: Montana strip, Mississippi, New Jersey poker and Nevada. For the other states that offer legalized casino gambling but don strip’t have their own labs almost pokerstrip all rely on pokerstrip the services of free online poker Gaming Labs International - an independent testing firm based in Toms River, New Jersey.
 Not being poker a computer expert - just a curious casino gambler - I wasn’t exactly sure what poker I poker should ask and about 10 days before my trip I started to poker ponder questions I poker thought might poker be appropriate. Then, on March 12 pokerstrip, just six days before poker the scheduled visit, I poker was watching television when pokerstrip I switched channels and caught a story on pokerstrip the ABC News strip show PrimeTime strip Live about slot machines. The segment was titled pokerstrip "Against All Odds" and poker featured free online poker their chief investigative poker reporter Brian Ross.
 Questioner: To poker make the customer feel as though they came pokerstrip very close to getting a pokerstrip jackpot and that perhaps the next one or the next one strip, to paraphrase the ad, the poker baby would be ready to deliver?
 It didn’t take long for the effects of PrimeTime Live’s broadcast to be felt. The very next day U.S. Representative Frank Wolf (R poker-Va poker.), a longtime opponent of legalized gambling, requested an immediate investigation poker by two federal agencies. "I have asked the FBI to investigate poker claims of poker illegality poker and the Federal poker Trade Commission to investigate illegal trade practices," Wolf strip said.
 The show also sparked a call in the Nevada legislature for its own investigation, but with poker a slightly different poker twist: they wanted to know who leaked the attorney general’s confidential Ronald Harris poker videotapes to ABC News. "That entire piece is hinging on strip the unsubstantiated allegations of strip a convicted felon, “said Nevada Assembly Minority Leader Peter Ernaut. "What is said on those tapes poker is secondary to how they got public."
 The Nevada legislature didn pokerstrip’t poker seemed too concerned about the pokerstrip allegations poker raised in strip the broadcast because they believed they weren’t valid. “Our pokerstrip programs do not create a near-miss scenario and every symbol is randomly selected," said Brian McKay, general poker counsel for IGT . "We don’t pokerstrip make deceptive machines. We poker never have," he strip added.
 Romano, who was poker a pokerstrip one-third partner poker in the company poker along with his brother-in-law and father-in-law, claimed he never poker knew of the cheating scheme. In a later bankruptcy proceeding against his partners a federal judge agreed with Romano’s claim strip of innocence and ruled in his favor.
 We pokerstrip test machines before they’re approved for use in Nevada and then poker we also have a field inspection group that pokerstrip goes out every day strip and checks the chips that are pokerstrip in the machines to be sure that what’s out there is actually what we’ve approved.
 How many people are in the department poker?
 And the lab part tests the machines?
 What pokerstrip is the source code?
 The main pokerstrip thing that we’re looking at though is its random generation. How does poker it pick the stops that it’s going to show pokerstrip you? Or, how does it pick the cards pokerstrip it’s going to show strip you? And we’ve developed over the years a pretty good understanding of the various ways you can generate numbers randomly strip using a computer.
 When you approve a particular model of machine poker. Do you just approve the initial free online poker program or every program the machine can use?
 Robinson: Once we’ve pokerstrip reviewed it and we find that it meets all of poker the regulations and technical standards then we recommend it for field trial and the chairman poker administratively approves a field trial at a location that the manufacturer has selected. They go out and install one or more machines at that location poker and we administer poker a field trial where we poker observe the machine for problems on the floor. We also poker have the location tell us about any problems they free online poker may have with it.
 Just having poker the machine poker on for hours and hours and hours poker - you poker know -days continuously, sometimes generates pokerstrip different problems than you’ll pokerstrip see in a free online poker lab environment. Some poker of the mechanical problems will also show up a lot more in poker the field than pokerstrip they will in pokerstrip the lab.
 Once you strip’ve approved a particular machine is that manufacturer then free to free online poker re-set the paybacks to whatever they strip want within the 75% minimum payback limits of Nevada law pokerstrip?
 Initially, are you free online poker approving the chip or pokerstrip the whole machine poker?
 Initially, we pokerstrip’re approving the whole machine poker including the chip. After poker that it poker’s just chips that need to be changed poker to different percentages.
 So, if they have a machine strip that ’s returning 90% and they want to change it to 80%?
 That poker’s correct.
 Are the chips in the machines poker sealed or taped? Is there any way you can see if they’ve been tampered with?
 Not visually, no.
 Do pokerstrip you check all of the machines poker in that location?
 I poker saw the recent PrimeTime Live show about slot poker machines and it poker implied that many of pokerstrip your machines pokerstrip have a "near-miss" feature. I thought that the “near-miss" was outlawed. Is that poker correct?
 Robinson: More frequently than it should poker.
 Regulation 14.040 pertains to minimum standards for gaming devices and parts of it specifically state "All gaming devices submitted for approval: must use a random selections process to determine the game strip outcome of each play of a game pokerstrip. Each possible strip combination of game elements which produce winning or losing poker game outcomes must be available for poker random selection at the initiation of each play. The selection process must not produce detectable poker patterns of game elements. After selection of the game outcome, the gaming poker device must not make a variable secondary decision which affects the result shown to the player pokerstrip." The wording in those regulations seemed to adequately sum up the state’s position on strip the "near-miss" scenario: it’s illegal.
 A check pokerstrip of Nevada’s gaming records for the fiscal year ending June30, 1996 showed there were 185,610 slot machines poker throughout the state. Hmm, let’s see, if there are six people that go out and free online poker check on the machines and they can do a poker maximum of pokerstrip 100 machines a poker day strip - it would take them poker 1,856 days, or poker five years, of working seven days a week, to inspect every single machine!
 On May poker 15, 1997 I went to 1601 Atlantic Avenue in poker Atlantic City, New Jersey to poker meet with Richard Williamson pokerstrip, Supervisor of the Technical Services Bureau poker at the state pokerstrip’s poker Division of Gaming Enforcement. We were joined poker by free online poker Keith Furlong, Public Information Officer for the Division and we free online poker spoke in Williamson’s office located in a state building just a few blocks west of poker the boardwalk poker’s poker casinos.
 Eleven. We pokerstrip’re not poker that big of a unit for strip the poker job we’ve got. A little bit poker of a historical perspective poker on this: we’re the same size that we were 10years ago poker and in the past four years poker we’ve strip gone from just four slot manufacturers to11 poker, plus three poker keno systems.
 Well, naturally, the poker company would have to strip be licensed, or at poker least be pokerstrip in the licensing process, before they pokerstrip could submit a product pokerstrip.
 The next thing we’ll do is a mathematical review of the particular program that operates the pays and plays of the game poker. When we do that review we’re doing it to make sure that it poker’s in compliance with the poker minimum payout percentages mandated in this jurisdiction.
 It strip won’t say free online poker that in the law . It pokerstrip was poker a policy adopted by the Commission poker about the time poker that video pokers were pokerstrip approved because of a poker field test. They went out and they watched people play and it was determined that someone who was very unskilled at playing poker could lower strip the payout percentage of the poker game below the minimum poker standard just by continually free online poker making poor selections. So they thought they should raise poker it2% so that even a poor free online poker player poker would have a better chance poker with the added 2% payout.
 Yes.
 No . As strip part of our proactive approach to the game inspection we do poker no tallow dip switches. We do not allow poker a casino to arbitrarily change poker the strip payout percentages. We do keep poker a record on free online poker what program is in there at all times for investigative strip and poker auditing purposes. The casinos are required, when they do their count of the games pokerstrip, to poker calculate the payout percentage pokerstrip of free online poker the game and compare it to the theoretical payout and investigate pokerstrip the differences. They have to report that poker to us for every pokerstrip slot machine strip.
 They pokerstrip have to tell you the theoretical payout?
 Well, that’s free online poker all licensing and it pokerstrip comes down to individuals. We have licensing requirements with pokerstrip internal poker controls where an entity would have to report this and someone in poker a pokerstrip certain department is required to report those things. So, if they don’t report it, you go to the person strip whose job it poker is.
 Generally poker, most of these things can be worked out by going to the individual poker. If that pokerstrip doesn’t work you go to their boss. If that doesn’t work you go to poker corporate counsel. If that doesn’t strip work then pokerstrip you resort to strip legal measures, but poker it’s poker really all one poker-on-one. It’s not that poker big of an industry here poker, we’ve just got 12 entities pokerstrip and we poker know all pokerstrip of them poker. So, if you’ve got a problem strip you just walk in, or make an appointment, and poker sit in their office or have them come over and talk poker it out.
 After our interview poker I took a tour of the testing facilities and I noticed pokerstrip it contained poker many of the strip same electronic poker testing machines that I had seen in the Nevada poker lab. The only difference here pokerstrip was that the facilities were spread free online poker out in three smaller rooms as opposed to being in one room. Also, I guess my timing was better here because poker I did see a few poker people working on some projects.
 One of the major problems when discussing the "near-miss “issue poker is that different people may have strip different interpretations of what it free online poker means. In this instance Whittemore used poker it to refer to pokerstrip combinations appearing above and below the pokerstrip payline. Traditionally, however, the "near-miss" got its name from the Universal Distributing incident and pokerstrip only applied to a "near-miss poker" directly on the payline which was purposely programmed into the machine. Which brings us back to the PrimeTimeLive report.
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