Voting Machines Vs. Slot Machines

dmh20002 writes "Being a Nevada resident and knowing people who write code for slot machines, I was aware of the stringent measures the state of Nevada uses to vet the security of slot machines. The Nevada Gaming Control Board audits everything about them, both physical and soft, for unintentional and intentional security holes. Hearing the hoopla on voting machines, the contrast was obvious. Slot machines are about money, which is more important than votes, apparently. Now the state of Nevada is looking at electronic voting machines and plan to apply some of the same safeguards. Just applying the Nevada technical standards for gaming machines and vendors to voting machines would be a start, since there don't seem to be any standards for voting machines. A funny/sad sideline is that in Nevada, every year or two a programmer or engineer goes to jail for exploiting slot machines."

Building Security

[ChicoLance]

I work as a programmer in the gaming industry, and there is a lot of security in place, but it all makes since. Before I can work, I need to get a state "gaming card" which says that I've had my background check, and I'm generally not a menice to society. The machines have security in place to know if something is wrong (eprom signatures, various locks). Everything we develop also goes through two or three other independent verification agencies make sure it's all legit.

We're proud of making a secure device (at least as secure as we can make it), and it's in ours and our customer's interest to do so. Most of the security built in isn't necessarily hard to do, but it does take planning, foresight, and desire to integrate it all with the final product.

I hope that a voting machine company can say the same.

Re:Audit trail

[monkeydo]

The ratio of payouts is actually varied based on time of day and day of week. I don't know what the specifics of the law are, but I think it's based on the aggregate payout, not the payout at any given time.

Re:Heh...

[FortKnox]

Look for articles on Tommy Carmichael.
Here's a quick bio [slots-king.com]. From that link:
he devised a device that would shine a light down into the slot machine, tripping a switch that would empty the buckets that held the coins
That's Carmichael's "Light Wand" trick.

Ack! I just figured out why you couldn't find it. Its a "Light Wand" not "Magic Wand" (my bad). Google has lotsa results (ie usa today article on Carmichael [usatoday.com].)

Sign the petition!

[Eraserhd]

Sign the online petition [thepetitionsite.com] to support HR 2239 [loc.gov].

A voter-verified paper trail is the only way to verify that the system is working. Under this system, the machine would produce a paper ballot, which the voter checks then deposits into a locked box. The paper receipts are counted in the event of a recount (unlike our current requirements, where totals from an end-of-night printout can be used, assuming the machines total the votes accurately). The bill also requires a recount in 0.5% of districts chosen at random to verify that the machines are totalling accurately.

This has been suggested by other before

[Anonymous Coward]

Jack Gansel actually did an article on this in the Embedded Systems Programing magazine. It talks a little about the measures used to test slot machines, and the people involved in desiging and selecting them.

See http://embedded.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=15 201145

and the follow up article

http://www.embedded.com/showArticle.jhtml?articl eI D=15800231

Thomas

Not in the casino I worked in... Re:Audit trail

[Don'tTreadOnMe]

I am not familiar with the gambling business, but I know it wouldn't be that hard to alter the slot machine payout ratio from a programming perspective. ~1 line of code, in fact.

I worked in a casino management company in South Dakota, so this experience applies there:

It would be very hard to cheat like that for very long. The programs for the slot machines are on a single PROM, and that PROM is registered with the Gaming Commission after exhaustive testing.

The PROM is installed in the gaming device, and the device cannot be powered up during business hours unless the gaming commission has checked the PROM, watched you put it into the machine, and then sealed it into place with tamper-proof tape that only the Gaming Commission has access to. (They have a little box that they plug the PROM into which tells them if the chip is acceptable or not.)

Furthermore, the Gaming Commission can come by your casino, any time they want, with no prior notice, and have you open the machines to ensure that the tape is still in place, or to pull the chips for testing.

I was paid to watch the per centages paid ouit by the slots and the tables to make sure they were within acceptable range. At one Tribal Gaming establishment that we ran, the machines had a lot of play (1,000+ games per day) and tehy _always_ paid out what they were supposed to. If they deviated, we checked them for mechanical malfunction, and then we looked at staff and guests to see if someone had a new scam going. (The easiest is to request a fill on the coin bucket, and then hand the money to your friend instead of putting it into the machine. But that was very easy to catch, too. And look out at the Tribal Gaming establishments: >$100 is a federal offense, so we called the FBI to take care of any shmucks stealing from the tribe.)

So, if your gaming establishment is having a bad month, tweaking the payout won't help much: Every game was random, and just as likely to pay the jackpot as the previous game.

Re:This has been suggested by other before

[Anonymous Coward]

Ahhh! Sorry about the broken links. Try these functional ones.

The first one again [embedded.com]
and the follow up [embedded.com]

Thomas

Re:No new technology is required

[jpampuch]

Another related technology includes ATMs. Banks have fairly effective mechanisms to ensure that a) incoming transactions are fully auditited, and b) outgoing transactions (or non-transactions) are fully tracked.

Money does seem to be more important than votes.