Can You Cheat at Video Poker?

Published by Marion Avina August 31, 2023 Categorie(s): Casino News, Gambling News, Online Video Poker

The short and simple answer to this question is: yes, you can cheat at video poker. Technically, you can cheat at any casino game. (Even online casino games despite it being much harder to do so.)

Sometimes, people use the word “cheat” or “hack” interchangeably with the word “tip.” But we can assure you that is not what we mean here.

Depending on how and where you are playing video poker, there are ways in which you can trick the system to give you money unfairly. Here are some of the most common ways to do so:

How to Cheat at Video Poker

Here are some of the most common methods for cheating at video poker:

Exploit Machine Glitches

Most computer programs have glitches of some sort. Electronic casino games are no different. It may take some time to find these glitches, but you can exploit them to earn frequent payouts once you do.

A relatively recent example of a glitch on a video poker machine occurred in 2009. Two men by the names of John Kane and Andre Nestor exploited a machine error to win frequent payouts on IGT’s The Game King machine.

The game paid out for no reason when you used the Double Up feature, so a rather easy error to exploit. Kane and Nestor won more than $500 000 on the machine in Nevada and Pennsylvania. Both states tried to prosecute but failed. Both men lost their winnings, their friendship and now owe the IRS hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Pretend to Pay for Games

Nowadays, with many machines in brick-and-mortar casinos requiring a specific electronic card to accept funds, this cheat is harder to pull off. However, it remains a classic.

Basically, what used to happen with machines that accepted coins is players would insert a coin and withdraw it quickly to trick machines into believing the game had been paid for. As such, they’d get a free game. This action is referred to as “fishing.”

So, although you are not increasing your odds of winning by manipulating the game’s payout features, you are giving yourself free chances to win.

If you visit older casinos in remote areas, you can still find machines that accept coins. But, mostly, these machines have been replaced to prevent people from using this trick.

Using Electronic Help with Strategy

Strategies like basic strategy and card counting aren’t hard to learn, but they are hard to perfect. They take practice, time, and patience. Many people simply aren’t interested in taking the time to learn these effective strategies, so they try to use electronic devices to help them remember steps and respond to situations.

Using video poker basic strategy (and card counting for that matter) is not illegal. They are strategies that casinos don’t like, but you won’t get in trouble with the law for using them.

However, using your phone to look up play suggestions while playing a casino game is illegal. Think of it as taking a calculator into an exam where calculators have been banned. The thing is, cheating in this exam can result in arrest. So, we wouldn’t recommend it.

Should I Cheat at Video Poker?

We wouldn’t recommend doing so. Whether you are playing online or at a brick-and-mortar casino, there are severe consequences that come with being caught cheating. Probably, the least of your worries is that casinos will perma-ban you.

At worst, you could face legal action in the form of fines or a prison sentence. In particular, Nevada is famous for handing out sentences as long as six years for screwing around with gambling devices if you were thinking of cheating at a casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

Overall, it just isn’t worth it. Sure, you will win cash momentarily. But when you get caught (and there is a 99.9% chance that you will), you will have to pay that money back and spend the rest of your life with a criminal record.

So, we recommend that you try some other get rich quick schemes. Maybe you can think of a follow-up to the Power Balance band? (You can thank us later.)

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