Slot cheat, family arrested
Michael Balsamo to appear in court today
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A career slot machine cheat banned from Nevada casinos is set to appear in court today after being arrested by gambling authorities last week after a yearlong investigation, officials said.
Michael Balsamo, 46, faces 12 charges, including several counts of possessing and manufacturing a cheating device. He also is a fugitive from Missouri and Texas on gambling cheating charges, said David Salas, deputy chief of enforcement for the Gaming Control Board.
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Balsamo was arrested June 5 along with his wife, Stephanie Balsamo, 45; mother-in-law, Lavonna Wallace, 68; and stepson, Derrick Bowman, 24; at a home in Las Vegas, the board announced in a statement. Slot machines, cheating devices and cash were seized.
Balsamo and his family are accused of regularly inserting a mechanical device into a slot machine access point to "defeat the coin mechanism in the machine, causing it to overpay," Salas said.
"When they do it, it's covert," he said. "They use additional people to block the view of what they're doing from either security or other surveillance cameras."
Michael Balsamo has six convictions for cheating slot machines and was first arrested for cheating in 1979 at age 20, according to the board's Web site. He has been the subject of 25 investigations by gambling officials since then.
He was banned from New Jersey casinos in 1984, indicted federally as a principal in a nationwide cheating operation and blacklisted in Nevada in November 1999. Balsamo is one of 36 people banned from casinos in Nevada.
Michael Balsamo remains in custody in the Clark County jail on $34,000 bail, as does his wife on $39,000 bail. It was not clear where Wallace was being held. Bowman was to be transferred to the Nevada State Prison on a parole violation.
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Michael Balsamo to appear in court today
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A career slot machine cheat banned from Nevada casinos is set to appear in court today after being arrested by gambling authorities last week after a yearlong investigation, officials said.
Michael Balsamo, 46, faces 12 charges, including several counts of possessing and manufacturing a cheating device. He also is a fugitive from Missouri and Texas on gambling cheating charges, said David Salas, deputy chief of enforcement for the Gaming Control Board.
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Balsamo was arrested June 5 along with his wife, Stephanie Balsamo, 45; mother-in-law, Lavonna Wallace, 68; and stepson, Derrick Bowman, 24; at a home in Las Vegas, the board announced in a statement. Slot machines, cheating devices and cash were seized.
Balsamo and his family are accused of regularly inserting a mechanical device into a slot machine access point to "defeat the coin mechanism in the machine, causing it to overpay," Salas said.
"When they do it, it's covert," he said. "They use additional people to block the view of what they're doing from either security or other surveillance cameras."
Michael Balsamo has six convictions for cheating slot machines and was first arrested for cheating in 1979 at age 20, according to the board's Web site. He has been the subject of 25 investigations by gambling officials since then.
He was banned from New Jersey casinos in 1984, indicted federally as a principal in a nationwide cheating operation and blacklisted in Nevada in November 1999. Balsamo is one of 36 people banned from casinos in Nevada.
Michael Balsamo remains in custody in the Clark County jail on $34,000 bail, as does his wife on $39,000 bail. It was not clear where Wallace was being held. Bowman was to be transferred to the Nevada State Prison on a parole violation.
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