An excellent long article, contains a photo of the Bellagio Surveillance gal who has tagged several of us. zg
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What happens when a gambling town falls hard for the computer network? Hacker crooks. Megajackpot slots. Cutting-edge surveillance software. And that's just the start.
by Dan Koeppel
Popular Science
Kathleen Budz had been at the slots in the New York-New York casino for only a couple of hours when the big money came along. The Chicago grandmother was seated at one of four chattering Wheel of Fortune games in the Big Apple-themed casino-a rococo affair with a mock Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, and Coney Island roller coaster.
The gambling device in question is a fairly typical modern Vegas slot. Three spinning reels occupy the center of the machine. Players can wager as little as a quarter, and small jackpots-a dollar or 10-come along frequently enough to keep the action going. But the huge bonus prize is the real draw-announced by an electronic display that resembles the ticking wheel on the TV game show, placed just above eye level.
As her losses mounted to more than $200, Budz fed the machine $5 tokens, pressing the Spin button almost rhythmically-no serious slot player touches the pull handle on a one-armed bandit. To Budz, a few hundred bucks on a Vegas visit is "just entertainment." Then it happened: The symbols on the three reels matched, and the digital Wheel of Fortune began to spin, indicating a win. On the top of the machine, the jackpot was posted: $4 million. Budz couldn't read the total; she'd forgotten her glasses. But her husband, standing behind, did. "Seven digits," he yelled. "Seven digits!"
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What happens when a gambling town falls hard for the computer network? Hacker crooks. Megajackpot slots. Cutting-edge surveillance software. And that's just the start.
by Dan Koeppel
Popular Science
Kathleen Budz had been at the slots in the New York-New York casino for only a couple of hours when the big money came along. The Chicago grandmother was seated at one of four chattering Wheel of Fortune games in the Big Apple-themed casino-a rococo affair with a mock Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, and Coney Island roller coaster.
The gambling device in question is a fairly typical modern Vegas slot. Three spinning reels occupy the center of the machine. Players can wager as little as a quarter, and small jackpots-a dollar or 10-come along frequently enough to keep the action going. But the huge bonus prize is the real draw-announced by an electronic display that resembles the ticking wheel on the TV game show, placed just above eye level.
As her losses mounted to more than $200, Budz fed the machine $5 tokens, pressing the Spin button almost rhythmically-no serious slot player touches the pull handle on a one-armed bandit. To Budz, a few hundred bucks on a Vegas visit is "just entertainment." Then it happened: The symbols on the three reels matched, and the digital Wheel of Fortune began to spin, indicating a win. On the top of the machine, the jackpot was posted: $4 million. Budz couldn't read the total; she'd forgotten her glasses. But her husband, standing behind, did. "Seven digits," he yelled. "Seven digits!"
continued -