The Russian invented a mechanism allowing a group of four people to receive from slot machines in the casino for 250 thousand dollars a week. He put an ultimatum to companies that are engaged in gambling: either they pay a ransom, or he makes his mechanism public. About this story Wired magazine.

The publication calls the Russian "Alex". His company, which deals with fraud of slot machines, is in St. Petersburg.

Alex was able to decipher algorithms known as pseudo-random number generators or PRNGs that determine the behavior of games in gaming machines. His agents are moving around casinos around the world in search of machines whose PRNGs have been decrypted. They record the work of the machine on the phone, send a video to Alex and his assistants. Assistants analyze the video to determine when there is a chance to win. After that, they send a signal to the application on the agent's phone so that he presses the lever.

A group of four agents earns $ 250,000 a week, 90% of the money goes to the organizer. Agents do not have any special knowledge, Alex does not devote them to how the mechanism works, and training for training takes only two hours. He claims that he most appreciates in employees "circumspection". To all workers, the organization promises legal assistance in case of arrest.

Alex turned to the Australian manufacturer of slot machines Aristocrat Leisure, whose devices were his main goals. In November 2016, he suggested that the company stop sending agents to their points in exchange for redemption. The exact amount he did not specify. Alex also threatened that if he did not want to compromise, he would publish algorithms on the Internet and in the media. In the company he was offered to meet in the US, but he refused because of the threat of arrest.

As Wired writes, Alex insists that his activities do not violate Russian law.

"Game producers claim that they provide" entertainment ", but we all know too well the nature of this" entertainment ". Everything they do and what I do is the movement of money. Their task is to help the casino to borrow money from people, my task is to help myself and people to withdraw money from the casino. Just a small counterbalance to the global gaming system, where the casino always wins, "Alex wrote to reporters via e-mail.

According to him, in 2014, four of his agents in the US were accused of fraud after they applied their scheme to casinos in Missouri, Illinois and California. In the case of Missouri, one of the accused, a citizen of Kazakhstan, decided to cooperate with the FBI in exchange for leniency. Agents in Singapore also agreed to cooperate with the authorities, but law enforcement agencies could not get information from them about how the winnings system is structured.

Alex said that after studying mathematics and programming in one of the best Russian universities, he spent two years at the Academy of the FSB. He also said that he worked at the military university in St. Petersburg, which specializes in teaching cryptography and hacking. His interest in slot machines appeared when he was invited to work for a Russian casino. The casinos wanted to learn how to customize the machines produced by the Australian company Novomatic so that they would bring more benefits. The machine was programmed to pay 90% of the winnings, and Alex's client wanted him to adjust it to 50%.

Source: Rain.