(These set of articles are written by a reader who would wish to remain anonymous. This reader has been gambling for over 40 years, and has some absolutely amazing stories to tell. At the risk of his life, we cannot reveal his actual name. You’ll know why when you read his stories.

Therefore we are proud to introduce to you: The Masked Gambler)

I was talking to an old friend in the poker room of a casino when we decided to take a walk and get a bite to eat. Along the way he stopped, and walked up to a slot machine and put a hundred dollar bill in the machine and pushed the cash out button. The quarters came out as I stood there and looked. I asked him what he was doing. He said this machine over pays.I followed him to to the window and the teller poured the quarters in the change counter and it came to $108.00. We continued to walk to the restaurant and I was just baffled how he put a $100.00 in a machine and made $8.00.

Of course, while we were eating, I asked him what an over payer was , and why was it over paying. He said that some machines are played so much that the light sensor gets damaged and the digital number that counts down the quarters sputters, and pays out a few extra quarters. In other words, The digital number would pause for a fraction of a second, but quarters would continue to come out into your tray.After we finished eating we walked back to the poker room, and I hung out for a little while, and said it was nice seeing you again, and left.

On the way back to my room I decided to go back to the machine and put a five dollar bill in the machine and got one extra quarter. I played the machine and lost my five dollars and went up to my room to watch tv. After watching tv for a while, I went to another casino to play poker. I played poker for a couple of hours and on the way out I saw a slot mechanic working on a machine.I walked up to him, and told him I was playing a slot machine in another casino and when I cashed out, a couple extra quarters came out.

I asked him if I should have reported to the casino. He just kept working on the machine and then looked at me said,by law, any coins that lands in your tray belongs to you. He also said,and made it clear,only if your playing the machine properly.I went back to the casino and decided if I put in a hundred dollar bill and play one spin, then cash out, that I would be playing the machine properly.

I put in a hundred dollar bill, pushed spin, then cashed out. When I cashed out I kept staring at the digital number counting out the coins landing in the tray. I seen nothing unusual. One hundred dollars is 400 quarters (400 credits). I kept staring, and sure enough, I seen it sputter for a split second then continue counting down, then I seen it sputter again. I had to really concentrate to see it skip. After the machine counted down all the quarters, I filled up a cup and brought it over to the window.

She put the quarters in the change counter and I watched, and yes, $108.75. I waited ten minutes and went back to the machine and did the same thing again. But this time , while the quarters were coming out, the light came on and said hopper empty. The hopper is the bucket inside the machine that holds the quarters.

When the hopper emptyed, i was still owed quarters, so I waited until the slot attendant came. She did her paper work and said she would be right back to fill up the hopper.While she was gone I was wondering how much money do they put in the hopper when they fill it up.When she came back with a couple of bags of quarters on a cart I joked and said, how much do you put in there, $50.00. She laughed and said $500.00 After filling the hopper I waited for the rest of my quarters to come out and went back to the window and cashed in the quarters.

I went back upstairs to my room. I made $17.00 profit. I sat in the room watching tv, but this whole thing was driving me nuts. I knew there was still almost $500.00 left in that hopper. I decided to go back down. I put two hundred back in and ended up with about $33.00 total profit. Then I decided to invest $100 of my own money and $30.00 of the casinos money and see if I could hit anything on the machine.

So I go over to the change girl and I get $30.00 in quarters. I put my players card in the machine and a hundred dollar bill and I cash out. So now I have about $108.00 in the tray and three rolls of quarters. I start putting in three quarters at a time (maximum bet) and hitting the spin button. I do this until all my quarters are in the machine.

I end up with about 440 credits on the machine. ($110.00 dollars). I push the cash out button and with the machine overpaying about 8 percent I end up with about $120.00 in my tray.Well, I go up and down for a couple of hours and then I hit something that pays 800 coins and now I have over 1,300 credits staring me in the face. I know if I cash out I will definitely empty the machine and I surely don’t want to empty the machine again. I don’t know what to do. I know there is over three hundreds dollars looking at me. And I know the machine is paying more than 8 percent at this point, because I noticed the digital number stopping and going a lot more than when I first started playing the machine.

I remembered what the mechanic had told me. What ever lands in your tray is yours. I pushed the cash out button but no quarters came out. I looked up and the light at the top of the machine was blinking. I was totally confused. A slot attendant came over to me and said congratulations. I said thank you. Still totally confused.

She started her paper work and I asked her why the quarters didn’t come out. She said on payouts of over 1000 credits, we hand pay you. Then she pointed to the top of the machine and that’s what was written there. She tells me she will be right back with my money. She comes back and counts out $315.00 in the palm of my hand. I give her the $15.00 for a tip.Now, I still have $300.00 left in the machine and $300.00 in my hand. My investment was $100.00, so I have two hundred profit.

Now I get another idea. If I get $200.00 in quarters and keep playing the machine, I will have a total of about $500.00 in the hopper. So I ask the change girl for $200.00 in quarters.I start playing again, putting three coins in at a time and pressing spin. At this point I am lighting fast. After playing $200.00 in quarters, press cash out, and now this thing is really over paying. The digital number is actually stopping for a second or two and continuing down than stopping while quarters are flying into the tray. I know that a full cup holds about $150.00. I figure if I can fill three cups up to the top I will have about $450 to $470. So I kept putting quarters in and cashing out and sure enough, I filled three cups.

At this point I noticed that the casino is starting to fill up and more importantly. I notice that all the slot attendants were different. I had played all the way through there shift, and now I see all new faces. I had felt really uncomfortable all night putting quarters in and cashing out so often. So now I’m wondering if I play all $460.00 in the machine, would I end up with over 1000 credits. Well,that’s what I decided to do.

To my amazement, I had over 1000 credits with a full cup of quarters to go. I put almost every quarter in and ended up with over 1,500 credits. Now i have $500.00 back in the hopper and I’m going to push cash out and they will hand pay me almost $400.00. I push cash out and the light on top starts blinking, and here we fo again. Congratulations, I say thank you very much, he does the paper work and says he’ll be right back with my money. Now I have problems. I haven’t slept all night and I have to be out of my room by 11:00. I get paid and start playing the machine as fast as I could. There was no problem filling up three cups again.

The hard part was trying to block the machine everytime I cashed out because it was so noticeable that it was overpaying. The more you cash out an over payer, the more you damage the mechanism that counts the coins that are coming out. Now my plan is to fill up three cups and get out of there. I had about two cup filled up and all of a sudden the bell goes off and I hit the jackpot. The jackpot was 3,000 coins. ($750.00). Now I have a full cup of coins on each side of the machine and a bell going off.

After getting paid the jackpot I still want to get the extra $150.00 that is still in the machine without emptying it. It doesn’t take much time to fill the third cup and now it is after 11:00 in the morning. All total, I made about $1600. I run over to the registration desk and tell the lady that I would like to stay another night. She tells me they are all sold out.

I explained to her that I was playing slots all night and my clothes were still in my room. She said it would be alright to check out by 12:00. She also mentioned that if I played all night, that I should go over to the comp desk and give them your players card and maybe they can do something for you. Now this has been an interesting night, to say the least,but for what ever reason I start walking over to the comp desk knowing that playing quarters wasn’t going to be enough to get a room, especially when they are all sold out.

I told the guy the lady at the desk told me to come over here and see if you could help me with a room. I explained that I played all night and I didn’t get any sleep. He asked for my players card and looked in the computer. He kept staring in the computer and I thought maybe my players card was going to show that I was playing an over payer or whatever. I know I didn’t like the expression on his face while he was looking into the computer. He picked up the phone and talked to someone and than hung up. He told me to back to the registration desk and see Mary Ann. I said, I can get a room and he said yes and that Mary Ann will take care of you.

I walked back to the desk and she said my name just as I was approaching the desk.She told me to follow her and I did. She said they would like to give me junior suite. I said that would be nice. I never heard of a junior suite but I had a good idea what she was talking about. Then she asked me if I wanted one night or two nights. I said two nights would be great.By this time I have had enough surprises, excitement, and confusion to last a life time.

But there is more.

(Part 2 will be coming later in the week). To make sure you get notification of it subscribe via e-mail.