Friday, December 27, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Regulators conclude bingo scam inquiry

Three-month investigation points to one cheat

Jackie Caskey marks her bingo cards Sept. 24 at Palace Station. Players needed to use markers recently as state regulators investigated a bingo scam involving electronic card minders. Photo by Craig L. Moran.

A GameTech software engineer acted alone when he rigged some of his company's bingo card minders to illegally win some $28,000 at casino bingo halls, Nevada gaming officials concluded.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board recently wrapped up a three-month investigation into this year's bingo scam that led several casino properties to temporarily halt use of the GameTech electronic systems.

Station Casinos announced Tuesday that the six properties where cheating occurred have resumed using the electronic bingo units.

Nevada Gaming Control Board officials believe GameTech software engineer Brett Keeton acted alone, allegedly using his expertise to rig some of his company's bingo card minders so he could illegally win $28,108.

GameTech is a Reno-based bingo accessories manufacturer.

Keeton committed suicide by jumping off of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge on Sept. 20, one day after control board investigators discovered the crimes after he played bingo at Texas Station.

"Our investigation is concluded, and we believe (Keeton) acted alone," control board Chairman Dennis Neilander said. "GameTech and Station cooperated fully to help us unravel what he did."

Keeton's alleged cheating method required him to physically tamper with the GameTech stand-alone bingo card minders, called GTIs, devices that allow players to watch television while simultaneously playing dozens of bingo cards at a time.

"He was able to grant himself many more bingo cards than he paid for, dramatically increasing his chances of winning," Neilander said.

The engineer apparently rigged the software to give him as many as 1,000 bingo cards at a time. The cheating method had no effect on which bingo balls were drawn, but would have multiplied his chances of winning.

Keeton passed on big jackpots, only claiming prizes of less than $1,200 to avoid having to provide identification, he said.

"He wouldn't claim a bingo if it was more than $1,200, which would necessitate providing ID and filling out (an Internal Revenue Service form) W-2G.

Keeton claimed many smaller prizes during his three-month cheating spree, playing at Las Vegas area Station Casinos properties.

His frequent wins eventually raised suspicions of Texas Station bingo employees.

"That's how we figured out what he was doing," Neilander said. "He was winning quite often."

Control board officials also focused on making sure the GameTech devices couldn't be used to cheat again.

They required GameTech to:

• Disable the devices' modems to remove the possibility of remote operation.

• Place the GTI servers in locked enclosures to reduce public access.

• Ensure that device software exactly matches the version approved by the control board's lab to ensure that the software hasn't been altered.

• Record and store records of all bingo games to make future investigations simpler.

"We are pleased to put this incident behind us and concentrate fully on addressing the needs of our customers," GameTech Chief Executive Officer Clarence Thiesen said in a statement. "All of our products are now back in operation throughout the U.S. We thank the Nevada Gaming Control Board and our customers for their cooperation and patience as we have worked through this difficult situation.

"We have emerged a stronger company due to the evaluation of, and improvements to, the security of our systems."

In an effort to make whole the bingo players who presumably lost smaller jackpots they otherwise would have won, Station Casinos and GameTech added $28,000 to November bingo jackpots.

They also plan to add another $20,000 by supplementing regular jackpots during two January weekends.

"We're pleased to be able to add the money to make our progressive bingo game even more appealing," Station Casinos Chief Operating Officer Steve Cavallaro said Tuesday.

"I don't think there's much else that can be done," said Anthony Curtis, publisher of the Las Vegas Advisor consumer newsletter. "By splitting the added money among a number of sessions and games, the cash is most likely to go to the players who were cheated. If they added the money to one game, making it particularly juicy, the vampires would swoop in on the overlay."

Neilander said the companies acted on their own in deciding to supplement the bingo jackpots to return the money to the players. He said that players who feel they were cheated could file a complaint with the control board.

"But it would be difficult to determine the impact on a single player," he said. "Probably the best way is for the licensees to make the players whole, which they've assured me they'll do."

Neilander said he didn't anticipate that GameTech or Station Casinos would face disciplinary action, noting that neither apparently broke state rules and that both companies fully cooperated with the investigation.

"As far as we can tell, this is a case of one bad actor, and he's dead," the chairman said.