Video Poker Bugs, Cheats and Vegas

One thing even pro casino players will tell you is to play casino games for fun and entertainment. 

There are some who play professional or play casino games with a drive to hit massive winnings.  

This is the story of two guys who found a Video Poker bug that made them rich but later got caught. 

The Discovery of the Bug 

John Kane was the first man to discover the bug in the Game King slot game. For Kane, the ‘lucky break’ came only years after the game had gotten its hooks in him and he had already lost hundreds of thousands on the game annually. In 2006 he blew half a million dollars laying the game at the locals-friendly Boulder Station. He earned enough Player’s Club points to pay for his own Game King slot to play at his home and technicians to service it. John Kane was addicted and according to his lawyer Andrew Leavitt, he played more than anyone else in the United States. 

Late in April 2009, Kane was playing at a row of four low-limit Game King outside the entrance of a Chinese fast-food restaurant at Fremont. He had been switching between game variations and racking up a modest payout and when he hit the Cash Out button the candlelit at the top of the Game King and the screen locked up with a jackpot of more than $1,000. Kane wasn’t playing a hand at this time and knew it was a mistake. He told the casino attendant about the error but the worker thought he was joking and gave him the winning funds.  

The Troubles Begin 

At this point, John Kane chose to take the biggest gamble of his life instead of forgetting about it. So he called his friend Andre Nestor who resides in Pittsburgh. Nestor had a gut feeling things were about to change for him. Kane told Nestor about the bug in the Game King slot and Nestor drove to the airport that night, camping out to catch the next available flight to Las Vegas.  

Kane picked him up and after a quick breakfast the next morning they drove to Fremont where they took adjacent seats at two Game Kings. Kane had a basic idea of how the glitch operated but couldn’t yet reproduce it successfully. The goal for the day was to work together and try different combinations of play, game types, and bet levels to figure out how to trigger the bug.  

It turned out the attempt to turn Game King into a Multi-Game and give it endless versatility was a fatal flaw. According to Nestor, you had complete control over the Game King slot and with the bug, you had the opportunity to win up to $500,000 a day.  

Things were going great for the duo as they cashed in daily, Kane was accustomed to handling money as he was the owner of a lucrative business. Nestor, on the other hand, was struggling with his newfound riches and returning to casinos losing his riches on the casino floor.  

Getting Caught 

When you discover a bug in a video poker slot that could award you big wins daily it becomes impossible to resist. The winnings were streaming in but also causing a lot of tension between Kane and Nestor who eventually parted ways.  

Both men kept playing the game separately but the casinos were beginning to catch on and Kane was caught on July the 3rd of 2009. After a night in jail, he called Nestor to warn him to stay out of the casinos but Nestor was paranoid and believed it was a rouse and that Kane wanted to keep all the wins to himself. Nestor continued with his Game King scheming and winning. And on the 6th of October of the same year, the police surprised him with a visit to his home.  

Both men were taken into custody and sued for taking advantage of a bug discovered in the Game King Video Poker game.