Slot Machine Rigging Case Submitted to Nevada Jury

A jury has begun deliberating the case of eight people accused of belonging to a ring that bilked Nevada and New Jersey casinos out of millions of dollars by rigging slot machine jackpots.

After seven weeks of testimony, U.S. District Judge Edward Reed sent the jury out Friday to consider verdicts on 17 felony counts in the indictment. After 90 minutes, the deliberations were recessed until Monday.

The defendants are accused of rigging, or attempting to rig, about $1.7 million in jackpots between 1980 and 1983 and illegally collecting more than $600,000.

Sources of Information

The key prosecution witness was Ross Durham, a convict who agreed to testify in exchange for a five-year prison sentence. Three others also testified as the result of plea-bargaining agreements.

Durham said he attended a gaming school to learn how to bilk the slot machines by using stolen keys. Sometimes, he said, keys were devised from memory after watching casino mechanics work on jammed machines.

Use of stolen or forged keys became common, he said, so casinos increased security. So Durham said he devised a way to use wires and magnets for rigging jackpots--and rigged more than $10 million worth of fraudulent jackpots.

“Blockers” were used to screen him from security cameras while he set up a jackpot and “collectors” were employed to play the rigged slot and trigger the jackpot, Durham said.

He identified John Vaccaro of Las Vegas as the boss of the group.

Viewpoint of Defense

The defense argued that the prosecution witnesses were criminals who made “sweet deals” to protect themselves.

The defendants are charged with interstate travel in aid of racketeering, interstate transportation of stolen property, conspiracy, aiding and abetting, and obstructing the collection of income taxes. Each count carries a five-year prison term, except for the tax count, which has a 10-year penalty.

Dropped from the original indictment were charges involving a then-record $1.7-million jackpot taken at Harrah’s Tahoe.

Not all of the suspects were charged with all counts but the jury must make more than 70 decisions of guilt or innocence.

Besides Vaccaro, the defendants were Sandra Vaccaro and Stephen LaBarbera of Las Vegas, Paul Bond of Reno and William Cushing, Dorothy Snider, Norman Alvis and Michael Kevin Brennan, all of Sacramento.