“What do you mean by a machine being rollered?”
He pointed to a bulky piece of metal clamped over one of the sprockets and screwed into place. “See the roller on hat first wheel?”
I nodded.
“Well, that’s a roller. That’s on one of the oranges. Now, you see there’s three oranges on the first wheel, four on the second, and six on the third. That makes a man feel good. You see, the machine stops just that way. One — two — three. Now suppose he gets an orange on the first, and an orange on the second. He’s got time to do a little thinking before be third wheel clicks, and if it’s an orange, he thinks he made it come just by thinking about it. That’s why there’s so many oranges on the third wheel. Six out of twenty. Get me? There’s twenty figures on each wheel. Well, with six oranges on the third wheel, there’s about one chance jut of three that it’ll stop on an orange after you’ve got the;first two oranges. That’s the trick. Getting the first two oranges.
“Now that’s where the roller comes in. Ain’t you never played a slot machine and seen a pay-off figure sorta hesitate in front of the window, and then shoot on by, and the wheel lock with a hell of a heavy click on the next figure? Well, buddy, when that happens, you’ve been rollered off. Take this machine, for instance. There’s three oranges on the first wheel. That means you got about one chance in seven of gettin’ your first orange. All right, we put a roller on this orange slot, and that means there’s only two oranges left. Get me? Two oranges out of twenty. That means you only stand one chance in ten of getting your first orange. You might not think there was much difference between one chance in seven and one chance in ten, but when you’re givin’ a machine steady play, it sure shows up in the old bread basket.”
I looked the machine over. “How do they tamper with them?”
“They carry a little drill, and they drill a hole right through here. See? Now you notice these rivets here? Well, they plug up that little hole with a fake rivet head. Then if a man looks at the machine, he don’t see nothing wrong. Get me? A man don’t never bother to count the rivets in a machine. Just one extra rivet don’t show up at all.”
“Then what?” I asked.
“Then after they get the machine bored and riveted, they’ll come back. Usually, they have a gang of three or four. There’s usually a hell of a good-looking jane in the gang. They pretend to be liquored up, and they’re having a great time. They get all excited and crowd around the machine. And one of the good-looking janes will slip that false rivet out. They got a piece of stiff wire that they stick in that hole, and it’s got a little twister on the end, and they turn it. Now, if they’ve drilled that hole in the right place, when they turn that wire, it pushes this metal finger back, and they can keep on playing the machine without putting no coin in. If the machine ain’t got a cheese knife — or if the cheese knife has been disconnected.”
“What’s a cheese knife?” I asked.
“Well, that’s something that rolls over the nickel. It won’t release unless it first slides over the round part of a nickel. But they’re pretty delicate, and they’re always jamming, so lots of places take ’em off. Then lots of times they get stuck and won’t work at all.”
“You said something about a cup.”
“That’s different,” he said. “That goes up in the pay-off mechanism. They stick it up through the cup where the coins come out, and when those little metal fingers that release just so many coins start working, they slip this cup up and jam ’em open. Then the coins start spilling out until they empty the tubes.”
“You keep the machines here rollered?” I asked.
“Sure, they’re rollered. Particularly those near the front of the line. You get me? We figure that the customer that just drops by the slot machine and only puts in four or five nickels is the guy that’s going to quit after he’s put in those four or five nickels. He’s just playing to be doing something. May be a tourist who wants to say he’s been out in the wild West where they have gambling running wide open. Get me?”
“But why not let those people win occasionally? I think that would be good bait.”
“Nope,” he said. “The percentage is against you. They’ve only got four or five nickels in their pocket to lose. They ain’t going to change fifty-cent pieces or dollars into nickels. They’re just going to play with what they’ve got. All right, we let ’em win on a couple of cherries, and maybe sometimes on three oranges. But the heavy stuff is all rollered off. There ain’t no percentage in letting a man win five bucks on a jackpot if the limit he’d let you win is twenty cents. Get me?”
I nodded.
“Now then, the machines toward the back we don’t roller so heavy. The people that get back that far are the slot-machine addicts. They get a fad for it, just like drinking whisky or anything else. They keep thinking that the next machine farther down is going to be a little hotter. Well, they are hotter. They stand more chance there, and those people stand a chance of making a big winning. That brings ’em back.
“You get me? Suppose a party keeps working his way down the slot machines? Well, we’ve got four or five nickel machines, then a dime machine, then a nickel machine, then a two-bit machine, then two nickel machines, and another two-bit machine. Well, by the time he’s got down toward the end of the line, he’s paid a bunch of money to us. Because those first machines are all rollered so heavy, he can’t win nothing big. Now then, what do we care if we give him an even break on the last machine? We’re already working on velvet. Maybe if he wins a jackpot, he’ll put the coins in his pocket and walk out, but don’t worry. He’s a slot-machine addict, and next day, he’ll be back. And the next and the next and the next. That’s why I figured you for a crook when you won the jackpot on that nickel machine up near the front. Ordinarily, your jackpot has two bars on the first wheel. That gives you one chance in ten. Then there’s one on the middle wheel, and one on the third wheel. Get it? One chance in twenty on each of those wheels, and one chance in ten on the first wheel. Now, on that nickel machine, we’d rollered off one of the bars on the first wheel, so figure how much chance you’ve got of hitting a big jackpot. Right away, I thought you was slicking the machine.”
“What about that girl?” I asked.
“‘The jane, brother, was a slicker.”
“How do you know, Louie?”
“How does a guy know anything? Shucks, I had her spotted ever since I came here.”
“How long’s that been?”
“About ten days or two weeks. She’s been a slot-machine fiend. She played it on the square at first, all right. That’s where she threw me off guard, and she’s such a cute little trick. She certainly did play me for a sucker. She’d play those machines. I don’t think she was doing much more than breaking even. So I’d look the machines over after she left, and there wouldn’t be nothing wrong with ’em. Well, she fooled me all right. She drilled a couple of machines after I’d classed her as okay. She’d been milkin’ them for a couple of days, and then she and this boy friend of hers showed up for the big clean-up tonight. They were going co cup ’em dry. And if it hadn’t been for you winning that big jackpot on the machine that was rollered off, I’d have had ’em.”