Silvio Petricciani - University of Nevada, Reno

34 Silvio E. Petricciani
the plays on the clock each time the handle
was pulled. And that worked out pretty good.
It eliminated the rhythm players to a point.
Then they got ideas where they could put
magnets on there and stop the bar. See it’s got
a little fan. So then we had to go to, instead
of a steel fan, an aluminum little fan on the
governor to go around, so that it couldn’t be
stopped. But they went to the aluminum one,
but they had little steel weights on there, and
they could still stop the clock. So then we
had to go to the stainless steel weights which
[were] non-magnetized or lead weights and
stainless steel reels to hold it on there. So we
got that done. Then pretty soon they’d start
drilling the machines. They have little drills
that they put on, and they drill right through
the center of the machine and then they put
a little wire in there to stop the clock, or short
out something and make the machine empty
the hopper.
So to combat that you put stainless sides
inside of the case, but you don’t put them tight
onto the case because they’ve got drills that’ll
go through that. You leave the stainless steel
loose, so when the drill hits it, the stainless
steel’ll go that way and the drill will just go
alongside.
Then you have to put anti-stringing
devices on the coin acceptors. What happens
is they put a coin in there with a string, and
then they get down and trip it and then they
pull it back up again, you see, and trip it again,
and pull it back up and trip it again. So now we
have a string cutter on there, so when they put
the coin they’ll get one play. And then when
they pull it back up, this little knife comes out
and cuts the string. But these are the things—
the different things that people do to try to
cheat a slot machine. So I guess that’s about
it on slot machines. Anything else you want?
What were your defenses against the spooners?
Well, if we could catch them—and of
course those days are gone forever too—take
them outside and beat the living hell out of
them, then arrest them and throw them in
jail. That was the way you coped with them
in those days. It was very effective.
I’m sure it was.
Yes, very effective. And now I’ve heard—
I’ve never seen it done, but way back before
my time, say, early twenties or so when they
had gaming and stuff and somebody’d come
in and try to cheat a “21” game or something,
take them downstairs and put their fingers in
a vice and break their fingers. It stopped it. It
was the only thing they knew at the time to
stop it, you know. But if you go back I think
into history—I’m trying to remember now
where I read about it—where if a person was
a thief or something, they would mangle
his hands or something and he was known
then. He was known as a thief. That was his
punishment. They would mangle his hands,
so he could never use them for any sleight of
hand or legerdemain of any kind any more.
But, you know, it’s like in the old days when
they used to put them in the stockades, in the
old stocks and so on for punishment. But that
was their form of punishment in those days
and it was accepted. And the thief knew that
it he got caught, that was what was going to
happen to him.
Of course, you know catching them
is one thing because they always had you
pretty well pegged as to where you were
and so on. Because when they’d use a spoon
or something they’d have an accomplice
watching out for anybody in authority in
the place that might be coming around a
post or something, and they’d, you know,
they’d have a coat or something, hide the
spoon right away and just play the machine