Feds Drop CFAA Charges Against ‘Hacker’ Who Exploited Poker Machines

On Monday, July 6, 2009, two engineers from Nevada’s Gaming Control Board showed up at the Silverton Casino Lodge. The off-the-strip Soutfasseenth Las Vegas casino is best known for its mermaid aquarium, but the GCB geek squad wasn’t there to see swimmers in bikini tops and zip-on fish tails. They’d come to examine machine 50102, a Game King video poker unit on the casino floor that had been waiting for them, taped off like a crime scene, all weekend.