Software glitch saw Aussie casino give away millions in cash | Hacker News Reader

Software glitch saw Aussie casino give away millions in cash

theregister.com

29 pointsLorenDB24 comments

> Known abusers of the TICO machines have been charged

Yikes. Is it reasonable to expect people to resist the temptation to use a free money machine?

It is not, and the gambling casino's business shouldn't be protected by law.

This isn't a case of slot machines where they got the logic for the house edge wrong. This is a case of double redeeming winnings because the machine would give you your winnings but not mark the ticket as redeemed.

Depends on the nature of the glitch. Machine adds an extra dollar to every ticket? User is probably blameless.

In this case is sounds like there is an extra action to exploit the machine - insert tickets two at a time, and then insert one of the tickets again.

Not a perfect analogy, but if you see a store with a broken door, you're still at fault if you start looting.

I always thought the "bank error in your favor, collect $200" in Monopoly wouldn't work out in real life.

Bank Error In Your Favor. Pay $200 and go to jail.

I hated my career in computers, my biggest failure was in not convincing co workers and supervisors that programming errors had consequences. I never worked in big well run departments tho, and I know that theres areas in computing that really work on solving problems, but I just never got to work in them.

My last job with computers I had to deal with a programmer that said since "product" was not actual money, accuracy was optional. I'm so glad I don't work in computers anymore lol

what do you work in?

used to work with microsoft sql servers, I actually liked that software but I probably wasn't cut out for computers in the first place haha

So what do you do now?

lol pretty much nothing and I'm good at it!

It was ultimately a mundane bug, but the amounts taken that were able to slip past are the real lede.

> casino manager Nicholas Weeks explained that it is possible to insert two receipts into TICO machines. That was a feature, not a bug, and allowed gamblers to redeem two receipts and be paid the aggregate amount.

> But a software glitch meant that the machines would return one of those tickets and allow it to be re-used – the barcode it bore was not recognized as having been paid.

Somebody forgot their integration tests

One thing that struck me in my visit to Australia was the prevalence of gambling machines in casual locations, like corner stores and coffee shops. I used to be a lot more libertarian about things like gambling and personal drug consumption, but now I grapple more deeply with the idea of behaviors that people need saving from themselves.

I don’t think saving people from themselves is a good way to frame the problem. To me, it’s more a question of whether we’re going to allow businesses and even the government itself to prey on vulnerable people.

What changed my mind was that people are up against a department of PhDs who are actively attempting to use psychological research to subvert responsible behavior.

That's reprehensible. And it needs to be controlled by laws.

Agreed. That framing is what changed my opinion on it over the years. It's easier as a discussion about what we should allow people to make money doing in our society.

"Freedom of choice" is a distraction from whether we should allow someone to get rich selling the means of addiction and destruction to vulnerable people.

I think that's a great way to think about it.

You can extend it further and say that the reason this is bad is because you're giving the kind of people who have no qualms with preying on strangers like that the resources to prey on bigger prey.

We don't want those kinds of people to have the kinds of resources to match their unseemly ambitions.

In the US sports gambling is creating utter chaos in young adults. What a ridiculous thing that we allowed such ads everywhere now.

Where were you in Australia? And what sort of gambling machines are we talking about?

> The laws regulating the use of gaming machines in Australia are a matter for state governments, and as such they vary between states. Gaming machines are found in casinos (approximately one in each major city) as well as pubs and clubs in some states (usually sports, social, or RSL clubs).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slot_machines_by_country#Austr...

I live in Sydney and "pokies" are everywhere. RSL clubs are now basically community casinos that have a small restaurant and bar attached. It's sad that community social clubs have transformed into extractive businesses.

I was in Sydney. I may be misremembering the exact kind of establishments I found them in -- this was quite a few years ago.

It would have been a pub or a bar.

I've never seen or heard of a pokie machine in a cafe anywhere in Australia.

Same throughout Berlin and North-Rhine Wesphalia here in Germany. Not sure about the other states.

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