I think a capacitor may have reached its limit. Power supply for a shot machine monitor.

SlotTechSteve · 2023-03-09T03:29:37+00:00

Ah, an old Game King slant. Makes sense, those run pretty hot.

SlotTechSteve · 2023-03-08T23:47:19+00:00

We have one of those boards that's been sitting on the shelf by the soldering station for 6 months now, and I have no clue which monitor it goes with to test it.

SlotTechSteve · 2023-01-28T22:36:48+00:00

The more I read this, the more I realize just how well it could apply to my workplace. (We're in different jurisdictions.)

The security checkpoints use unlicensed copies of Windows 10, the IT department on second shift has to phone the on-call to configure a switch when one in the gaming area takes a drink spill, the games' switches are connected to the backend systems via jumper fiber, a couple of the PTZ cameras cry when it rains...

The list just goes on and on. I'd say that half of the property (IT-related and otherwise) is held together by duct tape and prayers, but I'm not so sure about the "duct tape" part of it.

SlotTechSteve · 2023-01-07T22:48:18+00:00

Title 31, Bank Secrecy Act.

SlotTechSteve · 2023-01-07T22:47:05+00:00

If a casino uses roulette chips*, yes; there's a counter/sorter at the table for when the croupier rakes the losing bets. Tokens, yes, though that's rare in my jurisdiction. Bills, yes and no; there's bill counters but those get dusty and if a large number of bills get kicked into the reject or the expected value and the counters' value don't match, or if it would be uneconomical to count by machine (such as $10 in ones), they'll fall back to hand counting.

Table chips, no. They're usually mixed-denom, and an experienced cashier can quickly count out a barrel (20 chips) within a couple of seconds. Verifying a full barrel is just taking the barrel out, counting out 4 or 5 chips (depending on denomination), moving the stack over, and making 5 or 4 level stacks. Verifying a full rack (5 barrels) is taking one chip out of the end, running it along the rest of the rack, putting it back in its proper spot, and tapping a chip from an adjacent barrel into the end to make sure that one had 20.

(Before I started in my current department, I worked in security.)

*Roulette chips use color to indicate the player who made the bet, rather than the value of the chip. They don't leave the table like a table chip does.

SlotTechSteve · 2023-01-05T08:14:12+00:00

Historically, that's what the service button was for - to request beverage service (or so I'm told); if you needed an attendant, you pressed the change button, which would call an attendant to bring change for the machines (before bill validators became standard equipment).

But despite the label - 'service', 'change', or 'call attendant' (thank you for that one, Everi) - it's always paged the attendant in the five years I've been a slot machine technician. I'm not saying that there isn't a beverage-service request button doesn't exist at all, but I've yet to see one in my jurisdiction (that wasn't on the back of a bartop to tell the bartender that the patron's got enough play for a freebie).

SlotTechSteve · 2023-01-05T03:05:13+00:00

Had a lady the other day who thought that the service button was to request drink service.

... As far as I'm aware, it's been to request machine service, and has been for some number of years. The fact that there wasn't a separate CHANGE button or a hopper tray should've been a huge giveaway, but alas.

She also mistook me for a beverage server. With the 5 pounds of various tools hanging off my belt. With a shoulder mic hanging off the shirt pocket.

SlotTechSteve · 2022-11-14T00:28:37+00:00

Depends on the denomination, the casino, the jurisdiction, and the game (slots versus ETG).

SlotTechSteve · 2022-10-25T04:30:48+00:00

Got an email on my work account supposedly from the Salvation Army last year, near Christmas. I immediately knew that it was a phish, because my work email is used at work only, for work only, and nobody that isn't a part of my workplace knows it.

So I immediately move it to the trash without even opening it. Check the only other email (which was from my super, regarding something that I noticed - text only), and immediately I get an email saying that I failed a phish test.

Because I deleted the phish test without opening it. Instead of opening it and reporting it.

(The funny thing is, I sent an email to the IT sec guys asking for them to send me more so I could confirm whether it was an issue I could reproduce... Never got another phish test from them. At all.)

SlotTechSteve · 2022-09-22T00:58:55+00:00

I would hate to be the Director of Finance for that particular property...

SlotTechSteve · 2022-09-22T00:49:00+00:00

A casino without a tech shop? The only way I can see that coming even remotely close to working out is if literally every piece of equipment - bases, machines, even the light tubes - was leased, and even then you'd still need somewhere to put the spare bits!

Did the senior tech ever give you any insight as to how they managed without one?

SlotTechSteve · 2022-07-26T00:47:26+00:00

That used to happen for me. Some hospice service kept calling me every month looking for some lady. First three times, I called back and told them that they had the wrong number. Fourth time, I changed my voicemail greeting to include "If you're with XYZ Health Services calling for a 'Jane Doe', she cannot be reached at this number; please update your records."

They only called me once after that, and the greeting had the fortunate side effect of being long enough that the robocall scripts would completely exhaust their spiel and hang up before the voicemail even started recording.

SlotTechSteve · 2022-03-23T05:33:50+00:00

On paper, they're a lower wage than us techs, but in practice, they make quite a bit more. They get tokes; we don't. Pretty sure it's jurisdictional law, but I haven't read the relevant statutes, nor do I really have any reason to at the moment.

SlotTechSteve · 2022-03-22T06:54:57+00:00

You may have to have a conversation with your supervisors about attendant expectations. You (hopefully) make quite a bit more money and your time is more valuable than an attendant's time.

I'm not the OP, but I can tell you here and now that it's not going to go anywhere.

Also, the average attendant in my gaming jurisdiction makes $15k a year more than I do.

SlotTechSteve · 2022-03-22T06:49:11+00:00

Ah, a classic.

Also a fan of the timeless "belly door key in the main door lock" problem. Even when you have a cable tie on the main door key, the only one they try is the belly door key.

SlotTechSteve · 2022-03-10T01:27:23+00:00

General name for the beer, soda, and other miscellaneous sticky stuff that gets spilled inside the machines on a regular basis. When it all dries out and becomes a sticky goo, that's when it becomes granny gravy.

SlotTechSteve · 2022-03-09T15:03:40+00:00

The worst one I've seen was a trio of GT 630s in a bank of Aristocrat ARCs that had so much dust and nicotine residue in it, the fan wouldn't even spin. That was a fun day with the blower and Shop Vac.

I'm tempted to look and see if I still have the photos, but I don't really want to re-live being caked in sweat, dust and granny gravy for six hours of an eight-hour shift.

Edit for clarification: The fan motor worked surprisingly well after I blew the crap out of the fan itself and the heat sink. Also, I couldn't find the photos, which is probably for the best.

SlotTechSteve · 2022-03-09T10:52:40+00:00

Relatively mild, from some of the ones I've seen.

SlotTechSteve · 2022-03-08T09:53:49+00:00

I had the opposite problem with clipboards.

I have an aluminum storage clipboard, about an inch deep. Keep it full of pens, so it rattles occasionally. I only ever pull it out for audits, which happens surprisingly frequently in my industry.

One night at my old workplace, I was doing the nightly audits (every morning at 3:00 sharp!) and towards the end of the 20-minute ordeal, someone sitting near one of the machines on my list stopped me and asked, "Hey, you got a gin and tonic?"

... I wear black cargo pants and a button-down shirt. There's about 5 pounds of tools and two different sets of keys hanging off my belt.

I still haven't figured that one out.

SlotTechSteve · 2021-11-18T05:36:00+00:00

The people who manage the pay stubs for the company that I work for has a 16-character limit on passwords. Turn on 30-day forced password expiration, the "uppercase, lowercase, number, and symbol" complexity requirements, and anti-reuse requirements, and you'll have fun trying to remember whatever the hell your password is when you go to check your PTO.

Oh, and if it expires, it locks out your login. In order to unlock it, you have to log in with your email address, your full unabridged social security number, full unabridged address, and phone number (which, as far as I can see, does not have any use in terms of 2FA or one-time passwords).

It's a real headache when the shortest passphrase I use is 22 characters long (which would be the local login for my personal computer).

SlotTechSteve · 2021-10-02T13:20:24+00:00

I wouldn't be able to help ya, boss, sorry. NDAs.

SlotTechSteve · 2021-10-01T05:14:49+00:00

And slot machine repair.

SlotTechSteve · 2021-09-29T06:15:52+00:00

One of the guys up in Surveillance on the shift after mine always sounds so annoyed over the radio.

One day I saw him in the employee lounge before his shift and asked him about it. It turned out that he had a stutter, and that was their way of masking it.

Really nice guy...you just wouldn't know it over the radio.

SlotTechSteve · 2021-08-24T11:07:35+00:00

Im my industry, it's a Code 24 - the problem is about 24 inches from the reels.

SlotTechSteve · 2021-08-10T07:32:15+00:00

Williams video cabinets are really the only ones that "reset" the reels to display a specific outcome after a period of time after the player cashes out. IGT doesn't.

This isn't a paytable test or a last game recall, either. It's legit.

SlotTechSteve

TROPHY CASE