Wired reported Tuesday that federal prosecutors in Nevada will no longer pursue hacking charges against two men who, in 2009, allegedly found a bug in International Game Technology’s “Game King” video poker device and used the glitch to win a six-figure sum.
The case now focuses on a single charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for both. There was a long battle over whether the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act could apply to the case.
“The United States of America, by and through the undersigned attorneys, hereby moves this Court to dismiss Counts 2 and 3 of the Indictment,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Chu wrote.
John Kane, 54, and Andre Nestor, 41, are scheduled for trial in August.
According to Wired: “Kane […] stumbled onto a firmware bug in IGT’s Game King video poker machine that allowed him to effectively play back a prior winning hand at ten times the original value. He phoned his friend Andre Nestor, who joined Kane in Vegas to allegedly exploit the bug at a string of casinos. Nestor then returned to Pennsylvania and used the bug at a casino there to the tune of $400,000 in winnings.”
Wired reported that prosecutors had argued that to initiate the bug involved a complex series of actions, and that this constituted hacking. The defense challenged this logic.
“The case never should have been filed under the CFAA,” Kane’s lawyer told Wired. “It should have been just a straight wire fraud case. And I’m not sure it’s even a wire fraud.”
“I guess we’ll find out when we go to trial,” he added.
Kane, according to his what his attorney told Wired, discovered the bug because he “played more [video poker] than anyone else in the United States. I’m not exaggerating or embellishing. … In one year he played 12 million dollars worth of video poker.”
IGT is one of the largest slot machine makers in the world.
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