Swiss Casinos Lost Millions from Russian Mafia Hacked Slot Machines

For months, casinos throughout Switzerland were baffled by a peculiar repeating event. The only people who ever won jackpots on the slots called ‘Gaminator’ and ‘Super Gaminator’ were Russian nationals.

Under Swiss gambling laws, a ‘jackpot’ is defined as a sum of money required to be reported as income, under the latest tax laws. If the reporting threshold level changes in Swiss tax laws, the amount of money which legally defines a ‘jackpot’ changes automatically.

An employee of a major Swiss casino, who wished to remain anonymous, explains – “The Russians got greedy. We wouldn’t have noticed, and we didn’t for many months. We thought Gaminator must be popular in Russia when we saw five Russians wait in a queue to play it. But when all five players win five jackpots in three hours, we took notice quickly.”

The security department of various independently owned casinos began to communicate with the Swiss Federal Gaming Board (ESBK) about this unusual phenomenon. It was discovered that hundreds of jackpots, worth CHF million, were awarded only to Russian nationals throughout Switzerland on the Germinator brand of machines.

During the same time frame only five Swiss nationals won jackpots on the Gaminator brand slots. When the five Swiss nationals were contacted by ESBK investigators, it was discovered that three female jackpot winners ‘were romantically involved with Russian nationals.’

ESBK instantly sent a letter to each casino within the country about the potential compromise of the Gaminator slot brand. Swiss internet casinos do not use the Germinator brand of video slots yet a slot called Gamintor is available online for download.

One suspect was detained in Pfäffikon and informed on all members of his gang. Unfortunately for police, this was of little help as the suspect claimed to only know the ‘underworld criminal names’ of the alleged conspirators. The names ‘Boris Mushroom’, ‘Snail’ and ‘The Hedgehog’ did not show up on any Swiss immigration entry forms.

The heavily tattooed suspect claimed that he got lucky winning the Germinator slot, but became suspicious when everyone won also. He stated that he knows nothing more about the Germinator slots, where his traveling companions are staying, and only came into the country as a tourist to ‘buy a real Swiss watch.’

All Germinator brand machines have been removed from the casino floors throughout the country. ESBK is still unable to find how the machines were manipulated to trigger the random jackpots. “At this point we (ESBK) are not sure if a tool, a device, malicious computer code or a design flaw is responsible,” reported multiple news sections of online poker sites in Switzerland.

The Russian national who was detained in Pfäffikon was released and placed on the Swiss casino blacklist which forbids future entry to all Swiss Casinos, along with ‘The Hedgehog’ and others he named.