Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Alleged slot cheat may change plea

CARSON CITY -- Ronald Harris, the former Gaming Control Board agent who allegedly devised a slot cheating scam, may change his plea.

Harris pleaded guilty a year ago to four counts of cheating slot machines in Washoe County. He is free on bail and working at a video store in Las Vegas.

Deputy Attorney General David Thompson, who has handled the prosecution, declined to elaborate on what the change of plea would be. Harris' lawyer, Scott Freeman of Reno, could not be reached.

A hearing is set for Sept. 23 in District Court in Reno. Bob Harmon, spokesman for Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa, said Harris is not expected to change his plea from guilty to innocent but to plead to different criminal charges.

Harmon stressed there was no guarantee Harris would take any action. While the attorney general's office refused to provide details, a court source said the four cheating counts would be dropped if and when Harris pleads guilty to a different charge, possibly racketeering.

After his arrest, Harris taped a series of interviews with the attorney general's office, in which he alleged there was misconduct among the higher echelon of the Control Board. And he suggested major political figures put pressure on board officials to give preferential treatment to certain persons who apply for licenses.

Del Papa's office launched an investigation.

The tapes were leaked to ABC News, which aired portions in a March 12 "Prime Time Live" broadcast. This led to finger pointing between the offices of Del Papa and Control Board Chairman Bill Bible as to who might have released the tapes.

Later, Del Papa said there was nothing to substantiate the charges made by Harris. Bible said Harris had little credibility.

After Harris' guilty pleas, the Nevada Gaming Commission placed him in the "Black Book," a list of unsavory persons who are barred from Nevada casinos. Harris also faces trial in Atlantic City on a charge of rigging a $100,000 keno payout. And he has been accused of bilking Las Vegas casinos, but no trial date has been set on these allegations.

Harris was a computer expert who worked in the electronic section for the Control Board in Las Vegas. Secretly he installed programs in the laptop computers used by agents in the field to check for cheating in slot machines. When the computer was attached to an electronic slot machine, it transferred the cheating signals to produce payoffs at certain integrals.

And Harris and his accomplices would then start their play.

Last week, Victoria Berliner, 37, pleaded no contest to a gross misdemeanor charge of aiding and abetting Harris in efforts to collect jackpots in Reno and Lake Tahoe in 1994.

Sentencing has been set for Sept. 26. Berliner has agreed to repay $4,500 to Fitzgerald's hotel casino in Reno as her share of an illegal jackpot and $2,500 to the Crystal Bay Club at North Lake Tahoe. Berliner said she had not been fully informed of the cheating scheme by Harris.

Reid McNeal, another partner, pleaded guilty earlier to a felony charge of conspiracy and agreed to repay Fitzgerald's $4,500. McNeal, who lives in the Cayman Islands, agreed to stay out of Nevada casinos for 10 years.

Lynda Doane, the fourth person in the ring, was indicted in June 1996 and the charges are still pending.

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