Friday, Jan. 9, 1998 | 2:57 a.m.
RENO -- Ronald D. Harris, a former state Gaming Control Board agent who masterminded a slot machine cheating ring that won jackpots in Las Vegas, Reno and Lake Tahoe, was sentenced to seven years in prison Friday.
District Judge Peter Breen said Harris, 41, betrayed both state gaming regulators and the public trust by developing a computer system to cheat the slot machines.
"There is no question the depth of your betrayal was complete," Breen told Harris, who had sought probation.
The maximum penalty on the racketeering charge was 20 years in prison and a $25,000 fine. The state Division of Parole and Probation recommended a 14-year sentence. Harris will be eligible for parole after serving one-third of his seven-year term.
Harris made a public apology to the state Gaming Control Board, his friends and family for causing them problems. But he said he has done everything asked of him in detailing how the crimes were committed. And he is now working 50-60 hours a week for a Las Vegas computer firm.
Deputy Attorney General David Thompson said at least $42,000 in jackpots were illegally paid out because of the computer scheme. But that amount was figured by examining federal income tax forms of Harris and his three companions. He said nobody knows how much money was actually scammed from the casinos.
It was three years ago this month that Harris was arrested in Nevada on the slot machine rigging charges. While working for the gaming control board in Las Vegas, Harris secretly devised a computer program for the laptop computers used by agents in the field to check to see the slots were operating correctly.
When the agent hooked up to a machine, the cheating program was installed so that a jackpot would come up when there was a predetermined sequence of coins bet. By late 1994 he had developed a program to allow him to predict the results of certain electronic gaming devices without having to tamper with the equipment.
It permitted him to project winning plays at slot poker and keno games. In December 1994, he and Reid McNeal were able to win $10,000 from a Las Vegas keno machine in less than five minutes using this method.
But Harris and McNeal got tripped up when they went to Atlantic City and hit a $100,000 dollar keno payout at Bally's Park Place. Before any payout was made, McNeal was arrested at the casino and Harris was picked up when he landed back in Las Vegas.
Scott Freeman, the attorney for Harris, told Judge Breen that Harris had made only $15,000 from the cheating scheme. "This was a small scale operation." Freeman said Harris told authorities what he did so these things won't happen again in Nevada. "He has rehabilitated himself."
Freeman said there was no risk to society if he was placed on probation.
Breen agreed that Harris has stayed out of trouble since his arrest; has full time employment and has a "stable family" with his two children. The losses to the casinos have not been near as bad as they could have been, the judge said.
And it was clear, Breen said, that Harris has helped authorities. But he said "This sophisticated scheme reached into the lifeblood of the (gambling) industry." The judge also said William Bible, chairman of the control board, had urged that a stiff sentence be imposed.
Thompson asked for a heavy sentence, saying Harris violated the integrity of the industry and the gaming board. The sentencing, Thompson said, "should send a message" that Nevada doesn't tolerate this.
Thompson said Harris had not given "substantial assistance" in his video taped interviews with the attorney general's office. He said Harris confirmed things the attorney general's office already knew and some of the things Harris said could not be confirmed.
Harris, in the interviews, suggested that higher-ups in the gaming control board handed out licenses because of political pressure, along with other alleged misconduct. The attorney general's office investigated those allegations but said there was no evidence to back of those claims.
The tapes, which were confidential, were leaked to ABC which showed them on a national program to illustrate that slot machines are easily rigged against the player.
The state of Missouri sent a letter to the judge on behalf of Harris, saying he had cooperated with them in their investigation of two slot machine companies. And Harris' business associates in Las Vegas, A. J. Camp and Christine Axtell, testified to his good character and his work habits.
McNeal, of the Cayman Islands, pleaded guilty to a felony in Reno and was fined $2,000 and ordered to make $4,500 in restitution to a casino. His ex-wife Victoria Berliner of Fullerton, Calif., and Lynda Doane of Las Vegas were placed on probation after their pleas to lesser charges. They said they were duped and did not know they were involved in an illegal scheme when they played the machines and won the jackpots.
Harris still faces charges in Atlantic City, but authorities reached an agreement that any prison time given in New Jersey would run concurrently with the Nevada sentence.
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