Part III: Slot Machine Cheating · Physical Cheating Methods · #5.1
The Yo-Yo (Coin-on-a-String / Stringing)
How it works
One of the oldest and best-known slot machine cheating techniques. The cheat attaches a string (dental floss, nylon line, or thin wire) to a genuine coin – either by taping it or drilling a small hole through the coin – and inserts it into the coin slot. The coin passes the optic or mechanical sensor, registers a credit, and is then pulled back out by the string. The cheat can repeat this process dozens or hundreds of times, accumulating credits while only using a single coin.
Where it appears
Older coin-operated slot machines with mechanical or basic optical coin acceptors.
On the record
Known as “the godfather of all slot machine scams” by Mob Museum experts. James Taylor, a retired Nevada Gaming Control Board Enforcement Division chief, spent much of his career confiscating slot cheating devices such as the yo-yo and learning how they worked.
Detection & preventionADVISORY
The paid halfHow a monitoring room catches the yo-yo (coin-on-a-string / stringing), and what stops it recurring, written for the desk, not the reader.
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Sources
Sources last checked 2026-08-14
Published as a detection reference for surveillance, compliance and gaming-operations professionals. Thresholds and tuning are set by the property. Nothing here is instruction: the method is described so it can be recognised.