ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI —Four Russians were indicted Wednesday for conspiring to travel from Russia to casinos across the United States to cheat at slot games using electronic devices, officials said.
The defendants conspired to cheat at least 10 casinos in Missouri, California and Illinois through the use of electronic devices, the indictment statement.
The devices were used to predict the behavior of a certain make and model of slot machine game known as the Aristocrat Mark VI Electronic Gaming Device, authorities said. By communicating with a foreign server, officials said the devices allowed the defendants to predict the behavior of the Mark IV games and obtain winnings from the games that far exceeded what would be expected from fair play.
Murat Bliev, 36; Yevgeniy Nazarov, 38; Igor Lavrenov, 28; and Ivan Gudalov, 32 were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of traveling in interstate and foreign commerce in furtherance of the conspiracy. Bliev, Lavrenov, and Gudalov are all believed to reside in Moscow, Russia. Nazarov is a U.S. citizen residing in Miami, Florida, officials said.
The defendants made multiple trips from Russia to the United States in order to carry out their scheme, using the devices to cheat casinos in St. Louis, Missouri; Temecula, California; and East St. Louis, Illinois, among others.
If convicted on each count of the indictment the penalty is up to five years behind bars along with fines up to $250,000, officials said.
Defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.