Throughout history there have been all sorts of ways to "beat" mechanical vending machines/ gambling slots/ coin dispensers/ laundry machines etc. etc. When I was very young in the early 1960s there were soda machines that dropped a cup down into a holding shelf and the machine dispensed Coca Cola into that cup for a dime.
Well, I had a friend who was very, very street wise and he watched the service guy refill the machine, when the service guy was done, there was a button he pressed to dispense a cup of cola just to make sure everything was in working order, without him having to use a dime at every stop.
My buddy realized that as young kids (9/10) our arms and hands were small enough to reach up through the cup dispenser slot and reach the service button
- We never paid for soda again! Simple mechanical systems were always vulnerable- and now even the most sophisticated online systems can be hacked as well!
Does anyone remember when guys placed a quarter in the bar table slot and when they pushed in the slot with the quarter they would wedge a thin shim under the coin sot to keep it open for play at no cost- saw it all the time until they changed the mechanism where the balls only came out upon release of the mechanism back to its starting point.
