Meet Alex, the Russian Hacker Who Hacked Aristocrat's Cabinet Games

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His name is Alex, and he has cracked Aristocrat's pseudorandom number generator (PRNG), an achievement the implications thereof are significant for the company. We do not know much about Alex other than the fact he is a mathematician-turned-hacker who, two years ago, had Aristocrat, a developer of premier casino game machines, in a tight spot.

The rumble about Alex has quieted down, but his achievement, if true, is significant as mentioned on Wired. The story of Alex begins back in 2008 when he was hired by Russian casinos. The objective was to hack Novomatic machines such as Book of Ra, which traditionally had a 10% house edge.

His task was to boost this house edge to 50%. After a while, Alex realized that he had a knack for cracking pseudorandom number generators. In 2009, when Russia outlawed most of its gambling, he got his hands on Aristocrat's gaming cabinet and managed to crack it. This had immense implications for Alex.

Alex, the Man Who Cracked Aristocrat's Games

Alex started hacking Aristocrat cabinets in the 2010s. His success was imminent. Running 4-man crews from Europe to the United States, to Macau, Alex was making $250,000 per week per crew, slowly tilting away at faulty Aristocrat cabinets which he was able to analyze, identify the weaknesses of, and ultimately exploit to his benefit.

After cracking Aristocrat's Mark VI slot cabinet, Alex got more ambitious, and he got hold of Helix, Aristocrat's most advanced product by the mid-2010s. He grew bold, but he also knew that what he was doing was murky.

While the legality of his trade varies from one country to the next, some jurisdictions, including the United States consider Alex's trade illegal, and worse, a punishable offence. After years of running what casinos considered "a scam" across the world, Alex grew weary, and by 2017, he decided to try and cash out.

So, he got in touch with Tracey Elkerton, Aristocrat's global head of regulatory and product compliance. He immediately made his claim clear – Alex wanted payment for his work. Naturally, Elkerton, a veteran in corporate circles, responded diplomatically, explaining that the company would not be willing to pay Alex.

Some weeks passed, and Alex made another attempt to explain the urgency of the matter to Elkerton. He said, through a translator, that should Aristocrat not offer to buy out his work, he would just release it to competitors.

He didn't.

Back and Forth with Aristocrat

During his second conversation with Elkerton, Alex sent evidence to prove that he had cracked Aristocrat's cabinets, including Helix, the most advanced generation of machines. Elkerton explained that this may very well be, not ruling out the possibility completely, but that Aristocrat's teams of engineers have already patched the problem truly.
Whether this is true couldn't be confirmed at the time, and Alex grew impatient, and become persistent in his demands to receive an eight-figure payment that would allow him to safely relinquish his practice and knowledge of Aristocrat's PRNG's shortcomings, or else.

Aristocrat, though, didn't seem keen on buying, but the company did seem concerned. Spilling the beans on this could have hurt the company beyond reasonable. This is part of the reason why many companies in a similar position prefer to usually pay.

Yet, Aristocrat stood its ground and kept insisting that any problems related to possible PRNGs predictability have been sorted out by the engineering team. Alex was highly dubious of this purported achievement.

How Did It Work?

But how was Alex able to pull off what many have been trying for years? Based on what is known, he was simply gifted enough to figure out the seed number, that holds the key to all the rest.

If you have the seed number, you can unlock pretty much any PRNG, although it's not that simple. However, Alex had the added benefit of being an accomplished mathematician with a deep understanding of concepts, algorithms and popular mathematical programming.

Since he didn't care about gambling in the slightest, Alex wondered if he can't find a way to crack the PRNG, and he did. However, not even familiarity with Aristocrat's random number generator promised immediate success.

Instead, Alex was able to deploy his plan in two parts. First, he needed to identify a faulty cabinet. Not all were such, but he could tell by the sequence of outcomes, which were recorded by his 4-man crews.

A person would send the videos back to him in Russia, and he would analyze it. Once a machine was spotted, he was able to send an app to the crew member's phone with the phone making the phone buzz seconds before the operator had to press spin to maximize his chances of success.

Millions started trickling in, although they were difficult to move around.

Did Aristocrat and Alex Find a Solution?

Not much is known about Alex and Aristocrat's story after their initial exchange. Alex reportedly never released the information online for others to acquire. He might have emailed it to competitors so they can end up devising better algorithms or syphoning off customers from their rival. Yet, as three years have passed since Alex's last conversation with Elkerton took place, it's safe to assume that Aristocrat found a way to communicate with Alex.

The Internet has been quiet with no stories about the company's PRNG being compromised, something that any cabinet maker in the casino space wants to keep under very tight wraps. When Alex last made an appearance, he or she, for that matter, seemed frustrated with Aristocrat's skilful politicking and dawdling.
"I might just end up releasing it all," Alex reportedly said back in 2017, "and make the world a better place." Yet, his behaviour betrayed an ulterior motive. He didn't see or wish to see himself as a criminal.

Yet, he wasn't too sure if he is willing to sacrifice an eight-figure payment for a social cause. Given the current quietness on the matter, it's very likely that Alex did make the world a better place, but for himself.

He (or she) is a smart person, and they deserve it, that's for sure. Aristocrat, though, were smart enough to navigate out of a difficult situation.