The State - News from June 27, 1985

A Sacramento man, described by a federal judge in Reno as a leader in the nation’s largest slot machine cheating ring, was sentenced to seven years in prison for rigging $1.6 million in jackpots in Nevada and New Jersey casinos. William Cushing, 33, had been convicted on 15 counts of bilking the casinos. His attorney asked U.S. District Judge Edward Reed for a three-year sentence, saying he was not as culpable as the leader of the gang, John Vaccaro, who received nine years. However, Reed said, “I view him as one of the leaders in this group.” The judge also said Cushing was “an expert mechanic” who used his skills to make keys for slot machines and to open them so that they could be rigged for phony jackpots.