Slots · 4 min
Pull-Tab Insider
Two Arizona men were charged with a $250,000-plus electronic pull-tab fraud at a Chesapeake Beach restaurant. One had written the games.
Pull-tabs · Altered tickets
Steven Ray Kummerfeld, 65, of Phoenix, and Anthony Lee Stuart, 58, of Arizona, were arrested on 10 November 2025 over electronic pull-tab machines at Trader’s Seafood Steak and Ale in Chesapeake Beach, Maryland. The alleged run was January to April 2025. Staff had watched the same people hit the same games, Lucky Sevens and FrankenCash, then leave with large cashouts.
An electronic pull-tab is a licensed ticket machine. The ticket in the stack has to be the ticket the game expects. Investigators say these men put in pre-printed or altered tickets. The machine paid as if those tickets were genuine. Audit logs showed some days paying out more than $2 for every $1 played. The expected range is 85 to 95 cents.
Stuart had been a developer at TEX Game Systems, the company behind those two titles. Detectives said he had prior technical access to the systems. Trader’s later put the theft above $250,000.
Kummerfeld was stopped while checking into the Rod ’n’ Reel resort. Charges include theft scheme and computer or data alteration. A court still has to decide guilt.
Watch
- The same faces on the same machines, every day.
- Tickets that come out of a pocket, not the stack.
- A former vendor sitting those games.
- A jackpot, then a cashout, after almost no play.