Dennis Nikrasch (September 12, 1941 2010), also known by the alias of Dennis McAndrew, was a Vegas slot cheater and a former locksmith who was responsible for spearheading the biggest casino theft in Las Vegas history, by grabbing $16,000,000 from rigging slot machines over a 22-year period.
In reality, the hacked machine is not only a plausible scam, it's actually happened on multiple occasions. In the early nineties, dozens of slot machines were reprogrammed by Ronald Dale Harris, an employee of the Nevada Gaming Commission whose job it was to make sure such machines were fair.