The venture is built on Alex’s talent for reverse engineering the algorithms-known as pseudorandom number generators, or PRNGs-that govern how slot machine games behave. The time had come for an exit strategy.īut Alex couldn’t just cash out as if he owned an ordinary startup because his business operates in murky legal terrain. He pined for the days when he could devote himself solely to tinkering with code, his primary passion. Petersburg firm was thriving, he’d grown weary of dealing with payroll, hiring, and management headaches. Late last autumn, a Russian mathematician and programmer named Alex decided he’d had enough of running his eight-year-old business.
