[cassiepaper]

The game (a blackjack game) was written in such a way because that was Mel's style and approach a really smart person, as described in the article.

The idea behind it was to annoy the marketing people, disregard their request, and help the machine win every game, instead of the other way around.

[FatalLogic]

That's all true, but: a gifted coder is ordered to make a change he feels is wrong, he refuses, and he also writes ingeniously obfuscated code which nobody else can alter?

We don't know his motives, or if the clever 'hack' was added before or after his disagreement with the marketing people.

But it sounds like more than a coincidence