Yeah, and she was ready to be milked. I think it’s outrageous that the casino is refusing to pay out, but she makes 12 grand a year and was in there playing 20 dollar slot machines.
When I read this story, that kept jumping out at me. I see people all the time in convenience stores buying ten and twenty dollar scratch off tickets, and I’d bet most of them make less than twenty grand a year. I’m not rich by any means, but I make multiple multiples of what she makes and I would feel like an idiot putting twenty bucks in a slot machine.
Gambling at casinos has never appealed to me at all. I don’t believe in the Easter Bunny and I don’t believe I’m going to win big at a casino. When Texas first started the lottery I bought a few tickets; I’ve spent maybe forty bucks on one dollar tickets, total. I quit when I realized that I’d stacked up about five of them and hadn’t even bothered to check the numbers cause I knew I wouldn’t win. So I checked them and sure enough, I had something like three total number matches out of all five cards. The only way I’ll get rich is by working and investing and taking care of business. Apparently, though, gambling appeals to a lot of people
I think when someone makes so little money and has not real skills (for whatever reason) they see gambling as their only way out. And for this woman it appears it may have worked (assuming she sues and wins).
Your ignorance of slot machine gambling is showing. You jumped to the conclusion that this woman was gambling $20 a spin on a slot machine simply because the casino gave her back $20. I’ll give you even money that that was not the case.
First of all, they likely gave her back $20 because that’s the last bill denomination the machine recorded as being put in. She might well have put three $20 bills into that machine in succession, but unless she was playing with a tracking card, she can’t prove that. So they gave her back what they knew for certain she put in.
Second of all, the vast majority of the progressive machines (which pay off multi-million wins) are one cent machines with a min. bet of one cent and a max bet of $5.00 per spin. Moreover, anyone who plays the slots more than once in a lifetime understands that you have NO chance of winning the maximum jackpot unless you are wagering the maximum bet (it says so right on the machine). Consequently, if this woman was wagering less than the max bet, she couldn’t have REASONABLY expected to win the $42 mil. She would lose a civil suit if the casino produces the records showing that she was making small wagers. The only way she MIGHT prevail in court is IF the records show that she was making max bets. Given her income, I think that’s doubtful.
BTW, slot machines are capable of tracking every bill/ticket in, every wager on every spin, and if the players use their player’s card (in order to receive comps) they can track every dime the player wagered, won, and lost. Say what you will about the gaming commission siding with the casino, I can assure you that the commission would have demanded all of the electronic records for that machine and scrutinized them for proof that the machine did, indeed, malfunction. No maximum bet = no $42 mil.