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Jackpot or Mistake? Man Sues Casino over $1.6 Million 'Jackpot'
ABC News ^ | Oct. 25, 2007 | JIM AVILA, BETH TRIBOLET,DONNA CHOI and SCOTT MICHELS

Posted on 10/25/2007 6:20:52 AM PDT by Anti-Bubba182

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To: fish hawk
I hope by “those” you are meaning “all or any” casinos.

For me, it does. I've got a cousin whose been working in casinos for 20 years and his tales convinced me that gambling is just throwing money away.

However, casinos which are not bound by contract law would seem to be an even more foolish risk.

81 posted on 10/25/2007 10:47:55 AM PDT by FormerLib (Sacrificing our land and our blood cannot buy protection from jihad.-Bishop Artemije of Kosovo)
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To: MaxMax

Yeah he doesn’t look very happy for a guy who just won $1.6 mil. I think he knew full well it was an error. He could have walked a way with a nice $2500 but decided to push his luck.


82 posted on 10/25/2007 10:47:56 AM PDT by Callahan
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To: varyouga

Well, in all honesty, I have never heard of winning 1.6 Mil on a nickle slot machine... 25cents? maybe... $1.00, $5.00? Yes. But nickles?? That be a whole lotta Nickles come pourin’ out of that machine!!


83 posted on 10/25/2007 10:55:00 AM PDT by sit-rep
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To: Anti-Bubba182

This happens quite often at Indian casinos. I have no doubt it often is a ruse to avoid paying off big jackpots. Interesting that all the people who used that machine that day don’t get a refund for all the money they lost on the “malfunctioning” machine.


84 posted on 10/25/2007 10:58:54 AM PDT by joebuck
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To: joebuck
I guess I should have read the whole article at the source before posting. If the machine plainly said its maximum payout is $2,500 (which is pretty much the norm for a nickle slot machine) then the guy has no basis for saying he is intitled to a million plus. That's clearly a computer error. Just like if the bank accidently credits too much money to your account, you don't get to keep it once the error is discovered.

I remember this happend at a Harrahs' Indian casino a few years back but the casino's malfunction claim was so bogus, and the Tribal justice so corrupt, that Harrah's International (the parent corporation) went ahead an paid the lady off to stop the devestating publicity appearing in the gaming media.

85 posted on 10/25/2007 11:06:57 AM PDT by joebuck
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To: caver

Non Indian casinos


86 posted on 10/25/2007 11:14:01 AM PDT by wordsofearnest (Thompson-Hunter not Hunter Thompson.)
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To: wordsofearnest

Yea, I wasn’t reading the question right.


87 posted on 10/25/2007 11:20:09 AM PDT by caver (Yes, I did crawl out of a hole in the ground.)
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To: Gay State Conservative
In order for me to accept that there would have to be big signs at every entrance of the casino warning that each and every slot machine has a posted maximum payout and that maximum is posted,very prominently,on each machine.The warning would have to further state that *any* payout displayed by a machine that exceeds that machine's posted max will not be honored.

Amazing enough, most large casinos actually have huge signs out front that tell you how much you can expect to lose. I know in Vegas, a lot of the casinos have signs that will say, "OUR SLOTS PAY 95%" (the amount varies a bit). And, they are bragging when they tell you that you can only expect to get back .95 out of every dollar you play.

88 posted on 10/25/2007 11:24:07 AM PDT by TC Rider (The United States Constitution ? 1791. All Rights Reserved.)
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To: Gay State Conservative

“I spent about 30 minutes in Foxwoods and Mohegan”....”Connecticut.”

Then they have learned much in the past decade from the lousy example set by the ones out here. The ones I have been to were much smaller and out here in the SW. Plus, in CT they have a much larger market, short drive, etc. Visit one of the smaller local casinos and you will not be impressed. But then, after having been to Vegas and Laughlin I was also unimpressed with Atlantic City. WAY overpriced for rooms and if you ever go there do not even think of walking a block behind the casino’s....it would be like commiting suicide.


89 posted on 10/25/2007 11:47:09 AM PDT by Bogtrotter52 (Reading DU daily so you won't hafta)
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To: Gay State Conservative

Yup, anything on Indian land or within the confines of a structure owned by Native Americans is considered “Indian Country,” legally.

Anna Nicole Smith was “found unresponsive” on tribal land at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, FL, owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida. She was declared dead later, after leaving Indian Country, at a hospital in Broward County.

For a variety of reasons, some believe her drug overdose wasn’t an accident and needed to be investigated further.

However, because of where the overdose happened, and because the Seminole Tribe police and first responders declared it an “accidental death,” the hotel room was never treated as a crime scene.

Some of the needed investigative work was done, but the results have never been released, nor will they ever be, simply because the Seminoles decided against it. Bad PR for the Hard Rock Casino.

Not exactly “welfare recipients” in every sense of the word, the Seminoles of FL (not to be confused with the Seminoles of Oklahoma, thank you) have now bought out all the Hard Rock Cafes in the world.

Luckily for those of us concerned about this investigation, the California DOJ has gotten involved and recently conducted a raid on the offices of the CA doctors who prescribed the meds used. What happens next remains to be seen - but I doubt we’ll ever see the Seminole files, thanks to sovereign immunity (and I speak as one of the “sovereign”).


90 posted on 10/25/2007 12:04:52 PM PDT by Rte66
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To: Anti-Bubba182
The machine is only supposed to award a maximum of $2500. There is a disclaimer on the machine saying that the max payout is $2500.

The $16 million award shown on the screen is obviously a malfunction.

According to the disclaimer, that voids the transaction.

What he is entitled to is his nickel back, not $16 million dollars.

The casino made him a very generous offer of paying him the maximum jackpot that machine is supposed to provide. That means they offered to pay him the most money he could have reasonably expected to be able to earn from that machine from that transaction.

The casino didn't try and screw him. He's trying to screw the casino through the lawsuit lottery. His claim has no merit, but he's hoping to get a sympathetic jury to take money from the big, bad casino and give it to the poor little guy, despite the casino already offering him more than they were obligated.

91 posted on 10/25/2007 12:05:36 PM PDT by untrained skeptic
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To: Rte66
Anna Nicole Smith was “found unresponsive” on tribal land at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, FL, owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida.

You know,it's funny that you mention the Seminoles in Hollywood.When I was a kid...about 50 years ago....our family vacationed in Ft Lauderdale and one day we went to Seminole reservation not far from where we stayed (I assume it was in Hollywood) that featured alligator "wrestling".I can remember as if it was yesterday a guy standing over a gator and showing the audience his hand and telling us that his finger was missing because a gator had bitten it off.

I haven't thought about that in decades!

92 posted on 10/25/2007 12:14:47 PM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Wanna see how bad it can get? Elect Hillary and find out.)
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To: georgiabelle

You just convinced me to never step in an indian casino again. I only went to Foxwoods once and the machines were super tight. I try to go to Vegas every Spring and thats The only place i’ll go now. I’m not much of a gambler anyways.


93 posted on 10/25/2007 1:22:59 PM PDT by mowowie
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To: varyouga
How would a player know if it’s really a malfunction or just the Casino not paying? Many jackpots are probably not paid using this excuse.

At one point in my career, I did the software for one of the first video poker machines ("Talking Draw Poker 5000" for the Vegas market). Slot machines installed in Nevada have to pass a rigorous series of state tests, which include having your random number generator certified my a mathematician. Software errors are generally obvious, and show up as a consistent pattern of easy payoffs. There is a subculture of players who spend their entire lives in smoky casinos trying odd combinations of buttons on every new type of machine, hoping to find a software error. When an "exploit" shows up, casino staff find about it in short order by checking the pattern of play.

If this happened to a player in Nevada, he could subpoena the casino's logs. If no error pattern is evident, the casino could not evade payment. IN any case, the bad publicity would be so massive that no sane casino would do such a thing.

Reservations, on the other hand, are out of state jurisdiction. Since NV (and possibly NJ) are the only states with a gaming enforcement apparatus, slot play in any other jurisdiction should be considered as strictly for entertainment. Reservation casinos are a sucker bet!

94 posted on 10/25/2007 2:15:41 PM PDT by BlazingArizona
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To: Wolfie
The machine has a disclaimer saying the max payout is $2500. I’d say a message telling you you’ve won over a million is a pretty good indicator of a malfunction.

This is another factor. The only slots with million-dollar payouts are "progressives", in which a large number of machines feed a common jackpot pool. If this machine is not a progressive, there is no way it could pay a million.

95 posted on 10/25/2007 2:18:04 PM PDT by BlazingArizona
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To: Renegade

Oh, God, Mount Scary. I worked there in the 80’s when I was in high school. It was an absolute trash magnet then. I can’t imagine that adding gambling helped.


96 posted on 10/25/2007 2:27:04 PM PDT by Malacoda (A day without a pi$$ed-off muslim is like a day without sunshine.)
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To: Bogtrotter52
The ones I have been to were much smaller and out here in the SW. Plus, in CT they have a much larger market, short drive, etc.

True.The ones in CT are an easy drive from Greater Boston,all of RI,much of CT and metro New York City.

Visit one of the smaller local casinos and you will not be impressed. But then, after having been to Vegas and Laughlin I was also unimpressed with Atlantic City. WAY overpriced for rooms and if you ever go there do not even think of walking a block behind the casino’s....it would be like commiting suicide.

Everything I've heard of Atlantic City these days suggests that it's a God-awful slum that only a fool would get within 50 miles of.

97 posted on 10/25/2007 2:54:01 PM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Wanna see how bad it can get? Elect Hillary and find out.)
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To: Safetgiver

When the machine fails to give out a jackpot- do they detect the error and give out that amount anyway?

I doubt it... I’m guessing they just keep your money.


98 posted on 10/25/2007 3:55:15 PM PDT by SteveMcKing
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To: SteveMcKing

I don’t know. This happened a number of times in Erie and from what I heard (supposedly from the newspaper)they comp you, give a couple hundred in scrip and hope you don’t go public. In some of the other places in PA (Scranton, Meadowlands, etc.) I don’t know what they do, but it is all kept quiet, very quiet.


99 posted on 10/25/2007 4:56:04 PM PDT by Safetgiver (So simple, even a Muslim can do it.)
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To: Malacoda

Check this out . Just opened on Monday !

http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=NEWS0942


100 posted on 10/25/2007 4:57:15 PM PDT by Renegade
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