Imagine winning a million-dollar jackpot prize. Now, imagine being told that your win was not legitimate and that you won’t actually get any money. It’s a shocking situation, and it happens more often than you think at land-based casinos.
The most recent case of a slots software malfunction occurred this week, when Jennifer Carmin when a slot machine that she was playing at the Blue Chip Casino flashed that she had won a $28 million jackpot. A staff member immediately approached her and called a manager, who told her not to touch the machine and that they would be shutting the machine down.
According to a series of diagrams released by the casino, the display had not indicated that Ms Carmin had won a prize since it did not play the celebratory jackpot bells. Instead, it was showing bonus credits.
The casino claimed it had posted a disclaimer so that players would know if there was a software malfunction, and offered her two steak dinners as a consolation.
There is no word yet on whether or not she will seek a larger payout.
In 2011, Berhar Merlaku thought that he had won a $57 million jackpot at a casino in Austraia. When he approached staff to claim his prize, he was informed that there was a slots jackpot malfunction and that he would not receive his prize because Austrian casinos are not permitted to award jackpots worth more than €2. Instead, he was offered $100 and a free meal.
Eventually, he took the casino operator to court and was awarded $1 million in damages. In 2012, there was another significant software malfunction at a casino.
When Pauline McKee was playing a Miss Kitty slot machine, the game’s screen displayed $41 million – but the top jackpot of the game was only $10 000. As such, the casino denied her the $41 million prize and she was offered the $10 000 as a consolation.
Compared to the other two consolation offers, this is actually fairly generous. However, Ms McKee has still filed a lawsuit against the casino.
This seems to be a fairly common situation at land-based casinos. We have yet to hear about a similar case happening in the online casino world.
It seems that online gaming operators have a better grasp on their software, so there is not much opportunity for their games to malfunction.
