I enjoy quality time at a casino every now and then. My game of choice is blackjack; I rarely if ever partake in the slot machines as game that relies entirely on luck holds no appeal to me. When I’ve had a spare $5 bill handy I’ve given it a whirl but for the most part I’m fine with letting the seniors dominate.
Having said that, as a gambler, the following story is an outrage. If losing all your money is the worst thing that can happen to a person in a casino then I think this has to be the second worst:
Hoffman was playing the nickel slot machines at the Sandia Resort and Casino on an Indian reservation in New Mexico when he appeared to hit the jackpot: the machine said he won nearly $1.6 million.
“I became ecstatic,” he said.
But the ecstasy was short-lived. Hoffman says in a lawsuit filed earlier this year that Sandia refused to pay, claiming that the machine malfunctioned. Instead, he said, they gave him about $385 and a few free meals at the casino.
“I won money, fair and square, and I’ve been cheated out of my winnings,” Hoffman told ABC News.
The casino says it’s not responsible for what it describes as a computer error and says it offered Hoffman the maximum payout of $2,500 for that particular slot machine. But, a jury may never decide who is right. Lawyers told ABC News that gamblers like Hoffman may have little legal recourse against Native American casinos, which sometimes operate beyond the reach of U.S. courts.
Can you imagine the highs and lows of this experience? Thinking you’ve just won well over $1 million and then finding out they are refusing to pay it? If I was in this situation I’m quite sure I’d flip out.
The nickel slot said he’d won $1,597,244.10. Patrons and casino employees came to congratulate him. He even got a marriage proposal, Hoffman said. But, soon he was asked to come to an executive conference room, where he says he was told the casino refused to pay.
A casino employee “became quite intimidating with me, pointed his finger in my face and said, ‘You didn’t win. We’re not paying you any money. Do you understand what I’m telling you? You’re not getting any money,’” Hoffman said.
A technician from the slot machine manufacturer arrived at the casino within the hour and the casino cordoned off the machine.
“I was a winner and I walked out empty handed,” Hoffman said.
A technical report said the slot machine’s computer malfunctioned, and incorrectly made it appear as if Hoffman won more than the machine is able to pay out. The slot machine has a disclaimer that says it pays a maximum of $2,500 and warns that malfunctions void all winnings, said Paul Bardacke, Sandia’s lawyer.
The technical report, prepared for the casino by Gaming Laboratories International, showed that the machine’s memory malfunctioned, causing the slot to treat a losing spin as a winner — what the report called an “erroneous jackpot.” The machine manufacturer, International Gaming Technology, blamed the problem on a software program.
Bardacke said Sandia offered Hoffman the maximum payout of $2,500.
“If he had gone into a bank and deposited $1,000 and got back a deposit slip that said a million dollars, he doesn’t get to keep the balance,” said Bardacke. “It doesn’t work that way.”
“He knew it was wrong; he knew it was incorrect,” Bardacke said of the “jackpot.” “That’s why he took a picture of it immediately.”
Hard to know whether or not to believe the casino here. On the one hand they clearly would prefer not to pay out $1.6 million and so you could see them doing something dirty; on the other not paying winners is not really a good PR move for a casino. I agree with this assessment completely:
Cases like Hoffman’s may still be bad for business, gambling experts say. “The players have to have an enormous amount of trust in the casino and in the slot machine,” said slot machine expert John Robison.
“The player cannot go inside and look at that random number generator and figure out what really happened on the machine,” he said. “If the machine tells you you won, well then I think you’ve won.”
Pretty sure I won’t be hitting up the slots anytime soon.