Slot Machine Error Pays Nothing

Many people don’t know it, but if they are playing the slot machine and there is some sort of internal error then the casino does not have to pay whatever amount of money that the machine is showing you have won. It says it on every slot machine that in case of technical error the casino is not liable for the funds shown on the display. Stephen Wilkinson of Feasterville just found that out the hard way.

Wilkinson was playing the slot machines when his name came up on the screen and it said that he had won $102,000. Then casino officials came over and looked at the slot machine and said that in fact he had not won the displayed amount. They offered him two comps for the buffet instead, and pointed out that since it was an error they actually owed him nothing.

Wilkinson filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, feeling that he was due more than a couple of comps, and the board is now investigating. Turns out that it may not have been an error with the slot machine; that in fact, it was an error in their internal controls instead. If that is the case, the board has said that the casino will be “heavily fined and sanctioned” so as to deter them from making the same error twice. They also said that they did not know what sort of recourse Wilkinson had, that they had to investigate further.

The casino said that under normal circumstances, the casinos do not have to pay out when there is an error with their slot machines. Another official from the casino said that it is common for this type of slot machine error - that it happens “every day in Atlantic City.” However, a spokesperson for the New Jersey Casino Control Commission said that it doesn’t. They said that a malfunction of that size and type for a slot machine does not usually happen and that they could not think of an instance when it had happened.

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