Picture the scene… you go out for a night with your friends, and decide to hit the local casino, play some cards, have a few drinks, just have some fun. No big deal. You sit down at a penny slot machine and start putting in your coins. You pull the arm, and…
JACKPOT!!!! $43 MILLION!!!
You scream! You jump around! You’re slack-jawed with shock. Whatever your reaction, the sign on the front of the machine says that you are richer than you ever imagined in your wildest dreams.
And then the Casino Manager shows up and says, “oh no, that‘s a mistake. The casino can’t afford that. The top jackpot for this machine is $250,000. Here’s a voucher for a room, stay the night and have breakfast on us.”
That actually happened. A woman in Colorado went to the Fortune Valley Casino, in Central City, CO, and played the penny slots. The machine she was playing announced that she’d won $42.9m, which was a tad more than the posted “top prize” of $251,000. The casino staff informed her that she really hadn’t won that much money, and reported the incident to the Colorado Gaming Commission, and are awaiting the results of an investigation into the situation. Meanwhile, Ms. Chavez, the woman scorned, received a free breakfast from the casino. She maintains that she should receive the entire prize granted by the machine, $42.9 million. The casino is loathe to pay out any more than the $251,000 that was the stated prize at the time. At this time, no lawsuit has been filed, and the casino maintains that it will do whatever it is told to do by the gaming commission.
Apparently, this isn’t the first time it’s happened, either. Another Colorado Casino settled out of court with a gamer who hit a jackpot of $164 million, when, in actuality, the prize should have been $6.06.
What do you think? Should Ms. Chavez receive the prize that the machine granted her – $43 million? Should she receive, as the casino states, $251,000, since that’s the top amount posted for those particular machines? Or should she be happy with her free breakfast, and just go away?
Us Girls..Our Views 
Boy, this is tough. I definitely feel this woman is owed money but determining the amount she’s owed is another issue. I don’t gamble very often and if I do, I’ll buy a few pull tabs and I’ve never been to a casino but in Canada they and VLT’s (video lottery terminals) and what you win is not only on the front of the machine but it prints you out a receipt and that’s what you take to exchange it for your winnings. I wonder what that told her? I can see why they can’t pay the millions but it didn’t say she won the other amount either. ????????
I’m just not sure but I feel she’s owed more than a free night’s stay and breakfast. It was their mistake after all and just the disappointment in those few minutes…can you imagine??
If I were them, I’d be getting new software. A casino shouldn’t have this happen. Certainly not more than once anyway.
I think she should receive the 251,000, She won the jackpot. And the machine made a amount mistake, but the jackpot is apparently 251,000, Dollars. But it is sour, if you think you win 42,9 millions Dollars and you find out it is a “mistake” of the machine. Wow.
I think she should get the 251000 since that is the limit on those machines…. the casino should totally pay for their mistakes! I’d be so mad if that happened to me.
Sounds to me like she should get the $251,000. And maybe a little extra for emotional pain & suffering. I am assuming there is some way she should have known what the max prize was for the machine. There is always a maximum, lady, let’s get real. I’ll take the $251,000 if you don’t want it.
it’s not like she’s out a ton of money here.. 251,000 is obviously way more than what she was dishing out to play the machines. She should be compensated sure for the disappointment but if its clearly posted that 251,000 is the top prize then she knew that was the most she’d get..
If it says top prize is $251,000 then that’s all she should get. I wouldn’t be greedy, there’s a good chance she wasn’t even supposed to win that!!!! Take the money and run!
Ive been to Central City Colorado itty bitty town. I’d say customer service it’s not to their benefit to have a patron so mad and unhappy I say pay $251,000 it’s only money.
I think she should get the top pay out of $251,000 and that’s it.
I also think that she should get the $251K, but I think that the casino needs to be slapped with a hefty fine. Or the manufacturer of the slot machine, or maybe both. (Of course, that fine would just go to the government, which is ridiculous, but that’s not the point here)
This is the second time this has happened in a Colorado Casino in a relatively short time. I think it speaks to a larger problem that the casinos can make a mistake, and the patron has to ‘suffer’ for it – not that she’d be suffering with $250K in her pocket, but that she, and that other patron, were told one thing, and then had to settle for another.
If this was the other way around, and a patron entered a casino and said to the dealer, “I can only afford to lose $200,” and then mistakenly bid and lost $5000, would the casino then go back and say, “Ok, just pay us the $200, because you told us that’s all you could afford, and you told us that up front”?
Man. If I was her? I’d just be happy with the 251,000.
I think she deserves the 250,000. She obivously won so give her the top prize. Like Nikki said, she should take that money and run and be happy with it!
I think she should win whatever the machine says she won 43 million! I tell you what, if the machine made the error in the lesser amount do you think anyone would question the machine was wrong. Perhaps they can learn from their mistake and make sure this dont ever happen again.
I tend to agree with you Vicki. That’s why I wondered if a receipt was printed out. If a casino has made this mistake more than once, tsk, tsk, shame on you. It’s your livelihood, fix it.