Lucky Shot

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/Story?id=3772215&page=1

A one arm bandit declares the man a winner of the Jackpot at an Indian Casino. The Casino congratulates him, then pulls him into a side room and tells him they will give him $2500 as his winning was a "Computer Malfunction." Because of it being an Indian Casino and treated as a separate outside "Nation" what would you do?

Lucky Shot

AMosely

He should sue them, and they should have to prove that the machine malfunctioned, or that the maximum payout they claim (of $2500) was clearly posted. I once saw a documentary on slot machines - these are not simple machines.

Slots are for suckers though.

Pokerface

It seems as though there was a posted $2500 max on the slots. So long as it's a conspicuous notice, I think that the payout was obviously (to a reasonable onlooker) an error.

As noted in the story, while it's nice to pull the Chance card that says "Bank Error In Your Favor", in the real world you're expected to help correct the error.

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Grunt 70

Seems to me the key factor is the disclaimer that says max payout is $2,500 and anything over that will be considered a mistake. Caveat Emptor. Forget for a moment that they aren't under the jurisdiction of American law...This guy doesn't stand a chance in court of winning the amount in question. Now if that disclaimer hadn't been present...than I think your talking a different story. I that were me I'd go with what the disclaimer says, take the $2,500 and go on my happy way.

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TheFeniX

How do you think they get those "millions of dollars?" By letting you win?

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Switch

Native casinos make so much money that they could pay this out and not notice the loss at all. Tax free gambling profit. Free money in the most literal sense.

If it was conspicuously posted that 2500 is the maximum pay out, then there is certainly a fair case in saying thats all they're going to give him. If thats not the case, then the man should be getting his jackpot.

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TheFeniX

I know of few businesses, even those as "rich" as Microsoft or Wal-Mart, that would blow off 1.6 million dollars and not notice the loss "at all."

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El_Gringo_Grande

I have a friend that actually bought a couple of these things to learn how they work.

Yes, he has a gambling problem.

Anyway a person can program the odds to anything they desire. I think all the way to a win every time to you will never win.

So as far as the case goes. Well, if they have a sign they may be off the hook for that particular payoff. But you could probably sue for emotional damages or something. It could go something like "The casino knew the machines had problems by reporting huge winning sums. They had to know otherwise why the sign? They also know that people, gamblers especially, dream of hitting it big. They had to know that to take away a jackpot of such a size would be very hard on a person. So why leave the defective machines in play? Either they are incompetent/lazy and should pay for that. Or they use those big, false, payouts to attract customers. That is, in effect, false advertising."

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TheFeniX

Gambling institutions change their odds all the time. I'm not sure, but I think it's required by law for them to inform the customer of their odds of winning.

I remember my dad talking about the odds at the casino in St. Croix being something like 1% (as compared to most casinos in Vegas ranging from 2% to 5%) return on your money.

For slots, this is easy. It's just software. On games like BlackJack, they can affect the odds by not showing the dealer's cards or something to that effect. Not that I know for sure as I stay away from gambling for the most part. Example: I bring 20 bucks with the intention of losing my 20 bucks.

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Iamthefallen

By making it fun to lose.

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Daxx

Yeah. Never really got into that whole "loosing is fun" bit.

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Iamthefallen

It's entertainment like anything else. You can spend money going to the movies with your girlfriend/wife, or you can spend it at a craps table, getting free drinks, surrounded by people in equally good mood laughing and having fun.

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ShooDaddy

Businesses...United States...1.6 Billion...9 billion....

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CingularDuality

I don't think they have to advertise the odds that their machines are set at, but most casinos will have their "loose" section of slots and will promote heavily the fact that they have, say, a 96% payout. Meaning that, over time, 96% of the money put into the machine will be paid back out as prizes. Networked machines with a progressive jackpot are also a heavily promoted as they can be set to a much lower payout (80%) and the huge jackpot serves to attract people.

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