Slot Player Wins $55m Jackpot Ruling

Back in October 2009, a Vietnamese-American man hit a $55 million jackpot while playing on a slot machine at the Palazzo Club in Vietnam. Unfortunately for him, the casino located inside the city’s luxury Sheraton hotel refused to pay him the money after claiming the payout was generated by a fault.
Now, however, Palazzo Club operator the Dai Duong Company, has received the shock of a lifetime after being ordered by a Southern Ho Chi Minh City court to cough up the enormous sum.
The bizarre incident took place while US man Ly Sam was playing a slot machine whose maximum payout was apparently $46,000. Nevertheless, after hitting a jackpot Mr Sam saw the figure $55,542,291 show up on the slot, which the casino subsequently refused to accept, allegedly offering him the princely sum of $300, instead.
Undettered by the casino’s stance, Mr Sam then proceeded to take photos of the slot machine and collect  statements from gamblers who had witnessed the win. One person not prepared to sign a written confirmation, however, was the house manager who later claimed it was an unspecified machine fault.
In the build up to the trial, Ly Sam’s lawyer Tran Cong Ly Tao explained: “Dai Duong Joint Venture must pay the money. Players pay money to play and so when a player wins, the game operator must pay the winner…Even the Penal Code can be based on to charge the game operator with abusing trust to appropriate assets.”
At the trial this year, the court has now rejected the company’s argument, saying that no evidence had been produced to confirm  “software errors” in the slot machine records. As well as being ordered to pay the $55 million jackpot, an interest payment of $3.5 million was also added on to the company’s bill. Following the ruling, the company said it now plan to appeal the decision.