Fortune Valley Casino Tells Woman She Can't Keep $42m Pokie Win

A US woman is recovering from shock after being told that her $42m win on a poker machine at the Fortune Valley Casino in Central City, Colorado was due to a computer malfunction and consequently she had won nothing.
Louise Chavez was playing on the poker machine when, as she described, “Lights were flashing, it sounded like a fire truck, the screen said ‘see attendant..There was a bunch of people coming up to and hugging me saying, ‘You won $42,000?’ and some said, ‘No, you won $42 million.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, my God!'”
However, Ms Chavez’s dream was about to come toppling rudely down after an arriving casino attendant  said, “Not so fast,” and told her the machine had malfunctioned and that she hadn’t even won a cent.
Instead, she was offered a free bed and breakfast for the night and the $23 she had put into the pokie reimbursed. Despite a sign on the machine saying no malfunctions will be paid, this is still a contentious issue and a full scale investigation will now be carried out by the Division of Gaming.
Commenting on the situation, Director of Marketing for Fortune Valley Joe Behm said: “In 15 years, we have never seen anything like this before. We have rules and regulations that we follow and it is now in the hands of the Division of Gaming.”
However, a similar incident in Florida resulted in an out of court settlement between the parties and in the meantime, Louise Chavez has her own take on what happened: “I put money in there to win. Regardless if it was $42 million, $42,000, $4,000, I feel that whatever that machine said, I should get it.”
It would seem that this tale is far from over and is now likely to be heading in the direction of the law courts. We will endeavour to bring you an update to this story as it occurs.