Iowa Casino Sued After $42 Million Slots Malfunction
February 3, 2012 2:36 pmAn 87 year-old lady from Illinois is suing the Isle of Capri Casinos company, after hitting a $42 million slots jackpot which turned out to be a computer malfunction.
The incident took place on July 2nd, last year, while McKee was playing the Miss Kitty slot machine at The Isle Casino in Waterloo, Iowa. Suddenly, the slot burst into a cacophony of ringing bells and flashing lights, with casino staff then rushing over to congratulate the lucky winner.
However, soon after McKee’s bubble was well and truly burst, especially after it was noted that the penny slot machine with a top payout of $10,000 was indicating she had won a staggering $41,797,550. The Isle Casino subsequently informed her of the computer error and that no money would be forthcoming.
Apparently, the errors are very rare and the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission investigate only one or two slot malfunctions each year across the whole of the state. Other US casino past winners, who then cruelly saw their winnings disappear, include Bill Seebeck and his $166 million “win” at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Tampa, Florida, in 2009 and a Colorado woman, who “won” $42.9 million in 2010 at the Fortune Valley Casino in Central City.
In the latest incident, The Isle Casino had the Miss Kitty slot machine analyzed by Gaming Laboratories International in August, with the company then concluding that a communication board error was “highly likely” the cause of the machine’s false bonus award.
Nevertheless, McKee isn’t ready to back down yet and last week her attorney Steve Enochian filed a suit claiming breach of contract and consumer fraud. Mr Enochian is also arguing that the casino didn’t act upon the programming updates available for the slot, and that its employees failed to disable the slots’s award bonus capability.