A Queens gambler thought she hit it big until managers at the Resorts World Casino said her $43 million slot machine win was a technical glitch — and tried to pay her off with a steak dinner. Katrina Bookman was already thinking about what she would do with all that money back in August as she took a selfie beside the slot machine that said: Printing Cash Ticket. $42,949,672.76.
[...] "Upon being notified of the situation, casino personnel were able to determine that the figure displayed on the penny slot was the result of an obvious malfunction - a fact later confirmed by the New York State Gaming Commission," a Resorts statement said. "Machine malfunctions are rare, and we would like to extend our apologies to Ms. Bookman for any inconvenience this may have caused."
Money from the casino, like state lottery proceeds, help grow the state's educaton[sic] fund. Officials said payout maximums are put in place to protect that money.
Although the machine's screen displayed the multimillion-dollar jackpot, the printed ticket showed $2.25.
Is it a coincidence that 2^32=4294967296? Full story at NY Daily News.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 02 2016, @07:25PM
"You want to fund math education with a program that only makes money because poor people aren't taught statistics?" [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 02 2016, @09:16PM
I don't know if that's the right complaint. Would you suggest teaching them statistics even if it does not alter their behavior? I would argue that the only thing that would stop poor people from playing the lottery is not being poor, and that wouldn't work in 100% of the cases. I feel that taxing it and trying to make some good of it is probably the best thing we can do.
(Score: 2) by ilPapa on Wednesday November 02 2016, @11:35PM
It's not just poor people who are not taught statistics.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/03/us/relentless-moral-crusader-is-relentless-gambler-too.html [nytimes.com]
http://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/june-2003/the-bookie-of-virtue/ [washingtonmonthly.com]
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: 2) by Appalbarry on Thursday November 03 2016, @01:09AM
Who needs statistics when we're going to teach every kid to code!