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posted by martyb on Wednesday November 02 2016, @04:39PM   Printer-friendly
from the I-just-won-the-Jack-Not...-oh-wait dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 2) by Capt. Obvious on Wednesday November 02 2016, @09:24PM

    by Capt. Obvious (6089) on Wednesday November 02 2016, @09:24PM (#421837)

    And the rules allow the casino to legally skim a nice big percentage

    What? Or are you referring to the house edge built into games. Because it sounds like you're talking about skimming off the winner's jackpot.

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by TheRaven on Thursday November 03 2016, @10:41AM

    by TheRaven (270) on Thursday November 03 2016, @10:41AM (#421998) Journal
    Slot machines have a payout percentage written on them. It's typically around 80%, i.e. for every $1 someone puts into the machine the machine will pay out 80¢. The casino keeps 20¢. It's not skimmed from the jackpot, but the jackpot is taken from that 80%. If someone wins a $100,000 jackpot then other people will have paid in a total of $125,000 and received nothing.
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    • (Score: 2) by Capt. Obvious on Thursday November 03 2016, @07:56PM

      by Capt. Obvious (6089) on Thursday November 03 2016, @07:56PM (#422218)

      Right. For future reference, the term "house edge" refers to exactly that percentage. Its the average/expected amount the house will keep of every bet laid.

      I don't expect anyone thought casinos lost money (normally), and since their business is gambling, it seems obvious that it has profits built in. This by no means implies anything other than services cost money, so services that persist for a long time either have a benefactor or make money.