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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.
(Score: 4, Informative) by vux984 on Thursday November 03 2016, @09:28PM
Assuming that it was not malicious modification but actually an error that caused the jackpot condition to not arise under circumstances when it should, how specifically are errors such as this detected?
In this case it wasn't a 'jackpot' it was a display bug. It displayed "-1" when she won $2.25 for some reason. (See my other reply to the AC.)
But to answer your question about a hypothetical malfunctioning that wasn't paying out...
http://gaming.nv.gov/index.aspx?page=62 [nv.gov]
Specifically for example, the section on Slots, pdf, page 19; in an random audit...
31 Using a listing of slot machines by type, select five machines. The sample selected should represent five of the most common types currently on the floor.
For each machine selected:
a. Obtain the theoretical hold worksheet (par sheet), test the actual reel strip settings and trace the payout schedule from the machine to the worksheet. Review the worksheets for propriety of theoretical hold.
[...]
c. Trace theoretical hold percentages from the worksheets to the slot analysis reports.
Note: For multi-game/multi-denomination slot machines, trace the calculated weighted theoretical hold percentage from the Regulation 14, Technical Standard 3 on-line slot metering system report to the weighted theoretical hold percentage in the slot analysis report. If a simple average theoretical hold percentage is used, trace the calculated simple average theoretical hold percentage from the Slots MICS #104 report to the slot analysis report.
[...]
d. Verify that the theoretical hold percentages recorded in the slot analysis report are the same within each type.
[...]
And if you skim through that checklist... they cover everything from cash handling, to looking for tampering, to verifying that terminated employees are denied access, to validating that the payout the slot machine is reporting matches the accounting; and that that all matches the coin-in trace log...
Separate from that, they also have to provide complete accounting for each slot machine; and if its total payout didn't match its programmed amount, that would trigger an investigation into that machine in particular, and likely, more broadly into that whole hardware/firmware release...