$8000 or a cool million
Many of you probably haven’t been aware of what has been going on with a potential $1 million dollar jackpot at the IP Biloxi. After reading the below article, I am not sure which way to agree. Of course if I was playing I would want the $1 million, but she most likely knew it wasn’t a part of the progressive bank..
BILOXI - The Mississippi Gaming Commission is scheduled to decide Thursday whether a disputed jackpot at IP Casino is worth $1 million or $8,000.
The slot machine was mistakenly programmed to be a stand-alone progressive.
Agents with the Mississippi Gaming Commission and Executive Director Larry Gregory determined the gambler should be paid the million dollars, but the casino appealed that decision. Joan Myers, a hearing examiner with the agency, ruled in favor of the casino. Now, the gambler is asking the three-member commission to review that decision.
Florida Eash was gambling on a $5 Double Top Dollar machine on Feb. 19, 2006, when she hit a jackpot. A display on the machine lit up informing her she had won $1 million. The machine also sent a signal to the casino’s slot accounting system indicating a $1 million progressive jackpot was pending.
However, the signage on the machine showed that the payout should have been $8,000.
“The investigation ultimately revealed that the machine had been mistakenly programmed as a stand-alone progressive machine having a base progressive jackpot of $1 million,” the hearing examiner’s report states. “This error occurred by an IGT technician’s mistaken selection of the stand-alone progressive option from among the machine’s Key Chip Options.”
IGT is a manufacturer and provider of slot machines to casinos.
Myers ruled that the contract between the gambler and the casino is on the machine’s signage.
“The signage on the machine Ms. Eash was playing showed clearly and unequivocally that a combination of three Double Diamond symbols on the payline with two credits ($10) wagered would entitle the player to winnings of $8,000, provided that no machine malfunction occurred,” Myers wrote. “This provision constituted one of the express terms of the contract between Ms. Eash and Imperial Palace when she played the machine. Under the express terms of her contract with Imperial Palace, Ms. Eash was entitled to exactly $8,000 for such a winning combination, no more and no less.”
Eash testified at the hearing that when she plays slots she doesn’t look at the signage to see what amounts she can win. She said she relies on what the machine tells her she has won.
Eash bet around $52,000 at the IP Casino between December 2005 and February 2006, according to the examiner’s report.
Source: Sun Herald
More information will be posted here a the Biloxi Blog once I receive it.