Katrina Bookman Katrina Bookman had just won $43 million on
a New York City Slot Machine!
All of her dreams were about to come true.
However, the casino had other ideas.
Legal battles ensued, and the word 'Malfunction' quickly became Katrina’s least favorite
word of all time!
“Lucky” Spin When Katrina Bookman walked into the Resorts
World Casino in Jamaica Queens, New York City, she planned to play a cheap game to blow off
a little steam.
She avoided the more expensive machines, like the Megabucks slots with a $100 minimum to
play.
Instead, she went and found a relatively inexpensive penny slot machine, the Sphinx Wild.
Katrina put her pennies in and played to win.
While all gamblers dream of winning big, few truly believe it'll ever happen.
Besides, how can you be sure about a luck-based game?
This probably made it all the more astonishing to her and her partner when they won.
Instead of the standard payout, a different message popped up, "PRINTING CASH TICKET:
$42,949,672 PLEASE REMOVE TICKET".
Katrina later told interviewers that she couldn't help making plans with the money then and
there.
She even mentally put aside $1 million to make her son's dream of owning a barbershop
come true.
Official Ruling Katrina's dreams were brought to an abrupt
end when casino managers ushered her off the gambling floor.
Of course, as anyone would, she asked about her winnings.
The Casino told her to come back tomorrow for the official ruling.
The only thing she expected to hear was, here are your winnings Ms. Bookman.
Instead, she got a vague answer and was sent home.
With the terminology "official ruling" being used, it was clear that the winnings were
in question, which couldn't have been easy for Katrina.
The would-be millionaire told interviewers that she grew up very poor and bounced around
foster homes and was even homeless for a time.
She also raised four children as a single mother, so the struggle is something she knows.
Poor Katrina must have felt as if she'd been saved from all her struggles.
She was quoted as saying, "I kept thinking about my family.
The struggle I've been through, it's hard to cope."
She knew that she was about to change her family's destiny, but it was all called into
question.
It must have been hard to sleep that night as she thought about her winnings.
Judging from the picture she took before the ticket finished printing, it's safe to assume
that she told multiple people.
She more than likely called her family and told them that she would make all their dreams
come true.
The thought of letting them all down would have been a hefty burden to bear.
You are guaranteed a payout if you win a game in a casino, right?
Well, this isn't actually the case.
There are quite a few situations when a casino can withhold your winnings and send you out
empty-handed.
The first and seemingly most simple one is if you do not have a valid ID . Before a casino
gives you any money, they have to run a check on you and can't if you don't have identification.
The second can happen when they run your name through the GIP to see if you owe any money
to the government.
If you're flagged in the system, then your earnings go toward your debt.
The last and most relevant one to our story is if a slot machine malfunctions.
While it may seem unfair to the would-be winners, casinos are not obligated to pay due to some
business-friendly laws.
Nothing Unsure of what would happen but determined
to get her winnings, Katrina went back to the Resorts World Casino and spoke to a representative.
She knew something was wrong but wasn't ready for the news she was about to receive.
When she asked the Rep, "what'd I win?', he responded, "you didn't win nothing."
At the very least, it seemed like an inappropriate double negative, and at the worst, it crushed
her dreams.
This realization was like a slap in the face to Katrina.
Her ideas of salvation were snatched away in an instant.
In her mind, the Casino had taken away her power to make her family's dreams come true.
This loss had to have been devastating for the single mother of four.
The Rep told her that instead of the $43 million she thought she won, her spin was actually
worth $2.25.
She went from plans on buying whatever she wanted to plans on buying a dollar menu burger.
She also said that they offered her a free steak dinner which was like adding insult
to injury.
Katrina couldn't believe what she was told and refused any offers on the Casino's part.
She left without any winnings that day, but she wasn't done yet.
Katrina was going to contact a lawyer and see if she had a case to sue the Casino.
Casino Version The Casino seems like a bully at first glance,
but with even a minor glance at their side of things, it becomes easy to understand why
they didn't pay Katrina the winnings.
The important thing to note is the machine Katrina was playing on.
Its malfunction was evident to the Casino from the start.
If Katrina had claimed the prize money, she would have broken the record for highest slot
payout.
However, the only type of slots that go that high have progressive jackpots.
All that means is that for every person that loses the game, the jackpot increases.
The Sphinx Wild Slot is an inexpensive slot machine with a maximum payout of $6,500 and
no progressive jackpot.
She couldn't win that money; it was impossible.
While $6500 isn't a terrible prize by any means, it's a far cry from the millions Katrina
thought she had won.
The Casino's findings were later confirmed when the New York State Gaming Commission
determined the machine to be faulty.
All slot machines come with a sticker that states, "Malfunction Voids All Pays and Plays,"
this just means that the Casino isn't liable for any situations caused by a faulty machine.
The whole situation may seem cruel, but the rule has to be in place when machines are
involved.
For example, let's pretend a roulette dealer accidentally calls out your number instead
of the actual winning number.
Their mistake—or malfunction, if you will— doesn't mean you’d get paid.
Believing you would get paid in that situation is a bit silly and naive.
The Casino shouldn’t have to pay out when the prize isn't actually won.
The Nevada Gaming Board has ruled that a casino is not liable for misunderstandings caused
by a malfunctioning machine.
There reasoning behind this is relatively simple, the game is meant to pick a random
array of symbols when a button is pushed or a handle is pulled.
A malfunction can interrupt this process, changing the random order that the symbols
would end up in.
Some of the confusion is caused by manufacturers designing the machines to briefly align on
the jackpot when malfunctioning.
While that seems like a really dumb design flaw, it happens.
The Gaming Board wants the game to be played fairly on all sides, and a malfunctioning
machine can no longer facilitate the game.
Bookman Version With the Nevada Gaming Board's ruling, it
was very clear that the machine was busted.
However, this wouldn’t slow Katrina or her lawyer down one bit as they tried to get her
prize money.
The argument became about two things.
The first was an argument stating that the Casino's negligence could have caused the
malfunction, making them liable for some compensation.
The second was whether the Casino should pay damages for the stress that the situation
caused Katrina.
In an interview with ABC News, her lawyer, Alan Ripka, stated, "You can't claim a machine
is broken because you want it to be broken.
Does that mean it wasn't inspected?
Does it mean it wasn't maintained?
And if so, does that mean that people that played there before Bookman had zero chance
of winning?"
Ripka requested answers to these questions and the exact nature and name of the malfunction,
but he was denied at every turn.
The Resorts World casino kept very tight-lipped about their side of things and wouldn't give
Ripka an inch.
IGT, the company that makes the slot machines, was also named as a defendant in the case.
They, too, refused to comment.
Ripka and his client's whole argument hinged on the Casino being at fault for not maintaining
the machines.
However, this is a weak argument.
The machines run 24/7, and the possibility of them breaking down is too large for preventative
measures to be effective.
After getting no answers, Ripka believed negligence to be the cause of all of this.
He said that his client suffered "mental anguish" and "significant" financial loss due to the
whole situation.
He was quoted as saying, "They win, and the house doesn't want to payout; to me, that's
unfair.
The machine takes your money when you lose.
It ought to pay it when you win."
While going after the whole $43 million that Katrina's ticket said she won, Ripka seemingly
knew that his client would never win that.
Instead, he told interviewers his client should get the max payout that her machine could
give, which was $6,500.
Katrina readily agreed with him and hoped this would be the least she was awarded.
Katrina's case was settled out of court, and nobody but those involved know what they agreed
on.
Did Katrina get her money?
Did the Casino just shove her to the side?
If she didn't get some kind of satisfactory compensation, we imagine she'd be very vocal
about it.
It's safe to assume that they settled and had to keep it quiet so scammers wouldn't
try to use it as a loophole to rip off casinos.
Other Malfunctions This definitely isn't the first or last time
malfunctioning slot machines make headlines.
Behar Melaku's case was an interesting one.
On the machine he was using, you need five jackpots to win.
He only got four, but the slot still told him he had won $58 million.
This was obviously an error for multiple reasons.
One, he didn't even get the win condition which is hitting five jackpots.
Two, not only was this payout higher than the machine could give, it would have also
been breaking the law.
In Austria, the law states that the maximum you can win is 2 million.
This case was so obviously a malfunction that Melaku didn't have a leg to stand on.
Another of these cases involves a man named Joe Pepitone.
He’s a butcher from Las Vegas, and Joe tried his luck at a casino one night after work.
He thought he hit it big when the reels hit the jackpot, and his machine told him his
prize was $463,895 dollars!
Unfortunately, a jamming error caused the machine to roll its reels backward to reset
itself.
This malfunction made it seem like Joe won the jackpot, but it only counts if it were
part of the machine's Random Number Generation.
It seems like no matter what you do, if there’s a malfunction, you're not getting paid!
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