Casino slots machine fools couple with wrong value
An American couple have seen their trip to a casino turned upside down after a slots machine malfunctioned and showed them the wrong jackpot amount.
Jim and Mary-Anne McMahon were visiting the Wildwood Casino in Cripple Creek, Colorado when they realised every slots player's dream - hitting the jackpot for a multi-million pound prize.
But sadly all was not as it seemed. Initially, the total winnings counter read $1,627 (£1,131) before jumping to $11m (£7.6m). When they approached casino staff to collect their big slots prize, they were told it was simply displaying the reset amount due to a problem with the machine.
State gaming authorities promptly seized the slots machine and declared that the couple had won the smaller amount.
Reset value
Attempting to explain the situation on behalf of the casino, a spokesperson told Colorado TV station KWGN that what the McMahons had seen was the reset value. He said:
"They actually won $1627.82. The $11 million was what we call a reset value. It's what the jackpot would have been after the prize was claimed."
Jim McMahon was not satisfied with the explanation, claiming it was simply a convenient way for the casino to avoid paying the $11m prize. He even went as far as to suggest that the casino could attempt to "come up with another story" the next time somebody hits the jackpot.
Of course, players of Kerching's online casino games do not run the risk of suffering the same fate as the McMahons because our great titles are completely tamperproof. To prove the point, we've already had several big-money winners so far in 2010.