When an 87-year old grandmother of thirteen from Antioch, IL, bet a quarter on a “Miss Kitty” slot machine at the Isle of Capri Hotel Casino in Waterloo, Iowa, in 2011, she thought she’d hit the jackpot. Without warning, her screen suddenly displayed the message: “The reels have rolled your way! Bonus Award -- $41,797,550.16.”
Pauline McKee and her daughter excitedly summoned casino employees to collect what they thought was a $41.8 million jackpot - only to be told their prize was $1.85. Game rules said the maximum award was $10,000 and a sign on the machine warned “Malfunction voids all pays.”
The casino gave grandma McKee a $10 card to play while she waited for her millions, and they eventually comped rooms at the hotel for her relatives who were celebrating a family reunion with her at the casino. They requested a review by the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission, which sent the machine’s hardware and software to a laboratory for analysis. Testing concluded the machine had given an erroneous bonus message. "Too bad," the casino declared. "Malfunction voids all pays".
Was this fair? What do you think? The machine clearly malfunctioned, but the casino was not without blame. The Isle of Capri Casino in Waterloo had been warned by Aristocrat Technologies the prior year that machines using that hardware were susceptible to displaying mistaken “legacy bonus” awards on the screen. A bulletin from Aristocrat had recommended, but not required, that casinos disable the feature to prevent an error — something the casino in Waterloo, Iowa, didn’t do.
Mrs. McKee sued the Isle of Capri Casinos Inc. in 2012, but a district court judge dismissed the case the following October without it going to trial. This April on appeal the Supreme Court of Iowa upheld the earlier ruling, so a jury will not be able to decide if she was entitled to anything for her disappointing play. You'd think the casino would have at least given her the $10,000 maximum jackpot “Miss Kitty” pays, wouldn’t you? I don't think her family will be playing there again soon!
If you are not familiar with the "Miss Kitty" slot, You can watch the You Tube film of Dianaevoni playing the game at the Venetian in Las Vegas last June here. Spoiler alert: Dianaevoni doesn’t even come close to a $42 million pay!
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