Have you ever imagined how would it feel to hit a $US57 million jackpot in a casino’s slot machine? Must be amazing. Now, what would you do if the casino wanted to avoid paying you because of a “software glitch”?
That’s exactly what happened to this man, 26-year-old Behar Merlaku.
Merlaku won the big jackpot playing a slot machine in a casino in Bregenz, Austria. The machine screamed the winning, all bells, whistles and flashing lights. But when he went to claim his prize, the casino owners said it was all a mistake, a “software glitch.” They argued that the jackpot went off erroneously and that Merlaku’s game didn’t hit the required five matches. He only got four, they said. So instead of $US57 million, he got a hundred dollars and a free meal.
A hundred dollars.
And a free meal.
Instead of fifty-seven million dollars.
I would get so mad I would torch the place. Or at least pee on the carpet.
The owners say it’s a software glitch, but wouldn’t it be possible the mistake was on the display instead of the result? Perhaps the rolling mechanism got jammed and the machine correctly called the jackpot while showing an erroneous symbol.
Obviously, Merlaku thinks that the whole thing is a ruse. He argues that, if the machine called the prize, then it is a prize and he should get his millions. That’s why he has sued the company that owns the casino.
I hope he wins for real this time. [Daily Mail]
Base photo by Elaine Davis/Shutterstock
Matt
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 11:08 AMThis story appears all the time. The only people allowed to gamble at a casino are the patrons. The casino uses the old “Hey, that wasn’t meant to happen” defense and is allowed to get away with it.
C.S
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 11:30 AMThis is exactly why I don’t use the machines, if you win big, you are going to cheated out of it.
david
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 11:48 AMJust wait, in 3 months time the new will read “26-year-old Behar Merlaku makes out of court settlement with Casio for undisclosed amount”.
They should have offered him a million, he would have taken it and shut up.
Just This Guy ...
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 12:30 PMAnd people still can’t understand the fact that the House will ALWAYS win.
That’s why they’re in the business after all.
If you’ve got money spare enough to gamble with (prepared to risk losing), you’re not in a position to get upset if things don’t go your way really.
That said, boo on the House anyway
Luke
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 2:36 PMThis happens all the time, most recently a woman in the Adelaide casino won some money on the pokies but the casino refused to pay her because the machine she walked up to said it had some credits left, so she decided to play and won the jackpot, the casino refused because they said that the money in the machine wasnt hers.
But its always quite convenient that when a large sum of money is won from these machines the casino always coughs up some excuse of why they aren’t going to pay up.
InformedGamer
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 2:45 PM“It also cited Austrian law which said jackpots cannot normally be higher than two million euros.”
Oh how convenient…
Fenix
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 3:57 PMThats why jackpots over there are either $100 or $2,000,001 hahaha… jerks