Slots Colorado woman WINS $1.2 million

The Riviera gets some good press!!!

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2013/mar/08/colorado-woman-hits-12-million-jackpot-riviera/

 

Thats odd, just a few weeks ago people were whining that the progressive slots were rigged to not hit at the riviera.

 

Maybe they were right and their complaining got the Riv to unrig the machines. :evillaugh

 

How do they actually pay out these jackpots? Is it over 20 years?

 

I was wondering the same thing the other day. Is it a check? Paid over time? I saw a video of a guy hitting an 800K jackpot at the Borgata and he was carrying a shopping bag full of cash (I assumed all the jackpot money) surrounded by security.

Hopefully I will have this problem some day...

 

It depends on the jackpot. The biggest ones (like Megabucks) are annuities.

 

I believe this is paid out over 20 years.

The golden gate has this machine and while I didn't hit anything over a couple hundred bucks I did get some good play out of this machine. It's got a 2 person bench so the wife and I can take turns smacking the buttons.

 

I thought it was similar to the lottery where you have the option.
The lump sum doesn't have just taxes taken out either.
If the jackpot was $10 million and you opt for a lump sum you got something ridiculous like only $3.5 million.

Would love to find this out and confirm first hand.

 

All large progressive jackpots are paid out over 20 years. Next time you're in a casino, look real closely on the machine, and it has it in VERY fine print somewhere. My wife's grandfather recently hit the progressive on WoF .25 cent machine. They flew in a rep from the slot manufacturer immediately to verify and make sure it wasn't a malfunction (it took a few hours for them to get there). The jackpot was at 200k or so, and they offer either an annuity over 20 years, or a lump sum payment. He took the lump sum (he's 80) and then had to pay taxes on that amount. In the end he wound up with about 60% of the actual amount.

Not that anyone would complain about hitting the jackpot, but it's kind of crappy that it's an annuity, especially on the "smaller" jackpots. I can understand something like Megabucks as it's a huge amount, but a couple hundred grand? Even the smallest of casinos make that in a day. They certainly do a great job of implying that you're actually going to win that amount, while having the tiniest print ever on the machine stating otherwise.

 

If you hit the jackpot and take it over the 20 years you get the full amount. There's no deception there. If I won a small, say less than $1,000,000 I'd take it over 20 years and use that as my bankroll. Now if it were a huge jackpot like mega bucks or the lottery I'd take it in a lump sum.

 

You'd be better off taking the lump sum for any size jackpot and just investing it yourself if you didn't want it all right away. They discount it against the rates on a 20 year UST zero curve which especially now are all low. You'd be leaving a bunch of money on the table for no reason.

 

I disagree. Putting the jackpot in big bright LED numbers on every machine, then putting tiny print on the machine stating it's paid as an annuity is deceptive. It'd be like me saying I'll pay you 10k for your car, but then under my breath saying "over 20 years", you wouldn't think that's deceptive? By the logic used above, you'd still get your 10k, you'd just have to wait 20 years. Or for another analogy, what do you think the casino would say if I signed a marker, lost, then told them you'll get your money, but it will be in annual installments over the next 20 years?

I fully understand that what the casinos do is legal, but IMO I feel it's a bit deceptive.

 

The entire point of most small print is to be deceptive. It doesn't mean it is illegal or that anyone is actually lying -- but deceiving yes.

There is what you want to make bold and big as part of your sales pitch -- then there are the actual details which you won't like and they do not wish to advertise but still have to disclose that are in the fine print.

Unless you say that you and everyone else should check every inch of every machine you sit down at to check for any fine print than you can't say the big flashing signs are deceptive.

 

Do non US citizens or residents still have to pay the taxes or can they claim it back?

 

So, what solution would you suggest?

Maybe large letters just like the sign saying it will be paid or xx years?

 

Their signage is just like the lottery billboardson the freeways. Big giant number for the jackpot....teeny tiny fine print at the bottom of the sign. If "the fine print" is deceptive then I'd suggest you never buy anything requiring the signing of a contract.

 

For lottos you have to tell them if you want an annuity or lump sum when you buy the ticket. So at POS every lotto player would know even if its their first time and they never heard of the lotto before.

There's also common sense. For multi-million dollar jackpots people are used to them being paid in installments as the norm but not when you have these small jackpots in the hundreds of thousands. At a certain point putting something that defies common sense assumptions in fine print is deceptive. Do you examine every slot machine for fine print before you sit down in order to see if its top prize is paid out in one lump sum even if the top prize is nothing monstrous? How about looking for fine print at every table for their big side bet payments? Or at a poker room for their bad beat jackpot?

If you won one of those for a few hundred thousand and then found out there was fine print telling you it would be paid out over 20 years so you'd only get around $10,000 per year you know you would be mad and think it was deceptive. Not illegal -- but deceptive.

 

I didn't think this day would come, but I agree 100% with JD!

 

Even then, they do not get the full story. If the Jackpot is $100m, and you pick lump sum, you only get around half of that.

 

There is a lot more we agree on. I've read your posts. If we ever have a beer we'll just try not to bring up CityCenter