New York Woman Denied $43 Million Jackpot by Casino Is Offered Steak Dinner, $2.25 Instead

Katrina Bookman hit the jackpot on a slot machine in late August at Resorts World Casino in Jamaica, Queens. She even took an excited self-portrait with the machine displaying her winnings: $42,949,672. It would have been the largest slot machine jackpot in US history.

"I can't even describe the feeling. It's like my whole body just got numb," Bookman told CNN affilate WABC.

But when she came back the next day to find out the exact size of her jackpot, a casino employee crushed her excitement.

"I said, 'So what did I win? He said, 'You didn't win nothing,'" she told WABC.

The New York State Gaming Commission said that Bookman's machine had malfunctioned. The machine, like all the ones in the casino, has a disclaimer stating, "Malfunctions void all pays and plays."

Instead, the casino offered Bookman a complimentary steak dinner.

"All I could think about was my family," Bookman told WABC, her voice breaking. She grew up in foster care and raised 4 children as a single mother.

The New York State Gaming Commission told WABC that they immediately pulled the machine from the casino floor to fix it, and it is now up and running once again. The commission said that by law they can only award Bookman her actual winnings of $2.25, printed by the machine.

"They win, and now the house doesn't want to pay out. To me that's unfair," says Bookman's attorney, Alan Ripka. He's fighting for the casino to pay Bookman the maximum amount allowed by the Sphinx slot machine -- $6,500.

"The machine takes the money when you lose. It ought to pay it when you win," Ripka said.

A Resorts World spokesman told CNN: "Upon being notified of the situation, casino personnel were able to determine that the figure displayed on the penny slot was the result of an obvious malfunction -- a fact later confirmed by the New York State Gaming Commission.

"After explaining the circumstances to Ms. Bookman, we offered to pay her the correct amount that was shown on the printed ticket. Machine malfunctions are rare, and we would like to extend our apologies to Ms. Bookman for any inconvenience this may have caused."

The casino couldn't send a portion of its revenue to a New York state education fund, as mandated by law, if had to pay out massive jackpots like the one displayed on Bookman's machine, said the Resorts World spokesman, who asked his name not be used. In five years, the casino has generated more than $1.6 billion for the fund, he said.

But Bookman remains frustrated.
"I should win the max. And I feel like I should treat him (the casino employee) to a steak dinner," she said.

 

She probably pulled the arm.
If she would've pushed the button maybe this wouldn't have happened!

Reel sad story, though!

RICHARD

 

They should at LEAST give her the $6500. I understand them not giving more than what biggest possible jackpot would be.

 

They would have saved themselves a bunch of bad publicity by just paying her the $6,500. Malfunctions do void all pays and plays, but it looks cheap as hell to offer a buffet or steakhouse meal for an error of this magnitude.
FYI, I always get a kick out of looking up these jackpot amounts in binary or hexadecimal. I'm not a programmer, but there's almost always a connection between the jackpot and a max value.

 

A meal offer is more than what usually happens. Normally the casino position is you will take nothing and like it. And the lawyer seems to understand she couldn't have won that jackpot and is grandstanding now to get more than she won.

 

The mental and emotional anguish must be astronomical.

If this was me I'd be messed up for life.

Just imagine the poor woman within 24 hours thinking of all the things she would do for her family with the winnings and then being told she won 2 dollars and something cents and oh by the way, have a steak dinner.

 

They will take any and all bad publicity vs paying 43 million. That's a no brainer as they look at it.

 

It says the maximum payout is $6500, but she thinks she won $42 million??? Dream on!!! How much was she playing??? Say she was betting all lines X1... then pay her the max for that wager... the most she could win.

 

Obvious overreaction by the media. She won $2.25. When the she went to hit cash out $43MIL flashed on her screen, she took a pic. Went and found someone at the casino and they told her it was a malfunction and that they would check the machine and submit that data to the commission. They asked her to come back the next day day once they knew all of the facts.

She did, they told her the bad news, which she obviously should have known since the machine she was playing didnt even have a progressive let alone a top award past $6500. And they offered to buy her and her party a steak dinner on them for having to come back.

So she did NOT "hit a Jackpot" like the media is saying. And she went as far as to say "The machine takes the money when you lose. It ought to pay it when you win," Ripka said.When she did in fact not win anything more than $2.25

They are spinning this to make it seem like she was cheated. So she did what any good "Merican would do. She hired herself a lawyer.

 

By hiring an attorney, she'll probably walk away with more than the $6.5K - as corporations, particularly those with deep pockets - generally want this to go away as quickly as possible*. Face it, $6.5K can be taken from petty cash, just stop by the receptionist. However, it also sets a bad precedent if casinos start shelling out max-pays to everyone who happens across the 'malfunctioning machine'. I fully understand how she could be swept up in the excitement of 'thinking' she hit it big, but I'd be inclined to hear from the casino before I started celebrating and spreadin' the news. Yes, even though there is a responsibility on the player to know how much they can win (it's not that hard...it's right there on the machine), the casino is the one who decides who does and doesn't get paid. The NY State Gaming Commission sided with the casino. It's not a conspiracy...it's just that the player misunderstood the situation. It'd be easy to do, but the rules (as dictated by the casino) are the rules.

* there's a part of me that would like to see the casino not settle.

 

Yes, the media many times doesn't know the right questions to ask. I read it the same way, that she never won a jackpot through play, it was only when she cashed out that the high dollar amount showed on the screen. The reporter should have asked her, if you never hit a 43 million dollar jackpot on the slot reels screen, then why would you contend that the payout was correct? I think the comp steak dinner is just about the right response for this.

 

Hiring a lawyer yields her nothing in the end. I've yet to see a casino lose in a case like this. Real gamblers aren't going to fault them because they know the payoff potential of these games and legally they are in the right. It seems the casino was willing to work with her within reason but now they already have the bad publicity. There's no point in settling now.

 

Maybe I should go after Cosmo for the comps that showed up on my account while I was playing.

 

I dont feel bad for her at all. She knows she didnt qualify for that amount.

 

Yes I did hear about this in the news but I wonder the reason casino can not pay her $6500 , could it be their state gaming regulators have policy? Or is it just simple as all machine malfunctions voids payout?

 

Damn how long did you play??? Lol.

 

I'm not so sure she knew. Broke with a few kids and she's at the casino? Don't want to judge but that's not smart.

 

Painful.

 

If it's true that the screen showed the hefty layout after she knowingly cashed out $2.25, then this is just ridiculous. It'd be like getting an ATM receipt that shows you have a much higher balance than you know you have and demanding that your bank make it so. She'd be lucky not to choke on the steak dinner she didn't even deserve.

 

That's funny. Last year after my wife and I concluded our Grazie Gifts trip...where we cashed in a whopping 15x,xxx points (don't recall the exact amount), I returned home and checked our online account and it showed that we had over 700 million grazie gift points. I jokingly emailed my host asking if I really had that, because if so I'd get on a plane and return for a day to spend it. Needless to say it was an error in the system. Being a lawyer, I can't believe I didn't even think to hire myself to sue Sheldon for the points I had "won" in the "giveaway" that I never even entered.

Come to think of it, we'll be in town for Thanksgiving....maybe a steak dinner on Sheldon wouldn't be so bad?