Wotta glitch!
Her $43M Qns. slot miracle just a ‘malfunction’
JACK-NOT.
A Queens gambler thought she’d hit it big until managers at the Resorts World Casino said her $43 million slot machine win was a technical glitch — and tried to pay her off with a steak dinner.
Katrina Bookman was already thinking about what she would do with all that money back in August as she took a selfie beside the slot machine that said: “Printing cash ticket. $42,949,642.76.”
“I couldn’t believe it,” Bookman, 43, told the Daily News. “My body went numb.”
But instead of a giant check like the big-time lottery winners get, Bookman, a mother of four from Arverne, Queens, said all she received was an invitation to eat a meal for free. Representatives from the state Gaming Commission, which runs the casino near Kennedy Airport, told her the machine malfunctioned, and that she was not entitled to a payout.
The commission said any malfunction makes the game, and any jackpot, null and void. The slot machine was pulled from the casino floor and fixed after the incident.
“There was nothing wrong with it when I was playing the machine,” said Bookman. “How do we know when there’s a problem with it? Once I hit something, now you’re going to say it’s a problem? I totally don’t think that was fair.
“You offer me a steak dinner? I feel like they did me real dirty.”
A commission spokeswoman said the agency had no comment. A Resorts spokesman apologized to Bookman for the big letdown.
“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,” a Resorts statement said. “Machine malfunctions are rare, and we would like to extend our apologies to Ms. Bookman for any inconvenience this may have caused.”
Money from the casino, like state lottery proceeds, helps build New York’s education fund. Officials said payout maximums are put in place to protect that money.
Although the machine’s screen displayed the multimillion-dollar jackpot, the printed ticket showed $2.25. Bookman, who said she was recently laid off from her hospital housekeeping job, said she plans to sue the casino.
“She’s upset obviously,” said her lawyer, Alan Ripka. “She thought her life and family’s life would have been changed forever.”
Ripka said the casino should honor the advertised payout. He said the casino used the same broken machine to take money from players.
“You can’t have it both ways,” he said. “Doesn’t that mean a place can claim a machine is broken every time somebody wins?”