Casinos & Contracts case

Manach

Presented for educational value:
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When an 87-year-old Illinois grandmother bet a quarter in an Iowa slot machine in 2011, she thought she'd hit it big. The screen said: "The reels have rolled your way! Bonus Award - $41797550.16."

Pauline McKee and her daughter excitedly summoned casino employees to collect what they thought was a $41.8 million jackpot. But state officials later concluded the award was a computer glitch and that the Isle Hotel Casino in Waterloo didn't have to pay. And the Iowa Supreme Court ruled Friday that McKee didn't hit any jackpot — no matter what the screen told her. Her good fortune was actually worth only $1.85 based on how the symbols aligned on the Miss Kitty game, the court said.

Game rules said the maximum award was $10,000 and allowed for no bonus awards, Justice Edward Mansfield wrote for the unanimous seven-member court. The rules and pay table, which were available on a touch screen, amount to a contract between the casino and the player and it doesn't matter that McKee didn't read them, he added.

"Any message appearing on the screen indicating the patron would receive a $41 million bonus was a gratuitous promise and the casino's failure to pay it could not be challenged as a breach of contract," Mansfield wrote in a ruling that dismissed a lawsuit filed by McKee

" - http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/court-iowa-casino-pay-41m-jackpot-error-30569462

Fred Swanson

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