Canadian Casino Change Machine Pays Off Big
Nothing has a more pleasant sound than an old-fashioned slot machine paying off, bells ringing while coins clatter seemingly endlessly into the tray. Gamblers at a Saskatchewan casino last October must've been hearing that sound in their heads as they discovered a change machine that returned money at a rate four times what it was supposed to pay.
Officials at Casino Regina say the machine was supposed to pay out five-dollar bills, but was accidentally loaded with twenties instead. For almost 48 hours, anyone who placed a twenty into the slot seeking four fives received four twenties instead. More than $27,500 in Canadian dollars was paid out before the error was reported, an amount which is almost identical in U.S. dollars ($27,306).
Some may have felt it was about time a casino machine paid them. However, the casino is showing no sense of humor about the incident. Using surveillance tapes has allowed casino representatives to identify many of the customers who used the machine while the errors were occurring, and many of the patrons were seen using the faulty machine multiple times.
The casino has been contacting the customers identified, and many have returned the money, sometimes under the threat of police involvement. One individual was found to have taken over $11,000; this has been given back.
Some have refused to pay, believing it the casino's problem that the machine was improperly loaded. Casino management has placed the names of these people on an exclusion list, banning them from all properties owned by Saskatchewan Gaming Corporation, and presented the matter to police for further investigation. Police have not decided whether an offense has been committed.
The cause of the mistakewas found to be human error, caused by similarities in the bundles which held five- and twenty-dollar bills. The worker responsible was not punished, but labeling changes including color coding have been made to the bundles.
Some poor, down-on-his-luck gambler might have dropped his paycheck into casino slots that day, playing down to his last twenty. When he went to get change, he discovered what he thought was his one lucky break of the day, an extra sixty bucks in the money the machine gave him. Imagine his surprise when casino officials knock on his door weeks later, demanding their sixty dollars back or else. After all, Saskatchewan Gaming only netted $35 million last year.
