
Gambler hits $1.4M jackpot, casino says bingo machine “malfunctioned - ashitlerferad
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/10/1-4-million-jackpot-is-voided-because-bingo-machine-malfunctioned/
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zkim
So the gambler brought the case to the tribal court of the Poarch Band of
Creek Indians where it was dismissed, then took it to the Alabama state court
system.

It looks like the Alambama Supreme Court ruled it had no jurisdiction over the
case [1].

Some interesting allegations:

 _Rape alleged that at that point he was approached and congratulated by
casino employees and patrons and that one casino employee said to him: “[D]on
't let them cheat you out of it.”1 Rape alleged that the machine printed out a
ticket containing the winning amount of $1,377,015.30 but that representatives
of Wind Creek Casino took possession of the ticket and refused to return it to
him. Rape was then taken by tribal officials or casino employees into “a back
room,” where they discussed how Rape's winnings would be paid, mentioning the
possibility of a structured payout over a period of 20 to 30 years. Those
officials then instructed Rape that he had to wait outside the room while they
“called PCI” to confirm his winnings._

I checked several sources in addition to the Ars article, and it's interesting
that nobody is reporting what the max payout on the machine was. Although
without jurisdiction I suppose that doesn't really matter wrt the court case.

[1] [http://caselaw.findlaw.com/al-supreme-
court/1875570.html](http://caselaw.findlaw.com/al-supreme-court/1875570.html)

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jtokoph
Back when I dabbled in bitcoin, one of the coolest things to me was the
cryptographically verifiable casinos. To explain simply, the hash of each
day’s seeds were published the day before, and the actual seeds posted the day
after. So you could verify that your wins and losses were legit.

This could be applied to casinos, but it would take legislation to require it.
I doubt any casino, especially the ones in sovereign Native American lands
would voluntarily adopt such a system.

~~~
vilhelm_s
Or using Ethereum-style smart contracts you can go one step further, and have
the casino be implemented by a public program on the blockchain. That way,
it's not only verifiable after the fact if the payout was correctly handled or
not, you can verify before you play that it will be, and there is no way for
the casino to not pay if you win.

~~~
zazpowered
Yep. Look into Funfair ([https://funfair.io](https://funfair.io))

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unsignedint
Those machine have a disclaimer posted, saying malfunction will void payout.
If they have big latitude on what they consider "malfunction" it sounds like a
big scam and we all should stop patronizing them.

~~~
vorg
The casino prohibition against "counting cards" in blackjack works the same
way. How does one not notice and unconsciously count the cards played face up
in a card game, then later on act on hunches coming from the back of our
minds? "Counting cards" is a vague definition that enables the casino to void
any customer's winnings at a blackjack table.

~~~
wodenokoto
Where it gets even more vague is that they _do_ want card counters, just not
the ones who are good at it.

Shuffle with replacement between every round will eliminate card counting.

~~~
vorg
Card shuffling and deck replacements take time, and time is money in a casino.
Keeping an eye out for card counters and sharing blacklists with other casinos
is cheaper than slowing down the operation of all their blackjack tables.

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Sohcahtoa82
Somewhat off-topic, but this man Jerry Rape has a very unfortunate last name.
If I had a last name like that, I'd have been looking to get it legally
changed the day I turned 18.

I mean, c'mon...imagine if he wanted to become a school teacher and children
had to refer to him as "Mr. Rape".

~~~
jeremy_wiebe
I don’t know what nationality that name is from but it might not be pronounced
the same as the horrible act you’re thinking of. English may also be a second
language in which case he may not be familiar with the negative association.

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Yoshimadashi
I'm pretty sure most tribal casinos have their machines "malfunction" in order
to not pay out millions to the winner. It is easier to bring the winner into a
tribal "court" battle (which will then be dismissed) versus just paying the
winner. It's a sleazy tactic that shouldn't be allowed but it isn't an issue
most people would want to get into.

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CamelCaseName
Absolutely disgusting.

But why does the Alabama court say that this is the end of the line? Why can't
this go to SCOTUS?

~~~
dragonwriter
The Alabama Court didn't say it was the end of the line, just thst, whether or
not sovereign immunity applied, Alabama courts had no jurisdiction to address
the case, because Alabama law would deny the plaintiff any basis for recovery
since gambling is illegal.

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KiDD
This is the same BS that Indian Tribes are using to hold patents and fight IP
lawsuits.... Come on!

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ringaroundthetx
Is there more to that side of the story, like the machine having a maximum
payout?

The sovereign immunity thing isn't the real story, I've seen New Jersey state
use circular legal logic to prevent casinos from losing.

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zeristor
I experienced this with a Trivial Pursuit quiz game in London. Three times I
was doing well and it rebooted.

Is this standard practice in betting to avoid a payout?

~~~
lozenge
Those touch screen quizzes in pubs have a pretty low maximum payout anyway,
and are known to be progressive (they have a memory of their payout history
and a bank of practically impossible questions to ensure they pay out the
right amount). I suspect it was just not ventilated correctly.

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alexasmyths
If they are sovereign and cannot be sued, I'd imagine there should be a border
and customs union controls, and complex and details trade agreements?

~~~
dragonwriter
US States also have sovereign immunity, without any of those things.

~~~
alexasmyths
If this incident happened in a state Casino, there would be a means to sue
them.

If Tribes are protecting their scams under 'sovereign immunity' then they
should lose that immunity.

