slot machine malfunction costs couple 11 million


6/5/10 – Dreams of a new life with an $11 million jackpot win faded for a Colorado couple at the Wildwood Casino this week when management voided the win on grounds that the slot machine had malfunctioned.
 
MaryAnn and Jim McMahon were understandably disappointed: "If you do hit a jackpot are they going to come up with another story? It's a malfunction? It's not right," Jim McMahon said.
 
A spokesman for the casino said that initial investigations at casino level indicated that the slot machine had malfunctioned, failing to reset after the McMahon’s won a $1 627.82 prize.
 
"The $11 million was what we call a ‘reset value," the spokesman claimed. “It's what the jackpot would have been after the prize was claimed."
 
The machine has been impounded for further investigation by the Colorado Gaming Commission amid reports that this is the second time in three months that a Colorado slot has made a multi-million dollar mistake. In March, a machine malfunction was blamed for a disqualified $42 million dollar jackpot.