Ask the Slot Expert: Son of slot jackpot denied playing with another's card

Question: The issue you overlooked is people often forget their cards in a machine and other people play the machine without a card. Are you going to deny them a jackpot in that instance?

My understanding is that the rewards cards have no influence on the internal mechanics of the machine. Therefore, whether there was a card in the machine or not has no bearing on paying a jackpot.

The fact that the card may be from another totally unknown forgetful person also should not affect the outcome.

If a card determines eligibility of a jackpot, then there is in fact external influences in the mechanics of the machine -- which I believe is against gaming rules !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can't have it both ways.

I would rule this as PAY the PERSON who pushed the button (regardless of who put in the money or left a card in the players slot).

Answer: Everything you say is true. I agree with you 100%.

Using a players card has absolutely no effect on the results on a machine. The Random Number Generator (RNG) doesn't care or know whether the player is using a players card. The RNG is supposed to be from any external influences. As you point out, presence of players card affecting the RNG would be an external influence, which is against the rules.

Let's talk a step back and recap the situation described in last week's column, Slot jackpot denied playing with another's card. Uncle left card in machine for niece so she could play his free play. She continued playing on her own money. She hit a handpay for $1800. Casino denied jackpot because she was playing on someone else's players card.

My first line in the column is: "I'm always amazed at things that players get in trouble for doing in other jurisdictions that wouldn't be that big a deal in Las Vegas."

In Las Vegas, the thinking is that the casino has no idea about any agreements players may have about funding play and splitting wins. The one thing the casino can verify and know for sure is who pressed the button. That's the person they pay and get tax info from. Anything else is between the players and the IRS.

If this incident had happened in Las Vegas, the slot attendant would have pulled the card, looked at it, and said something like, "Funny. You don't look like a Bartholomew. Is this your card?"

The niece would have said that it was her uncle's card.

The attendant then would have said, "Please give me your ID and write your SSN on this slip of paper. I'll be back with your money and paperwork in a few minutes. Oh, and, get your own players card and use it, not your uncle's card. In fact, I'll bring you your own card when I come back."

But this incident didn't happen in Las Vegas. It happened in a tribal casino in California.

"Is this your card?"

"No, it's my uncle's card. He let me play on it."

"Your uncle can't give permission to someone else to play on his card. That's against the rules that are printed in the brochure and easily accessible on our website."

This isn't a case of the casino requiring a players card for ID for a handpay or someone unintentionally playing on a card left in a machine.

In this case, the niece was intentionally playing on a card that was not hers. And that is against the rules.

She did not cheat the machine. The jackpot was legitimate. She was eligible to collect the jackpot because the jackpot was legitimate.

If the casino wanted to suspend her uncle's players account, okay. But it should have paid her the money. As you point out, the card had absolutely nothing to do with the machine hitting that winning combo.

What would you do in this situation? Forget it or fight it? Keep in mind the location and that the casino may 86 you from the property if you make a big stink or go to the media.

* * * *

As I said last week, I watched the Paralympics for the first time. I had no idea of the technology available to help these athletes compete -- all the way from different blades for running and jumping, different wheelchairs for different sports, custom-fit carbon fiber cycles down to a block to help an athlete in the track starting block when one arm is much shorter than the other.

Speaking of track, the relay race I saw did not use a baton, just a tag, in the handoff from one runner to the next. The USA men's Olympics relay teams might benefit from a tag, considering they've found a way to botch the baton exchange in many of the past Olympics.

If I were a betting man -- well, a sports-betting man -- I would have put my money on one of the swimmers with both arms and not Guo Jincheng, the Chinese guy with no arms, in the races he competed in. I would have lost most of those bets. The water hydrodynamically flowed over his head as he zoomed down the lane. Just like a torpedo, which I thought was an original idea until a commentator said that was his nickname.

Not sure whether I would have bet on Matt Stutzman, either. He won a gold medal in archery. He's also armless. He holds the bow with his foot and pulls the bowstring back using a device he holds in his mouth.

If you think running a marathon is difficult, try doing it with a visual impairment. Moroccan Fatima Ezzahra El Idrissi came in first in the Women's T12 (one of the classifications for athletes with visual impairments), almost 10 minutes ahead of her nearest competitor and breaking the world record by nearly six minutes -- though I'm not sure whether it makes sense to have a world record in an event where each course is different.

Elena Congost from Spain and her guide crossed the finish line third.

Some visually impaired runners have the option of running with a guide. There are a number of rules they must follow. The guide can't push or pull their athletes, the guide can't cross the finish line before the athlete, and the guide and athlete must remain tethered through the entire race. (The tether is just a short piece of fabric with loops at each end. The runners can either hold the loops or slide them over their wrists.)

As Compost was on the final stretch, her guide got increasingly wobbly. "He's not going to make it," I thought. About 30 feet from the finish line, he stumbled and almost fell done. Congost steadied him and they crossed the finish line.

She was later disqualified because she let go of the tether while helping her guide. (Paralympic Marathoner Loses Medal After Helping Her Guide Yards From Finish)

Para is a prefix from the Greek that means side-by-side. There were a number of parallels between the Olympics and Paralympics. Both games had delays because of rain. Both had cycling competitors who were affected by rain. Both had to delay triathlons because of water quality.

There was also a mirror symmetry to both games. It rained during the Olympics Opening Ceremony and it rained during the Paralympics Closing Ceremony.

If you would like to see more non-smoking areas on slot floors in Las Vegas, please sign my petition on change.org.

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