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Gaming Guru
Help for a denied jackpot26 October 2009
You deserve an explanation for why the jackpot was denied. It's better for public relations than the take-it-or-leave-it ultimatum you say your mother was given. I think your next step is to file a complaint with your local gaming commission. You can also send a copy to your governor. Include as much detail as you can: e.g., the name of the machine, the machine's location in the casino (because you don't have the serial number), the time of day, the combination that landed on the payline, what that combination is worth, how much you were paid, etc. It's true that you can find many reports of casinos denying jackpots and claiming that the machines in question malfunctioned. What you don't find are reports of the number of jackpots those same casinos paid that day because there were no irregularities with the machines that awarded the jackpots. Denied jackpots are truly rare events. Moreover, every news account of a denied jackpot seems to end with a warning that you can't be sure you will actually get paid anything the next time you hit a jackpot at the casino that denied the jackpot. I've never been denied a jackpot, but I've been privy to the details of a few denied jackpots. In each case, one or more of the requirements for a valid jackpot were not met. Those requirements are: The machine must be in game mode; the player must have made a valid bet; and the RNG must have chosen a jackpot combination. What lands on the payline doesn't legally determine what you've won. The combination chosen by the RNG does. The combination on the payline should match what the RNG chose. If it doesn't, the RNG rules. That said, I think the casino should pay the jackpot anyway because players don't have access to the output from the RNG. The only display of a result we have is what we see on the reels. See this Saturday's article by Larry Mak for more advice on dealing with denied jackpots. Best of luck in and out of the casinos, Send your slot and video poker questions to John Robison, Slot Expert, at slotexpert@comcast.net. Because of the volume of mail I receive, I regret that I can't reply to every question. This article is provided by the Frank Scoblete Network. Melissa A. Kaplan is the network's managing editor. If you would like to use this article on your website, please contact Casino City Press, the exclusive web syndication outlet for the Frank Scoblete Network. To contact Frank, please e-mail him at fscobe@optonline.net. Recent Articles
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