Originally Posted by
Warren
If you read all the comments at the bottom of the story, including the ones from a person who claims to be Marina (the lady in the story) it does paint a different picture. According to her, it was her $400 ticket she put in, but his player's card was in the machine. If that's the case then he has no case whatsoever. She also claimed that she offered to withhold $35K in taxes and split the remaining with him. Who knows if this is true though...
I (obviously) wasn't there so I don't know what happened, but one thing I do know is that the media is generally not interested in making sure they have all the facts. Getting a good story is job one. There have been countless casino stories in the media that left out VERY important details. Whether those details were left out due to not getting the details, not understanding the implications of those details, incompetence, or simply wanting a better story / more controversy is certainly up for debate.
I had direct experience with situations like this when I worked the floor in Colorado. When there was a dispute like this we were required to call the Division of Gaming and have them handle it. There was a time (if my foggy memory serves) that the rules and regulations stated that the award must go to "the person who put the first coin or credit into the machine". The current rules however state:
47.1-1256 Slot machine awards.A person lawfully playing a slot machine is the only person who can receive the award from a slotmachine. A licensee must not give the award to another person to claim. If more than one person isplaying a slot machine, including two persons playing a machine together, the award must be given to theperson who made a valid wager on the game and completed a valid game play that resulted in the award.An award abandoned in the tray or on the credit meter of a slot machine becomes null and void and theproperty of the casino unless the person who lawfully won the award makes a claim for the award. (47.1-1256 perm. 9/30/97; amended perm. 4/30/11) Amended 11/30/14
It does state that the rule has been amended twice, but the old version isn't there to compare...
So, the way the rules are currently stated if this happened in Colorado I'd say they would rule that Marina was the JP winner (even if it was Jan's money in the machine)
Another commenter in the article raised the question along the lines of "what if someone walks up behind someone else and pushes the button and a jackpot comes up". I think in this case they would rule that that particular play was not valid, or that the person didn't "complete a valid game play", something like that. They wouldn't give the JP to someone who came up from behind and hit some else's spin button.