Woman elated at £1.5m Bally's Casino win only for staff to tell her she'd won 'nothing'
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A woman is in a bitter dispute with a casino after she believed she'd won a staggering £1.5million ($2m) on a slot machine – only to be told it was a system glitch.
Roney Beal, from Shamong Township, New Jersey, hit the jackpot at Bally's Casino in Atlantic City back in February. She claims she spent hundreds of dollars on a Wheel of Fortune machine before it landed on the word 'Jackpot' with a dollar sign.
The punter alleges she heard the words "you've won" and saw 3D gold coins appear with a blue light flashing. Onlookers started cheering her on as a millionaire, but when she pressed the button to call for assistance, a "tilt message" appeared indicating the machine had malfunctioned.
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"I was hoping for $1,000, saying, 'Please God let me win'. And it went off, says, 'you're a winner' and gold coins popped out. This very nice guy says, 'Oh my God, you hit, you hit!' He said, 'Lady you're a millionaire.' And I'm like, 'Oh my God!'," she told 6ABC Action News.
The jackpot was more than $1.2million, but Roney hit the multiplier, boosting her supposed winnings. However, the celebrations were abruptly halted when the casino staff arrived and informed her she'd actually won nothing, reports the Mirror US.
"That's when the sentences came up 'tilted'. When the man came over to talk to me he said, 'Lady, get it in your head, you won nothing," she recalled. Roney was informed the machine had experienced a "reel tilt," which nullifies the win.
She claimed an attendant opened the machine and asked her to "spin it off" – a request she declined. The staff member then started pressing various buttons inside the machine and offered her a paltry $350 – a far cry from the sum she thought she had won.
Roney stated: "He had it rolling real slow. He had it opened and then he is pushing it." Bally's Casino and the gaming company, International Game Technology, are contesting the alleged win and informed her the win was due to a technical error.
However, Mike Di Croce, a lawyer representing Roney, suspects the casino attendant may have tampered with evidence of the win. "They fooled with the machine before anybody else had the opportunity to take a look at this," he told New York Post.
He has requested the New Jersey Gaming Enforcement, Bally's and IGT – the party responsible for the payout – to preserve the machine and casino floor videos for an independent forensic review. "You invite somebody to your business. They pay the money, they win, you're supposed to pay," he said. "That didn't happen."
He's gearing up to slap Bally's and slot machine giant International Game Technology (IGT) with a legal stinker for a staggering $2.56million. On top of that, he's plotting to lodge a claim for more than a million for emotional distress, as she's still "very anxious".
A spokesperson from the casino said: "Bally's has no comment on this incident as we're only the casino who houses the machine. IGT handles the payouts, and would be best to get a comment from at this time."
Meanwhile, an IGT spokesman has said they're "cooperating with the casino operator's investigation of this matter".
