The House Always Wins: 15 People Who Got Completely Ripped Off By Casinos

Even though the odds are stacked overwhelmingly against gamblers, casinos still seem to have an aversion to paying the people that beat them.

By Daniel Bonfiglio

Published 6 months ago in Wtf

Everyone knows that casinos are some of the scummiest places on Earth, but just how scummy are they? Even though the odds are stacked overwhelmingly against gamblers, casinos still seem to have an aversion to paying the people who beat them. Especially on slots.

Multiple winners in this collection thought they had struck it rich on slot machines, only to be told that the machines were malfunctioning. It would have been nice to know that before giving them some money.

Check out those stories, and others about winners who got screwed over by the casinos they won at.

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“Don’t use Zula, they won’t pay out if you hit a grand jackpot.”

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Jacqueline Davis from Detroit claims she was up $11 million in BetMGM's St. Patrick's Day "Luck O' the Roulette" game, before eventually calling it quits while up $3 million. “"Who sleeps when they're winning money?” However, MGM refused to pay her the money, claiming there was a glitch in the game.

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The Ameristar Casino in Black Hawk Colorodo was sued by Joseph Shiraef, a card counter, who claimed he was denied his $4,000 Black Jack winnings. Card counting isn’t illegal, but casinos are allowed to refuse anyone from continuing to play.
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Man claims that casino is refusing to pay out his $500,000 ticket.
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“Veronica Castillo took her mother to the casino in Rochester, Washington last weekend. She put $100 in a machine and hit the jackpot,” for $8 million. Then she was informed that the machine had malfunctioned. “They shut off the machine, took it away, printed out a ticket and gave me $80.”

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A 66-year-old guy named Jan Flato was denied a $100k jackpot because he let his friend pull the lever. The person who pulls the lever, always gets the winnings. “She claims she offered to give him some of the money, but he started sending angry text messages. So she's not giving him anything, and their ‘friendship’ is over.”
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Katrina Bookman hit a $43 million jackpot in a slot machine at Resorts World Casino New York. However, the casino offered her a steak dinner instead, after claiming that the machine malfunctioned. She was later awarded $6,500, the machine’s standard programed maximum, however allegedly she hasn’t received that either.
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“Rakin Bacon screwed me over today. Playing 88 pennies, I hit the bonus play of 10 free spins which became 30 spins, and you can see winnings came to $58. I should have walked away, but the pig was huge when I sat down and I knew it was about to pop. So that $58 went down, and when I had under $1 left, the big pig exploded. I pressed the jackpot chips on the screen, I was 2/3 of grand for $14k, 2/3 of major for $9k or such, and 2/3 of mini for $19. I got the mini. I should have kept that $58 and walked away. I have a love hate relationship with some of these machines sometimes!
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Roney Beal claims she won $2.5 million in Atlantic City, but was immediately told the machine malfunctioned, and was offered $350. "When the man came over to talk to me he said, 'Lady, get it in your head, you won nothing.'"