Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Monday 1 october 2018

When gambling goes haywire, you're unlikely to catch a break

By WAYNE PARRY course the girl spins the ball
Associated Press and hits one of my num-
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) bers, costing me $180."
— When people gamble, Linda Schwoerer Tria of But-
things sometimes go wrong. ler, New Jersey, was bet-
Roulette balls glance off ting on a Mohegan Sun
the wheel onto the table. app this year when it froze.
Slot machines jam. Online She complained, only to be
betting apps freeze. Dice told — correctly — that a
go flying off the felt. And malfunction voids the bet.
sometimes, the cards aren't "I felt like I was ripped off,"
shuffled correctly, or at all. she said. "Finally got the bo-
Bettors have even lost pay- nus wheels on Wheel of For-
outs when the jockey fell tune and it froze. I had my
off a winning horse before heart set on a big win and
the finish line. ... nothing."
The recent decision by The Golden Nugget had its
online gambling com- own high-profile malfunc-
pany FanDuel to pay an tion in 2012 when cards it
$82,000 prize its computers bought from a manufac-
wrongly promised a bettor turer that were supposed
on a football game was to be pre-shuffled had not
the exception to the time- been, allowing 14 mini-
honored rule in the gam- baccarat players to win
bling industry: When things $1.5 million when they real-
go wrong, it almost always ized the cards were com-
voids the bet. ing out of the chute in a
Kip Levin, FanDuel's chief predictable pattern.
operating officer, said that The casino won at trial, but
in sports betting, there to prevent an appeal, it
are more than 200 ways This Sept 27, 2018, photo shows a sign affixed to the surface of a slot machine warning gamblers settled with them for pen-
to place a bet on a typi- that any malfunction of the machine voids that play and cancels any jackpots that might have nies on the dollar, said
cal game, most of which been won. Steve Scheinthal, executive
are calculated at lightning Associated Press vice president and general
speed. "You're very reliant counsel of the casino's par-
on technology," he said. winning field goal. Instead statistics on how often bets Ottawa's Rideau Carleton ent company, Houston-
"It's like when a slot ma- of a few dollars, Prince was are voided due to errors. Raceway was only $40,000. based Landry's Inc.
chine malfunctions. Things handed a bet slip promis- But they do have a term He got $4,000 and $1,000 "Everyone who comes into
happen." They happened ing him $82,000 on a $110 for some of the bigger instead. a casino wants to take
when Anthony Prince bet. Denver made the kick screw-ups: "palps," short for John Bitante of Neptune, nothing and turn it into a
of Newark, New Jersey, and won the game, and palpable errors. While the New Jersey, was playing million dollars," he said.
placed a bet in the waning Prince went to the window standard for determining online live dealer roulette "When it happens, and
moments of a Sept. 16 foot- at Fan Duel's New Jersey what is a palpable error is with the Golden Nugget in they're told it was a mal-
ball game between the sports book to collect — somewhat subjective and Atlantic City recently. function, and they're not
Denver Broncos and the only to be told that the sys- almost always determined "I was playing the same really millionaires, I feel for
Oakland Raiders. During tem had made an obvious by the bookmaker, it was numbers every spin, $5 per the customers, but at the
an 18-second malfunction, error, and that FanDuel was clearly in play here: a small number," he said. "I got an end of the day, it's a busi-
FanDuel's computers gave not obligated to honor the bet on a high-probability error that said something ness. It's supposed to be fair
a dozen bettors exorbi- promised payout. field goal should not be re- to the effect of 'unable not only for the customer,
tantly inflated odds on the Industry officials and regu- warded with $82,000. to continue' and it wiped but for the gaming opera-
Broncos kicking a game- lators say they do not keep But FanDuel relented after my bets off the screen. Of tor, as well."q
a few days and agreed to
pay Prince — and 11 others
who also got mistakenly in-
flated odds on the game —
the full amounts that were
erroneously promised.
Others were not as fortu-
nate. A woman is suing Re-
sorts World casino in New
York City after a nearly $43
million slot machine jack-
pot was determined to be
a malfunction, and was
voided in 2016. (They of-
fered her a free steak din-
ner.)
A video poker player in
This April 17, 2015, photo shows a workman adjusting the inside Canada was twice errone- In this July 14, 2018, photo gamblers place bets on sports
of a slot machine at the Tropicana Casino and Resort in Atlantic ously told he had won $1 events at the FanDuel sports book at the Meadowlands Race-
City, N.J. million in 2009, but the top track in East Rutherford N.J.
Associated Press prize on the machine at Associated Press