casino
© KOIN 6 News
It was an awesome day for at one woman at Oregon's Lucky Eagle Casino. Veronica Castillo took her mom to the bank of slot machines where she quickly put in $100 and scored the jackpot.... or so she thought.

"I was very excited, happy," she told local KOIN 6 News. "Then I couldn't believe it."

But as the adage goes, the house always wins. While celebrating in excitement Castillo and her mother got a visit from the casino staff who said the machine malfunctioned. Sorry! No $8 million for you!

"They shut off the machine, took it away, printed out a ticket and gave me $80." After she put in $100, remember. So, not only did she not win $8 million she lost $20.

How the hell could a casino get away with something like this? How could you possibly say that someone didn't win when it's so obvious that they did, what with the lights and sounds and cheering? Every machine is outfitted with a little sticker which tells users that any malfunction of the machine voids all pays and plays. So, if you win, the casino just says, "oh it malfunctioned" and they don't have to pay. If you're thinking "that's bullshit," well, you're not alone.

"To me, it's cheating, may even be fraudulent," Castillo told KOIN 6 News. "My first thought was, how many people has this happened to? They think they won, then going away empty-handed."

No kidding. The casino's CEO, John Setterstrom, told her that it's never happened before since 1995 when the casino opened. Which, to me, means it took 20 years of constant play to get to the correct combination that gives the jackpot. They assured the ladies that they are working on getting a full explination from the manufacturer for how the hell someone could actually win the jackpot at a casino.

Castillo and her mom are looking for a lawyer. I would also encourage them to reach out to The Chehalis Tribal Council where the Lucky Star Casino is located.

If the casino was smart, they would take this one of two ways: either honor the jackpot as a valued winner and you get tons of traffic from people who think that the slot machines have actual winners, or the casino could acknowledge that there was a malfunction, but they want to honor the jackpot because it's the right thing to do. They'd end up making that all back in free advertising for being honest good people. But doing this whole "there was a malfunction, sucks to be you," bullshit is shady at best.