A Penticton woman thought she hit the jackpot when a slot machine she was playing awarded her $100,000, 100 times the allowed maximum.
On January 20th, 2014 a slot machine at the Penticton Lakeside Resort and Casino erroneously displayed the winnings of $99,999.97. In accordance with the Gaming Control Act, BCLC’s regulator, the Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch was notified of the malfunction.
“As per standard procedure, the machine was immediately placed out of service while the matter was investigated,” said Aly Couch, media relations with BCLC. “Shortly after that, out of an abundance of caution, BCLC, in consultation with GPEB, placed all 189 Diamond Point progressive slot machines out of service. Progressive slot machines are linked to form one large progressive jackpot.”
The manufacturer determined that a “progressive controller” was the issue and the hardware and software that controls communications was the problem. After a review, 20 controllers managing 152 machines around the province were identified as faulty, but the same incident did not occur.
“By mid-February, the 20 controllers were replaced and the machines were approved by GPEB and placed back into service,” added Couch. “These kinds of occurrences are very rare; however equipment can malfunction in any highly technical environment. All gaming equipment in BC is tested by a third party testing organization and must be certified by our regulator before it can be placed on the gaming floor.”
The machine was supposed to max out at $1,000 and the crown corporation chose to pay the woman the amount and recover the winnings in the form of a credit from the manufacturer.
If you get value from KelownaNow and believe local independent media is important to our community we ask that you please consider subscribing to our daily newsletter.
If you appreciate what we do, we ask that you consider supporting our local independent news platform.
