Castillo had plunked down about $100 on a video game called Jurassic Riches when the machine showed her winnings skyrocketing into the stratosphere. The figure kept climbing until it showed. When Veronica Castillo won $8.5 million on a slot machine, her life instantly changed. But then the casino refused to pay her. NEWCASTLE, Okla. (KOKH) - An Oklahoma woman gambling at the Newcastle Casino Friday morning claims she hit the jackpot for nearly $8.5 million, but she said the casino won’t pay her.

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• 8.5 Million Dollar Casino Refuses To Pay Money
• 8.5 Million Dollar Casino Refuses To Pay
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• Can Casinos Refuse To Pay
• What Happens If A Casino Can't Pay You

Michigan lawyer and YouTuber Letho’s Law sheds light on Oklahoma casino’s decision not to pay $8,469,498.95 USD to slot machine jackpot winner.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably heard Maribel Sanchez’s story. A couple of weeks ago, she won a jackpot worth $8.5 million at a Lucky 7s slot machine, but the casino refused to pay her, saying there had been a hardware malfunction. The story sparked fierce debate both inside and outside the gambling community. Consumer protection advocates cry foul, saying that the woman should be paid her winnings. Lawyers, on the other hand, say the issue is much more complicated and nuanced. So let’s take a look at what really happened in Newcastle Casino and uncover the truth.

Lucky Magic 7’s machine, similar to the one used by Sanchez at Newcastle Casino to get the $8.5 million jackpot.

The Sequence of Events

According to FOX25, Maribel Sanchez entered Newcastle Casino at seven in the morning to try her luck on a Liberty 7s slot machine. She set her wager amount at a dollar and twenty-five cents per spin. After a few rounds, she hit the jackpot and the machine told her she won $8,469,498.95 USD. Excited about her win, Sanchez took a picture of the winning graphic using her phone. In her mind, she was already thinking about how she would spend her money on achieving her life-long dream of buying a house.

That’s where things took a strange turn. Just after she took the picture, the slot machine turned off. A few moments later, Sanchez was approached by members of the casino staff. Instead of paying Sanchez her $8.5 million, the casino gave her back the $14.50 she had spent at the slot machine and bid her farewell.

“They told her we’re not going to pay you. It was an error, ” Sanchez’s lawyer, Bill Zuhdi, explains.

Woman Wins $8.5 Million Jackpot, But Casino Refuses To Pay By JJ Foster - 9/22/19 They Took Her Money Away Veronica Castillo isn’t a regular at casinos. An Oklahoma woman claims she was playing a slot machine and hit the jackpot but the casino won't pay her. Maribel Sanchez says she put money in the machine and the machine told her that she won 8.5 million dollars. She has pictures showing that she won.

Furious about the injustice of the situation, Sanchez contacted Oklahoma’s FOX 25 news station, which reported on the event through their website and Twitter account. FOX 25 reporters then contacted the venue and the machine’s manufacturer, but neither gave any concrete information on what exactly happened.

Sanchez then went on to contact attorney Bill Zuhdi. On Monday, March 2, the lawyer filed a formal notice of prize claim in order to move the legal case forward.

How Modern Video Slots Work

So what exactly happened there and why doesn’t the casino want to pay up? In order to understand this, you need to understand how slot machines work these days.

Unlike their ancestors, modern slot machines are not purely random. Regardless of whether they display the results on a screen or through physical reels, all modern slots are fully computerized, networked, and algorithm-controlled. As a side effect of this, the payout percentages and jackpot payouts can easily be adjusted by the casino.

Because of this inherent degree of control, the system can be easily abused by unscrupulous casino staff members.

Slot Machine Tampering

In one of his videos, Michigan lawyer Steve Lehto, who runs a popular YouTube channel called Lehto’s Law, recalled a case from a few years ago. During court testimony, the defendant confessed to having used his access to the machines in order to configure them to pay large sums of money at certain times. His accomplices would then play the machines until winning. The money was then split 50/50.

And this situation isn’t in any way unique. Those who follow gambling news closely will have heard of several such cases that happened in the last few years.

In order to fight this type of malicious code meddling, casinos verify all payouts with their information on when wins should have been paid out. If the system sees a big win, but the server says that it wasn’t supposed to happen, they shut down the machine and tell the user there was a machine malfunction.

Basic slot machine diagnostics and repair procedure.

What Does the Law Say About Slot Machine Winnings?

So how are these ‘machine malfunctions’ interpreted by law? If you didn’t do anything wrong and played according to all rules, why wouldn’t you get paid? After all, it’s the casino’s fault, not yours, that such a situation happened. Let’s explore.

As explained by lawyer Steve Lehto in his video on the 8.5 million dollar scandal, in recent years, more and more new gambling laws have been coming into force, and most of them aren’t all that consumer-friendly. Lehto says that, because the people running land-based casinos have a lot of money, they can essentially have the laws written in their favor. Lehto gives the following example:

“If you’re counting cards at a blackjack table in Las Vegas they can come up to you, say you’re cheating, and kick you out” despite the fact that all you are doing is being a good player and “figuring things out”.

So, essentially, if you’re playing offline blackjack and you’re bad, you’re free to lose as much money as you want. But once you get good enough and start to understand such things as basic strategy and card counting, the casino has the right to ban you from their venue.

State and federal laws give casinos similar rights in other games as well.

So where does that leave Sanchez? In an uncomfortable place, that’s for sure. The casino reimbursed her for the $14.50 she spent on the ‘malfunctioned’ machine and pretended nothing wrong had happened. But something did happen. The machine outright told her she won 8.5 million dollars. And, at least according to Sanchez’s lawyer, the casino must honor this offer, because she did nothing wrong and played by the rules.

We’ll keep you updated on this story as it develops. In the meanwhile, if you want to make sure you get paid on every win, you’re probably better off sticking to online slot machines. Unlike land-based video slots, these are operated off-side by the service providers and cannot be tampered with.

8.5 Million Dollar Casino Refuses To Pay Bill

While some people are lucky enough to win big at casinos, the hardest part can sometimes be collecting the winnings.

Inside Edition’s investigative team found people who thought they'd be taking home huge jackpots, only to discover that wasn't the case.

Katrina Bookman, 44, thought she hit a $42.9 million jackpot at Resorts World Casino in Queens, N.Y., in 2016. She even posed next to the winning machine as it displayed her earnings.
“I thought it was my lucky day,” she told Inside Edition.

Crowds started to surround Katrina to congratulate her, but soon security took her aside and she was eventually told that the machine had malfunctioned and there would be no payday.

“Anytime a machine hits a lot of money, you are going to claim it’s broke,” Katrina said.

8.5 Million Dollar Casino Refuses To Pay Money

She hired a lawyer, Alan Ripka, to take the casino to court. The case is pending.

“When you walk through the door, you expect if you are risking your money, that if you win, you will be paid,” Ripka said.

Construction worker Jerry Rape, 55, and his wife, Kim, couldn't believe it when a slot machine said he'd won $1.3 million at the Wind Creek Casino in Montgomery, Ala., in 2011.

“I thought I was a millionaire,” he told Inside Edition. “I thought it was my lucky day.”

But 24 hours after he thought he had “won,' he was also told the 'machine malfunctioned.'

“Very devastating,” he said

He also hired an attorney, Matt Abbott.

“In this circumstance, the Creek Indian tribe was the judge, the jury and ultimate say so on whether they were going to pay a jackpot that [they] should have paid,” said Abbott.

Veronica Castilla was stunned when the machine showed she had won $8.5 million at the Lucky Eagle casino outside Seattle.

“I was excited; I couldn't believe it,” she said. “I was in shock.”

8.5 Million Dollar Casino Refuses To Pay

She even took out her camera to snap pictures.

“I started to ask, 'Where's my prize?'” she recalled.

But just like the others, she was told the machine had malfunctioned.

“They took my money but didn’t want to pay my winnings,” she claimed.

Washington is among a handful of states with its own casino lab, where gaming machines are regularly inspected.

“Nationwide, it's extremely rare to see a major machine malfunction, so consumers should feel confident that when they are sitting down at a gaming machine, it's going to function properly,” Heather Songer of the Washington State Gambling Commission told Inside Edition.

That's little solace for Katrina Bookman, Jerry Rape, and Veronica Castillo, who felt like they were millionaires — for at least a few minutes.

“I'm going to fight,' Castillo said. 'This is not over.'

The casinos say malfunctions are extremely rare and when errors occur, any payouts are void. In the cases of Bookman, Rape and Castillo, the jackpots actually exceeded what the machines could pay out.

8.5 Million Dollar Casino Refuses To Pay Dividends

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