Published on 7th May 2015 by Becky Mosley

Aristocrat Gaming are in hot water this week after one of their top slot machines game decided to award a player almost $42 million, though via an error. The Isle Hotel Casino in Waterloo, Iowa was the scene of the great confusion. The slot in question is known as Miss Kitty.

Slot Malfunction

The error comes after Pauline McKee (an 87-year-old woman from Illinois) saw that the slot machine had awarded her with a $41,797,550 win. After attempting to claim the huge win, McKee was told that due to the slot’s jackpot being limited to 10,000 coins, the actual jackpot won was worth only $1.85.A sign on the slot which states “Malfunction voids all pays and plays,” was added to the slot, and the casino is using this to vindicate themselves of any compensation. The Iowa Supreme Court also rather harshly ruled in favour of the casino this week.

Read the Rules

The court decided that McKee did not read the rules of the game properly, or look at the paytable whilst playing the Miss Kitty slot. Aristocrat were previously aware of the situation and even before the event, they had asked all land-based casinos offering the slot, to disable the part of the game which tells players that they have won more than the 10,000 coin jackpot limit.

Bad Press

Miss Kitty is also an online slot as well as a mobile slot. Neither of these versions of the game are believed to have the glitch which the land-based version obviously does. Most people are not convinced that the sign was adequate enough to explain the situation regarding Miss Kitty’s jackpot, leaving the casino with some bad press, and a reduced audience this week. They had not adjusted the glitch on Aristocrat’s advice, so one could argue that they should pay out the mammoth sum.