How a Progressive Jackpot Can Go Bad

Written by John G | Wednesday, January 14th, 2009

For most slot players, winning the progressive jackpot is the ultimate goal. The huge jackpots catch anyones eye with the numbers constantly growing on the LED monitors.  Most people would be excited to win a progressive slot jackpot, except for one player from Texas, who now claims it was anything but exciting.

David Jakobot was playing his favourite progressive slot at the Mohegan Sun Casino on December 26th when the jackpot symbols lined up and the machine went crazy. The machine he was playing was one of the top IGT slots linked across the country and paid him $125,733. A floor manager came to his machine at 5:30 pm and told him that it was required for the machine to be validated by a jackpot technician.

Jakobot’s win wasn’t validated till nearly midnight, almost 7 hours after he originally won and was told he could not leave until all protocol had been met.

After the game was validated the casino of course took his photo with one of the supersized checks. Expecting to receive a real check in the amount of $125,733, Jakobot was quickly surprised to find out his $100K+ win would be paid in annuities which meant he would only receive $5,987.30 paid every year for 20 years. When he asked the manager how come this information was not displayed on the machine, the casino told him he didn’t look for it. Apparently the IGT slot machine did display the payment information however it was written in such fine print that nobody would ever notice it let alone read it.

“It’s a deceptive trade practice,” Jakobot said. “It’s not right.”

Jakobot even had a slot machine technician read the notice on the machine and says the tech had to put his glasses on and lean close to the machine in order to read it to the group. While these notices are regulated by the gaming industry they are placed in inconspicuous areas making it difficult to take note.

We know most players wouldn’t really complain whether their jackpot was paid in annuities or in one lump sum payment, but this should be a warning for players to understand how a slot machine works before you decide to sit down and play. Not only should you learn the features but make sure you understand how the machine pays and what your payments will be should you win. If your looking for info on slots you can check out some of our more popular articles relating to progressive slots, slot tips and slot strategies which will give you a better idea of playing the slots so this doesn’t happen to you.

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