Illinois Grandma Denied a Massive Jackpot Payout

When a message appeared on screen showing a bonus win of $41.8 million, Pauline McKee felt like the luckiest woman on earth. The 90-year-old grandmother from Illinois was playing Miss Kitty, a slot machine from Aristocrat, when she won 185 credits or $1.85. A pop up appeared right at that moment showing a bonus win of $41,797,550.16 which was denied by the casino, claiming it was a computer glitch.

Ms. McKee took the case to court in 2012, suing the casino for breach of contract and consumer fraud, but the Iowa Supreme Court eventually threw out her case siding with the casino. The casino argued that the on-screen rules clearly indicated that "malfunction voids all pays and plays". The investigation was carried out by the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission (IRGC), which secured the machine sending the hardware and software to an independent testing laboratory. It was concluded that the software was programmed to allow a bonus of up to $10,000, but the investigators couldn't work how the multi-million bonus message had occurred.

Pauline who has 13 grandchildren, was planning to help her children financially, but “it wasn’t meant to be”, claims saddened grandma.

"I had my doubts from the start, because that's a lot of money for a penny machine," she told the Chicago Tribune.

The machine's maker, Aristocrat Technologies, said it had been aware of this type of error in the display and suggested "component degradation over time may increase the susceptibility to this rare occurrence".

The IRGC concluded that the bonus display was "not valid" and that "the slot machine game malfunctioned."