Posted on 11/07/2009 10:29:30 AM PST by LibWhacker
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- A Daytona Beach man thought he hit the jackpot. He thought he won $166 million on a slot machine at the very popular Hard Rock Hotel and Casino near I-4 in Tampa.
However, as soon as the crowds departed, the celebration ended. The casino told him that he didn't win a thing. The casino claims the slot machine malfunctioned.
Bill Seebeck, who lives on a houseboat, thought his ship had come in. His blood pressure skyrocketed and said he was screaming and celebrating. But then casino workers told him there was a malfunction and wanted him to agree to that in his report, even though they say they're still not done investigating.
Seebeck had been playing the Bally Ultimate Party Spin slot machine for about a half hour and, at $4 a game, he had spent about $80. When bells started ringing and the numbers flashed in front of him, he'd won a cash bonus of $166,666,666.65.
“$166,666,666.65. I was screaming ... heart was beating really fast,” he said.
Casino managers came over and roped off the machine. Seebeck spent an hour deciding what he'd do with his millions. Then came the adrenaline crash.
The casino told him the Ultimate Party Spin had spun out of control, malfunctioned and he wouldn’t get any money for a malfunction. They wanted him to agree in writing, but he wouldn't.
“They make you think you won and everyone around you that you won, and then later, ‘It's probably a malfunction,’” he said.
The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino spokesman told Eyewitness News Monday that the slot machine malfunctioned because its top prize is $99,000. Seebeck was not even given that amount.
“I was told, ’No,’ even though the Seminole Gaming Commission has no idea how the machine malfunctioned,” he explained.
The casino spokesman also said a malfunction is a no-win, but could not say whether past players in malfunction cases were paid.
“I feel let down and ripped off, I sure do,” he said.
“Are you ever going back there?” WFTV reporter Kathi Belich asked.
“No,” Seebeck replied.
Seebeck says he's looking for a lawyer to help him through the maze of federal Indian gaming regulations. The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino said investigators from Bally, the software company, and the Seminole Gaming Commission are headed to Tampa to look for the cause of the malfunction.
That isn't much better.
What you actually said was that the man was perhaps trying to improve his lot whatever that meant since you have no idea who he is or what his "lot" is or why he was there or even why he was doing something so routine and ordinary as playing slots, as far as the woman you said it was "apparent" that she was gambling her share of the proceeds, again, whatever that means, since you have no idea if she is even from that state and you know nothing about her.
All that was pure fantasy, so yes it does appear that you just look at people and create pretty firm fantasies for them
I don't gamble myself but I really don't have problems with other people indulging if they can "keep it real". People who go to Vegas or Atlantic city for a vacation and to blow off a bit of steam have every right to do so. I just have a hard time believing that adults can sit behind a video monitor showing pictures of playing cards or the cog wheels of a slot machine and not comprehend that the computer driven screens are displaying only what the computer's program tells it to. In essence you are playing poker with a player who not only knows whats in your hand (as well as his), he also knows what is coming up next if you draw.
Perhaps you may have seen roadside billboards around Vegas advertising the "fact" that Casino XYZ pays off twice as many "Royal Flush" payouts from their viedo poker machines as any other Vegas casino. That should really tell you something about the odds playing against a computer.
Regards,
GtG
PS We control the horizontal, we control the vertical...
Actually, in video poker you don’t play against the computer, you’re just trying to get the best hand possible, as better ranking hands pay out better. It’s a standard 52 card deck and they are electronically shuffled and the cards are dealt randomly.
It doesn’t matter whether the computer knows your hand or not.
As for a casino’s machines paying out twice as much than other casinos in town, there’s a bit of wordplay there. By law, the machines can be set to a particular payoff range (say 95 to 99, whatever it is by statute). If it is set to 95, the probabilities are altered just a bit so that it pays out 95 cents for every dollar played, provided the player plays every hand optimally.
Now, if a casino has it set to 98% (pays back 98 cents, on average, to every dollar played), the casino’s margin is that 2 cents. That is, if every player played optimally all the time, they would get 2 cents for every dollar wagered.
So then another casino sets it payout to 99% - now their margin is 1 cent under the same circumstances. Well, now their margin is halved, or their payout is twice as much (1 cent vs 2 cent).
They can also alter the odds all the way down to 95% payout, for example, and double the top jackpot (say, $2,000 vs $1,000 for a Royal Flush), but keep all the other payouts the same. That’s also double payout on the Royal.
95% payout is very tight, and people won’t play long at a casino that has machines that are that tight.
Also realize how the 99% payout works, over time, for the same player. If the player plays $100 of bets, he should get back $99 and the house gets $1 (and its not unusual to bet $100 if you know what you are doing just by putting $20 in the machine and continuously playing, if you hold your own). But then he cycles through that 99 dollars of bets, and the payout is still 99%, so this time the house gets 99 cents. Cycling through the next $98.10, the house will get 98 cents.
This all assumes completely optimal play with no mistakes, which is unlikely.
The house tends to win in the medium and long run. Every time they pay off a royal, they have made more than enough money to cover it.
Regards,
GtG
PS I don't have a problem with people who choose to gamble for the thrill. When it get to the point that you have to win or you loose your home it's not OK anymore.
I did say "perhaps". What I saw was a young man in a wheelchair in an empty casino in the middle of nowhere. Maybe he was just in a wheelchair that week. If so, he probably would have waited until he was out of it to go visit the casino. So he was probably a quadriplegic or otherwise permanently in the wheelchair; that is a sad "lot in life". Also, all the other able-bodied young men apparently had better things to do than be in this depressing casino. Evidently he didn't and that is sad too. It's possible he was rich and just gambling a little money for entertainment purposes, but if he was really rich he could have chosen to be in nicer surroundings, so therefore it seems unlikely he was well off and so it's sad that he was gambling.
as far as the woman you said it was "apparent" that she was gambling her share of the proceeds, again, whatever that means, since you have no idea if she is even from that state and you know nothing about her.
She appeared very clearly to be a woman of Native American descent. The nearest state border that is not also an international border was something like 230 miles away. Yes, it's possible that she travelled from some other distant part of the state (possibly from another Indian reservation) to come to this Indian land in the middle of nowhere, but how likely is that? The casinos exist to generate funds for the Indian tribes. That is money that is coming into their economy. If one of them gambles away the money they derive from that economy, sure it stays with the tribe, but they are a gambling addict and that is also sad.
Of course she could have been a shill for the casino to make it look like there was activity or the wife or girlfriend of a casino employee who was being allowed to piss away part of his salary, but both of these are also unlikely.
Maybe she had a good job somewhere else and she was just donating money to her tribe by gambling it away, but given the circumstances this is also unlikely.
If someone make observations and tries to draw logical possibilities from them, that is not that same thing as fantasizing. I don't claim to be like Sherlock Holmes, but there is nothing wrong with looking at the circumstantial evidence you observe and thinking about what the most likely explanation is.
Yes, I can't be 100% certain of what is behind any situation you see, but trying to figure out the most likely explanation behind a given set of observations is not just fantasy. Lots of other people would have drawn the same conclusion I did when confronted by this sad-looking spectacle.
yes. It was very sad.
There was nothing logical about those fantasies, they were bizarre, a wheelchair tells you nothing and looking Indian tells you nothing, I’m part Indian and it shows and I have been in casinos many times in different states, looking at people and making up such precise stories just seems odd and pretty much means that the person doing it might not be a credible observer of life and people.
LOL you said it...
Yep, no doubt about it.
Gary INDIANA casinos file for bankruptcy
November 24, 2009 4:10 AM | No Comments
Majestic Star Casino LLC, the owner of two side-by-side floating casinos in Gary, has sought bankruptcy protection from creditors about three weeks after senior secured lenders called a default and demanded to be repaid $79.3 million in debt.
Monday’s Chapter 11 filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware, stemmed from increasing competition and the drop in consumer spending brought on by the U.S. recession, Chief Financial Officer Jon S. Bennett said in court papers.
A corporate press release emphasized the restructuring of the company’s debt won’t affect day-to-day operations at its casinos or hotels, nor will it affect ongoing relationships with suppliers, the Gary Post-Tribune reported. Nor are any layoffs expected.
In its court filing, Majestic Star said it was confident it would be able to reach an agreement with its creditors and emerge “as a financially healthy and stable organization.”
The company, owned by Detroit businessman Don Barden through Barden Development Inc., operates casinos in Gary, Indiana, Tunica, Mississippi, and Black Hawk, Colorado. Assets were valued at $406 million and debt totaled $750 million as of June 30, Majestic Star said in a quarterly report.
The brokerage unit of bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. owns $46.3 million of Majestic Star’s senior notes, according to a list of the top unsecured creditors filed in bankruptcy court. Units of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. own $38.5 million of the casino’s discount notes and $25.1 million of senior notes.
In addition to the senior secured debt, where Wells Fargo Foothill Inc. serves as agent, Majestic Star owes $300 million to second-lien noteholders, according to the bankruptcy filing. In unsecured debt, Majestic Star said it owes $200 million on senior notes and $63.5 million on discount notes.
Majestic Star first missed note payments in October 2008. Negotiations among creditor groups reached an “impasse,” Bennett said. Facing the acceleration of first-lien debt, the company decided to continue the discussions on a restructuring in Chapter 11, he said.
The company said it has an agreement with senior secured lenders allowing it to use $64.5 million in cash collateral.
—Bloomberg News
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