Claim for $1.4 million jackpot rejected

Thursday, Feb. 5, 1998 | 3:10 a.m.

The state Gaming Control Board dismissed a petition that had been filed by Jack L. Smith of Tacoma, Wash., after four Quartermania symbols appeared on the slot he had been playing - but during a test spin by a casino employee.

Smith had been pumping quarters into the machine and getting small payoffs when it jammed. He wanted to keep playing the same machine, so he hung around while a slot technician opened it up and found a loose wire.

With the slot machine door still open, the technician then ran a test to make sure the device was unjammed. In test mode, combinations for the highest down to the lowest possible jackpots can show up - and this time the biggest one appeared.

Smith said the technician seemed astonished, and the employee said later he may have said "I win!" - but in a sarcastic tone because he knew it was a test.

But Smith didn't pick up on the sarcasm and figured it was his jackpot even if the slot door was open. At a later hearing, he said that even if the machine was in a test mode he was owed punitive damages for his "mental anguish."

But a report to the Control Board notes there's no authority to award punitive damages and even Smith finally conceded during the hearing that he didn't hit the big one.

Also rejected Thursday was a claim from Cecil Leeders for a $22,630 jackpot payment from the Eldorado hotel-casino in Reno; and a $16,250 claim for what Sheldon Cox thought was a winning bingo game at the Monte Carlo hotel-casino in Las Vegas.