Illinois Grandmother denied $41.8m Jackpot Payout

A 90-year-old Pauline McKee from Illinois, who thought she won $41.8m (£27.6m) on a video slot machine, lost a court case and subsequently was denied a payout.

The Illinois grandmother was playing Miss Kitty from Aristocrat at a casino when she won 185 credits or $1.85. At that moment a message pop out appeared on the screen showing a staggering bonus win of $41,797,550.16. For a second grandma Pauline thought she was the luckiest woman on earth but the casino refused to pay saying it was a computer glitch.

Ms. McKee sued the casino but the Iowa Supreme Court eventually threw out her case. 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 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.

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." Ms. McKee sued the casino in 2012 claiming breach of contract and consumer fraud and the case was finally rejected by the Iowa Supreme Court on 24 April.