Woman claims Atlantic City casino refused to pay $1.2M jackpot: reports

• A woman claimed that an Atlantic City casino refused to pay her a seven-figure jackpot win.
• The woman, who is from New Jersey, said she was told the slot machine had malfunctioned.
• It is not the first time a casino has disputed such a claim.

A woman from New Jersey claimed that an Atlantic City casino refused to pay her a more than $1.2 million jackpot win, 6abc Philadelphia reported.

Roney Beal, 72, claims she won the jackpot in February while playing a “Wheel of Fortune” slot machine at Bally’s Casino.

“It went off, says, ‘you’re a winner,’ and gold coins popped out,” she told the outlet. “This very nice guy says, ‘Oh my God, you hit, you hit!’ He said, ‘Lady you’re a millionaire.'”

But after using a button to call for help, a “tilt” message appeared, suggesting that the machine had experienced an issue.

Beal said that an employee of the casino quickly appeared on the scene and told her that she had “won nothing” as the machine had suffered a malfunction known as a “reel tilt,” which she said she was told voided the win.

Beal and her attorney Mike Di Croce say the total jackpot figure would have come to $2.56 million, as Beal hit the multiplier, the New York Post reported.

They are preparing a legal complaint against Bally’s Casino and its gaming company International Game Technology (IGT) over the disputed win, per the Post.

Di Croce said he also planned to file a more than $1 million emotional distress claim, the report said.

An IGT spokesperson told Business Insider that IGT “is cooperating with the investigation of this matter.”

Business Insider has contacted Bally’s Casino for comment.

In a statement to the New York Post, a Bally’s spokesperson said: “Bally’s has no comment on this incident as we’re only the casino who houses the machine. IGT handles the payouts and would be best to get a comment from at this time.”

Complaints against casinos run into the thousands each year. Gambling complaints service AskGamblers said it received 8,044 complaints regarding disputes between gamblers and casinos in 2023. It said 2,267 of the complaints were resolved, with just over $9 million returned to the “rightful owners.”

However, more than 100 million people visited US casinos in 2023.

It’s not the first time IGT has been at the center of such a claim.

In 2000, a man claimed he had won a $1.3 million jackpot at Harrah’s Casino in New Orleans but that the Wheel of Fortune machine he had been playing also indicated a reel tilt malfunction, the Las Vegas Sun reported at the time.

The IGT website says that its Wheel of Fortune slot machines, which it calls “the millionaire maker,” have created more than 1,180 millionaires, with over $3.5 billion in jackpot prizes awarded on the machines.