Fortunato follow-up

I spoke Saturday night with two slot managers at Green Valley Ranch Station Casino about the malfunction of the Fortunato system progressive. The main main jackpot on this progressive is supposed to hit by $10,000 but a couple of nights ago went over that amount.

As I predicted, the casino resolved the matter by chopping $10,000 among the 16 people who were playing when the progressive reached what should have been its maximum. But a couple of things they said surprised me.

The night of the problem, I was told casino management would call Gaming Control to resolve the issue. To my surprise, the slot managers told me Saturday that Gaming had said the casino didn't have to pay anybody anything because the problem was a malfunction.

If you've ever played a slot or video poker machine, you may have noticed somewhere on the glass the words "malfunction voids all pays and plays." I've never seen or even heard of an instance where this wording was used to deny a payout to a customer. I suppose a machine could go wildly out of control, and I guess the casinos are entitled to protection from an obvious problem that's beyond their control.

I would argue that any malfunction of the Fortunato was not of this nature. My understanding is that when this progressive is hit is determined not by any individual machine, but rather by a computer that shoots a signal to the winning machine.. In any event, the malfunction hurt the players and not the casino, which would have had to pay the jackpot if it had been hit. Whether this or just good public relations was the casino's rationale for paying the players, it did the right thing.

I also asked the gentlemen whether anything would be done for those who had played the progressive before the meter reached $10,000 but who were no longer playing when it exceeded its limit. They said no, which didn't surprise me. But the rationale did. Anyone playing the progressive before it reached its "must hit by" amount could have hit it, one of them said. I think the fact that the progressive didn't hit by $10,000 proves that it couldn't have been hit before then.

The way these progressives work is that as soon as the jackpot is hit, a random number generator picks the amount at which it will pop next. In this case, the system either failed to set an amount or set it at more than $10,000. I think the latter is more likely because until its most recent re-set the Fortunato went up to $30,000.

I asked the slot guys if they knew what the hit amount was set for when the progressive malfunctioned. The said they did not.

On Saturday night the progressive was back in business, with the main meter at a little over $5,000. I'll be watching as the meter climbs.