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          <td valign="top"> <b><font color="#0000CC" size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Feature<br>
            </font></b><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By 
            I. Nelson Rose<br>
            </font><b><font size="3" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br>
            </font></b><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="4"><b><font size="3">Jackpot 
            Jam</font><font size="3" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br>
            </font></b></font><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><b><font color="#999999">What 
            happens when progressive symbols &amp; the law collide?</font></b><br>
            <br>
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                <td width="337">&nbsp;</td>
                <td width="14">&nbsp;</td>
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            <font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Picture 
            this: You put three dollars into a progressive jackpot slot machine 
            in Biloxi, Mississippi. You pull the handle and the reels spin. Suddenly 
            they stop, with jackpot symbols lined up on the payline. Bells ring 
            and lights flash. The machine freezes, with a scale showing the progressive 
            jackpot is $509,000. Other players are congratulating you. <br>
            What a feeling! You just won the jackpot. Right?<br>
            <br>
            </font> <font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Now 
            imagine casino employees show up, take a quick look and say, 'The 
            machine malfunctioned.' They open the front of the machine and start 
            fiddling around inside. You cannot see what they are doing. Suddenly 
            you realize they are spinning the reels, erasing the jackpot, your 
            jackpot. One of them even removes one of the reels from the machine!<br>
            <br>
            A man in a suit and tie tells you that you did not win. A crowd has 
            gathered. A player whispers in your ear, 'Have them call the Gaming 
            Commission.' This is the first time you had ever heard you could do 
            that.<br>
            <br>
            'Would you please call the Gaming Commission?' you ask the suit. Even 
            though the law requires that in disputes of at least $500, Mississippi 
            casinos 'shall immediately notify the executive director', the casino 
            executive actually discourages you from involving the Commission. 
            You keep asking.<br>
            <br>
            Finally, the casino calls the Commission. It takes the investigating 
            agent another hour to arrive.<br>
            <br>
            You hit what you thought was the jackpot at 2:14 a.m. By the time 
            he shows up it is after 4 a.m. Almost all of the other casino patrons 
            have gone home.<br>
            <br>
            The agent talks with you and several casino employees, but you notice 
            he is not taking any notes.<br>
            <br>
            He looks at the slot machine and runs some tests. No one working for 
            the casino tells the agent that they had entered and manipulated the 
            machine prior to his arrival.<br>
            <br>
            There are 16 cameras covering this part of the casino, all making 
            videotapes of what is happening. You later find out that the law requires 
            the casino to retain all videotapes for at least 10 days. The casino 
            claims it kept these original tapes for 10 days, although the surveillance 
            supervisor testified that he decided that night to erase them. In 
            either case, the casino tapes over all 16 camera shots.<br>
            <br>
            The casino surveillance supervisor did start to make a copy of one 
            camera angle onto a new videotape. But he only dubs eight minutes. 
            The Commission's investigator looks over the little that had been 
            recorded and finds it is not helpful.<br>
            <br>
            The casino claims the slot machine registered a 'tilt', a malfunction, 
            and froze up because the machine's door registered that it had been 
            opened. It is easy to find out whether it was an open door or a jackpot. 
            Every slot machine's computer comes with a custom buffer, a 'cus buf' 
            report, which shows all door openings, tilts and jackpots.<br>
            <br>
            The Commission agent does not ask for this report. The casino erases 
            it.<br>
            <br>
            The Commission investigator finds, surprise, that you have not won.<br>
            <br>
            So you hire an attorney, who files a formal Petition for Investigation 
            with the Commission. A month after the incident, the Commission assigns 
            a new agent, who has to start from scratch. Of course, by this time, 
            virtually all the evidence has been destroyed.<br>
            <br>
            This nightmare actually happened to David Hallmark. The amazing thing 
            is not that he had been treated so shabbily. Many casinos treat players 
            who claim disputed jackpots as menacing pests.<br>
            <br>
            The real surprise is that any casino in Mississippi would mishandle 
            a patron dispute so badly, after they had been explicitly warned by 
            the State Supreme Court.<br>
            <br>
            In 1999, a trial judge in Tunica County actually reversed a decision 
            by the Gaming Commission and awarded a player, Effie Freeman, a jackpot. 
            The state's highest court reversed, holding that the Commission had 
            to be upheld if there was any evidence supporting its decision.<br>
            <br>
            But the court went on to discuss the 'many procedural errors and several 
            coincidences that are at least suspicious.' For example, there was 
            no surveillance videotape because the tapes were changed, with no 
            backup system, at the exact moment Freeman put money into the slot.<br>
            <br>
            In an unusual move, the Justices spelled out how a dispute should 
            be handled, such as removing the slot machine from further play.<br>
            <br>
            Justice McRae wrote a dissent, saying that he would have awarded Freeman 
            the jackpot. He said when a casino 'spoils' the evidence, such as 
            by opening the machine and manipulating the reels before an investigator 
            arrives, there should be a presumption 'that the slot machine would 
            have been evidence unfavorable to the casino.'<br>
            <br>
            Again in 2001, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a casino against 
            a player, James C. Thomas. But the court made it clear it did so 'reluctantly.' 
            There was so much evidence that Thomas had not won that the court 
            could not give him the slot jackpot. But it went out of its way to 
            reprimand the casino for violating regulations.<br>
            <br>
            The Hallmark case was the final straw. The Supreme Court slapped the 
            casino's hand, hard. Even though it appears Hallmark had lined up 
            only two winning symbols, indicating a non-progressive prize of $20,000, 
            the Court awarded him the full $509,000 progressive jackpot.<br>
            <br>
            Mississippi casinos may have finally learned their lesson. At the 
            end of 2002, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a casino, because 
            it locked up the machine, immediately called the Commission, took 
            a photo of the reel display, opened the machine only with a Commission 
            investigator present, and sent the machine's computer processor and 
            memory to the Commission's Gaming Laboratory.<br>
            <br>
            Mississippi casinos may be finally treating jackpot disputes with 
            respect.<br>
            <br>
            <i>Professor I. Nelson Rose is recognized as one of the world's leading 
            authorities on gambling law. His website is www.GamblingAndTheLaw.com.</i></font><br>
            <br>
            <br>
            <br>
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