A news story broke in November 2016 – the story of Katrina Bookman, a woman who had entered the Resorts World Casino in New York and won nearly $43 million. Only she didn’t, or so the casino told her when she tried to collect her money from the cashier.

She was informed, on that fateful day, that she would collect no money whatsoever because the game she had played and won had malfunctioned, effectively voiding her win. Devastated, Bookman vowed to get justice, with media outlets first to catch wind of her story.

So, what happened to Katrina Bookman? Did she sue the casino to get her money, and did she succeed in the end? We set out to find out!

What happened to Katrina Bookman at Resorts World Casino?

Had it not been for her near-$43-million win, you may not have heard aboutKatrina Bookman at all. As fate would have it, however, the woman ended up on the gaming floor in Resorts World Casino in New York in 2016.

She sat down to have a quiet gaming session and picked Sphinx Wild as her preferred game. Betting $0.40 a round, something unexpected happened. She won a number so big that it took a while to read - $42,949,672.

Commenting for media outlets, she said that she couldn’t describe the feeling. It was like her entire body went "numb." Remembering the moment, Bookman immediately set out to make plans for her future.

Her son, an aspiring barber, would receive at least $1,000,000 of the prize money to open his dream barber shop. However, her joy was short-lived, as she was told that her win would not be paid out because of a game malfunction.

How Much Did Katrina Bookman Win?

In the end, Bookman did not win anything but accepting this was difficult for the woman who had already started to dream about what she would do with the money. She first approached the cashier and requested to cash out her money. However, her request was denied, and the staff informed her that the game she had been playing simply malfunctioned.

The machine even displayed a disclaimer that "Malfunction voids all pays and plays." Hoping to resolve the situation, the casino later offered to buy her a steak dinner, but Bookman flatly refused, trying to understand how it could be that the machine displayed nearly $43 million in winning prize, but the casino would not honor this.

The casino also offered to pay out the $2.25 winnings that were displayed on her printed-out ticket she got from the machine after she supposedly hit the big win. She refused to do that as well.

To her, the whole situation appeared strange and even dishonest. The casino staffer who handled her case told her to return the next day while the casino reviewed the case, but while leaving the premises, Bookman overheard one of the staffers say that she hadn’t won anything.

A Resorts World spokesperson told CNN: "Upon being notified of the situation, casino personnel were able to determine that the figure displayed on the penny slot was the result of an obvious malfunction – a fact later confirmed by the New York State Gaming Commission."

That was indeed the case. When Bookman returned on the next day, the casino had the dinner and $2.25 proposition waiting for her. Later, commenting for the media, Bookman said, " I feel like I should win the max. And I should treat him, the employee, to a steak dinner."

Katrina Bookman tried to sue the casino and developer

Katrina Bookman was adamant, and she quickly resolved to secure legal help to see if she could force the casino or the supplier to pay out what she was owed. She hired an attorney, one Alan Ripka, who was confident that his client was owed much more than the casino made out.

Ripka argued that Bookman was owed at least the maximum payable amount by the penny slot - $6,500 at the very least (perhaps realizing that his client could not ever request the $43-million payday). Resorts World refused this argument as well and apologized for the inconvenience that the ordeal had caused.

Ripka, though, did not relent. He argued that a machine cannot be just broken because someone claims it to be broken. "Does that mean it wasn’t inspected? Does it mean it wasn’t maintained? And if so, does that mean people who played there before had zero chance of winning?" he told CNNMoney.

Bookman intended to sue both Resorts World Casino and the game’s developer, International Game Technology, but at the same time, delays surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult to bring the case.

A judge in Queens County Supreme Court eventually ruled that Bookman was indeed not owed anything by the casino, basing it on the legal precedent that casinos can indeed refuse to pay out when it concerns explicit malfunctions registered in the software.

Katrina Bookman Casino Win - Frequently Asked Questions

Why won’t casinos "honor" their payouts?

Reading into Katrina Bookman’s case, one may think that there was some cheating going on, but the fact is that there was none. Casinos are entitled to refuse payouts if it concerns a genuine game malfunction.

The fact that the disclaimers exist does not necessarily always exempt the parties involved from liability, of course, but in this particular case, the established legal precedent suggests that there is a verifiable way to check if a machine really malfunctioned in a single instant.

Bookman’s story is not the only case of a gambler thinking that they had won big, only to have their dreams dashed. Another prominent case involves that of Pauline McKee, who was playing the Miss Kitty game at the Isle Casino Waterloo and won 185 credits, or $1.85.

However, the machine had malfunctioned, showing her that she had won $41,797,550.16. McKee’s case followed a similar trajectory to that of Bookman’s. The casino refused to pay out, and McKee took the property to court. By the time the matter was settled, the octogenarian had turned 90, but the outcome was already known – "malfunction voids all pays and plays."

Even more outlandishly, one Bill Seebeck supposedly won $166 million playing a slot machine game at the Hard Rock Casino in Florida. However, the casino simply informed Seebeck that the machine had malfunctioned, and he couldn't have paid out that much.

While these cases may appear unjust, they reflect objective reality. A minor glitch in the software sometimes produces the wrong messages, but these glitches are caught instantly and voided as per the rules. Worst of all, though, most players, Bookman included, refuse to believe that this is right, and she has a point – it doesn’t feel honest, but it is what it is.

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