Katrina Bookman grew up in foster homes, lived on the street as a teenager, and raised her four children alone in New York. On August 5, 2016, she put 40 cents into a machine called Sphinx Wild inside Resorts World Casino, in Queens. The lights flashed, the bells rang, and the screen showed 42,949,672.76 dollars. She took a selfie with the number there, frozen, and was already thinking about giving her son a million so he could open a barbershop.
An employee told her to come back the next day for the official process. When she returned, the casino explained that the machine had malfunctioned. She had won nothing. They offered her 2.25 dollars, which was what her printed ticket showed, and a complimentary dinner. “Seriously? I felt insulted”, she said. Bookman rejected the offer and sued the casino, its parent company, and the machine’s manufacturer, demanding at least the legitimate maximum prize of 6,500 dollars.
The New York Gaming Commission confirmed the technical failure, but a notice printed on each machine exempted the casino from paying for errors. After years of delays, a judge of the Queens County Supreme Court ruled in favor of the casino. Katrina Bookman did not get the 43 million, nor the 6,500 dollars, not even the dinner.
