The operators of PhiladelphiaPark Casino in Bensalem must be testing just how little they can wager to win a jackpot of bad publicity. So far, the nominal bet is only a couple of comps to their casino's buffet.
That's the consolation prize casino officials presented to Stephen Wilkinson, a retired carpenter from Feasterville who thought he'd won $102,000 at the slots on Monday.
Even though a message on the Wheel of Fortune video screen Wilkinson was playing said he was $102,000 richer, the machine was designed to pay off a top prize of only $5,000. The jackpot limit was posted in the casino.
So the casino officials who gathered around Wilkinson immediately told him he was not a winner. He did not get the casino-floor parade, and other hoopla, usually accorded big PhiladelphiaPark winners.
Now isn't that a wonderful message for Pennsylvania's fledgling slots gambling industry to send? If slots players cannot be assured of a big pot when their slot machine lights up, maybe they'll stay away - or go to Atlantic City, where slot malfunctions are said to be few and far between.
Gamblers understand that the odds of winning are stacked against them. But casino operators don't really want their customers to think they're being played for total fools.
For their part, PhiladelphiaPark officials said, "Nothing is more important to us than the integrity of our operations and the service to our customers."
Any erosion of customers' confidence in casinos should worry Harrisburg officials even more. After all, they're looking to gambling to provide millions of dollars in property-tax relief each year.
Wilkinson did the right thing by promptly filing a complaint with the state Gaming Control Board. An investigation of the malfunction has been promised. The casino could be "heavily fined and sanctioned to deter future behavior of a similar nature," according to a board spokesman.
One sure means of seeing that casinos maintain their slots would be for state gambling regulators to require that the jackpot limit be paid on any machine that malfunctions.
PhiladelphiaPark, which has paid out more than $166 million in winnings since opening, sure could have afforded to hand Wilkinson $5,000, the top prize for his apparently malfunctioning machine, to go with those buffet comps.
