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A routine night at Bally’s Atlantic City turned into a legal battle for Roney Beal after she claimed she was wrongly denied a $2.5 million jackpot. What began as excitement on the casino floor has now moved into a federal courtroom.
Good to know
- The case involves a Wheel of Fortune Wide Area Progressive slot machine jackpot.
- A federal judge allowed the lawsuit to proceed despite Bally’s attempt to dismiss it.
- New Jersey gaming regulators are running their own investigation into the disputed payout.
Beal says she hit the life-changing jackpot on February 25, only to be told the win was invalid due to a “tilt” error on the machine. According to her lawsuit, casino employees opened the machine and manipulated it without her permission after she triggered the winning combination.
A Courtroom Fight Over a Casino Jackpot
The case is being handled in the US District Court for the District of New Jersey. Earlier this week, Judge Christine O’Hearn rejected Bally’s request to have the case tossed out, which keeps Beal’s breach-of-contract claim alive.
Beal argues that a slot machine win creates what’s known as an aleatory contract — a deal based on uncertain events, such as jackpots. By her account, Bally’s violated that agreement when they refused to pay.
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Her lawsuit was first filed in state court in June but later shifted to federal court in July. A negligence claim was dismissed earlier under the state’s economic loss doctrine, leaving the contract dispute at the center of the fight.
Bally’s maintains that the jackpot could not be honored because the machine malfunctioned. The casino points to the “tilt” error as proof the payout was void, insisting the incident falls under standard gaming rules.
At the same time, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement is investigating the matter. State regulators often step in when large jackpots are contested, and their findings could influence the direction of the case.
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