Gambler wins US$55 million casino jackpot case in Vietnam
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An American-Vietnamese man who hit a US$55 million jackpot on a slot machine in a five-star Vietnamese hotel won his lawsuit against the casino after it refused to pay out.
A court in southern Ho Chi Minh City found in favour of the gambler, a court official said without providing any further details.
Media reports said the hearing found that the man should be allowed to collect his winnings, which the casino said were more than one thousand times the supposed maximum from the machine and had been generated by a fault.
According to state-run Thanh Nien newspaper, the man – identified as Ly Sam – saw the figure US$55,542,291.70 flash up as he played on the slot machine at a casino inside the city’s luxury Sheraton hotel in October 2009.
The report said he took pictures of the machine and asked other gamblers present at the time to sign statements saying they had witnessed his win.
But the house manager refused to provide a written confirmation of the eye-popping sum and the casino later said it was invalid because the gaming machine had unspecified faults, the report said.
The owner of the casino told the court the maximum prize was only supposed to be US$46,000, so it was unacceptable that Sam wanted a payment of over US$55 million, Thanh Nien said.
The court rejected the firm’s argument, saying it had failed to show evidence of a fault in the machine. Company representatives said they plan to appeal over the ruling.
