New member here, first post... Hi!

Please bear with me, this is a bit long.

I am not a moron. I play slots ALL the time, especially penny slots. I always read the pay tables before I play and I understand the terminology used therein. I also know that the likelihood of a machine malfunctioning is almost zero. Here is what happened to me at my local Indian casino here in northern Cali:

Playing the brand new Sopranos "Top Boss" game (Aristocrat)... I put in $20 and made my bet of 20 lines, two pennies per line (I know... I'm cheap). Now.. first spin, nothing. Second spin, on the bottom line,first three reels, I get the symbols: Johnny Sack, Tony Soprano, Johnny Sack...

Now, looking at the paytable, it says "Win 5, 10, 20, or 50 spins with and 2, 3, 4, or 5 SCATTERED (Tony Soprano) AND/OR (Johnny Sack) symbols." In essence, the free spin bonus is exactly the same as Aristocrat's "Sun and Moon" slot.

It also specifies that "scattered" on this machine, means adjacent reels starting with the leftmost reel. So, I should have had 10 free spins. Nothing happened. Also, the Tony symbol is wild, so I had other small wins in there as well (three kings, etc). Nothing happens. Game over.

I checked the paytable over and over again. 2, 3, 4, or 5 Tonys and/or Johnnys on adjacent reels starting with the left brings the free spin bonus. I got it the night before on a different machine. So I call a slot technician.

He obviously does not know what he is talking about. He just keeps repeating, basically, "The machine is right." "If you had won, you'd be getting free spins" etc... He was nice about it, but he made me feel like a moron. I know what scattered means, I know what "And/or" means, and I know what "adjacent reels" means. I know that I won.

He says "No, it wasn't on a payline." He shows me the paylines at the bottom of the paytable to prove this, however, it actually shows the opposite. Since the illustration of the paylines highlights the pay positions on all five reels, he tells me "You have to get five of them to get a pay". This is utter crap. One look at the paytable tells you this. In fact anybody who has played multiline slots for more than a few seconds can tell you this.

I pointed out to him the part of the paytable about the scattered Tony/Johnny symbols, ande he says "Yeah, if it's on a payline." Sorry, but this person seems to not understand the terms "adjacent" or "scattered", nor even the basic workings of a slot paytable. So he's either uninformed or he is BSing me. He repeats the mantra "The machine is right", but tells me I am welcome to complain to the manager on a weekday.

Has anyone had any experience like this? I know the first instinct of any employee is that I am either wrong, stupid, mistaken, or don't understand how these things work. The machines are supposed to be infallible. But I, the person I was with, and even the techincian himself SAW the three adjacent symbols starting with the left reel. Hell, they were even ON a payline.

So, were I to take him up on this and complain to the manager, what are the possible outcomes? I understand that video surveilance would show exactly what happened, down to the fine print on the machine. I also know every machine says "malfunction voids play" or something. So they could just say "Sorry, good luck next time!" on that basis.

And I know the easiest and most likely assumption in cases like this is the player is mistaken. I know I am not. I can read. I can see. I know what I got and I know what it is supposed to give me for that.

Any thoughts, annecdotes, advice will be greatly appreciated.