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.

Don't have any answers for you, but I'm certain that someone will.

Justed wanted to welcome you to the boards.

__________________
"I am in so far in blood, that sin will pluck on sin" - Richard III

Sticky Wild,

Nothing is more frustrating than a slot attendant that does not know how to do their job when you think you've won something. What he should have done is call a slot supervisor to examine the situation.

Getting back to the slot itself, you said that you got Johnny Tony Johnny. The only thing I can think of is that the "and/or" probably means, 2,3,4,5 Johnny's "OR" 2,3,4,5 Tony's. Since Tony is a wild symbol, I doubt it would subtitute for a Johnny symbol. Although some slots do have wild symbols that substitute bonus symbols, having 10 symbols that activate the bonus is a lot. I will be going to a indian casino in northern cali tonight, I will keep an eye out for that machine and hopefully I can come up with a better answer for you.

Stay tuned.

TOP DOLLAR PLAYER

Thanks Soloman, and TopDollar for your nice welcome and your thoughts.

Interesting that you bring up the Johnny/Tony/Johnny issue. When the incident happened, the slot attendant's supervisor wasn't on duty, so I guess he did all he could do at the time. He did admit, "I'm still learning this slot myself."

I was able to speak to the supervisor today and he was extremely nice about it. In fact, he thought I was someone else, because they have had a number of complaints about it. The machine I was playing when it happened now displays an "Out of Service" message. He told me they had been monitoring the slot, and that the bonus was not initiating when Johnny was the first symbol to come up. He also said the bonus was not initiating when the symbols started in the bottom left corner, but only from the top left corner. He said they would review the paperwork for the slot and see what exactly is required to initiate the bonus, and take it from there. He took my name and info.

As far as the "and/or" issue... it seems to me that this would indicate that any mixed Johnny/Tony symbols (on adjacent lines starting with the left) start the bonus, similar to the "Sun and Moon" slot that Aristocrat makes (2, 3, 4, or 5 mixed sun/moon symbols giving 5, 10, 20 or 50 spins respectively). If not, then the wording on the pay table seriously needs to be changed.

In any event, I'm now satisfied that the casino is doing what they can to rectify the issue.

Enjoy your visit to the casino, and have a happy holiday season!

Edited to say: I take back my comments about the slot tech, calling him "misinformed" or accusing him of BSing me. I can see where he is coming from... his first instinct is to calm down the player and explain why they didn't win, which he admirably tried to do. And on top of that, there's the potentially confusing/conflicting pay table info. Yes, it does say Tony substitutes for all symbols except scattered Johnnys. But then it says Tony "and/or" Johnny initiates the bonus. I just figured it meant, you don't get TWO scatter pays for initiating the bonus. So it appears, in my opinion, that either the machine is screwed up, or the paytable/rules on the front display are.

So was it really a malfunction?
And did they say how you would be compensated?

TOP DOLLAR PLAYER