Despite error, woman collects $12,026 in casino winnings

TULALIP RESERVATION — It took three days, but Deborah Hughes finally walked out of the Tulalip Casino a winner yesterday. "I got it! Check it out, guys," she yelled as she walked out of the casino with a check for $12,026.50.

Hughes won the money — at least she thought she had — Friday night after playing a slot machine for about 2½ hours off an initial investment of $10.

When she went to cash out, the slot-machine card — similar to an ATM card — that kept track of her credits showed she'd rolled up more than 48,000 credits, worth more than $12,000.

However, casino officials told her the machine had been set to something called "demo mode," meaning its use was for demonstration and testing only and not an actual playing machine. In small print on the screen, a note indicated the machine was in demo mode.

"It's the first time this happened. The casino was starting to investigate it Friday night," said Chuck James, casino chief-operating officer. "It's a mistake. She didn't know."

Multimedia Games of Austin, Texas, had installed the new slot machine Friday and was testing it. Demonstration mode allows the slot machines, which actually are computers connected to a network inside the casino, to be rapidly tested in all their configurations, James said.

The intent is to speed up the programs to save time, rather than taking several hours to run through the possible configurations. The games are set by a technician working with a laptop computer that connects to the game computer through an access port.

When the technicians are done testing the game, they're supposed to return it to its normal playing configuration. For some reason, that didn't happen Friday.

After learning of the error, Multimedia decided to pay Hughes, 49, the money she thought she'd won. She received the check yesterday.

Multimedia Games acknowledged the casino had no role in the error.

Hughes said she would put the money to good use.

She grew up in Everett, graduated from Cascade High School, married and divorced, moved to Nevada and returned to Marysville about a year ago because her mother was ill. Her mother died in February.

She's been working at a Marysville catering company and now expects to use the money to get her possessions out of storage in Nevada.

She said she was particularly grateful to the casino and Multimedia for honoring their commitments.

"It put me back on the right track," she said. "I just want to say 'thank you.' They've been great."

Peyton Whitely: 206-464-2259 or pwhitely@seattletimes.com