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The House Always Wins
posted 10-30-2009 Average Rating: Register or log in to rate this article. It's fast and free.
Bill Seebek was playing a $4 slot machine for a half hour in a Florida casino, when the sirens of you-just-won-a-boatload-of-money sounded. He had won $166,666,666.65. He thought. The casino roped off the machine and after inspecting the "machine" (evil computer), they ruled that it malfunctioned. The max on that machine should have only been $99,000. Instead, Bill Seebek got nothing because that is the payout for a malfunction.

It always annoys me when I hear someone blaming "the system" instead of the organization that deployed that system. It's like when you're on the phone with your bank or credit card company and they say:

"The system is down now...Sorry...Can't get your information to help you right now."

"The system is so slow."

"I can't get that information because the system doesn't track that." It's as if the computer is culpable for doing something wrong.

Every day we are let down by the computers that surround our lives. Just imagine that it wasn't the bad user interface at the self-service checkout, but losing a nine figure prize instead. As more data of our lives goes online, what "malfunctions" will cause us to have a Seebek situation?
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Michael Grossman merged his skills in graphic design and multimedia into a career in user experience design after graduating with a B.S. in Jazz in 1989. He has delivered projects for clients including Kenneth Cole, Merrill Lynch, Apple, Time Warner, NFL Properties, AOL, Toshiba and W&R Grace.

Read more from him at his blog: User Experience Arts



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   Posted by mainboard, 01-25-2010

Does the house always win?

So the outcome of this whole situation should be
a products liability case or the owner of the slot machine needs to completely
refund all of Mr. Seebek's "investment" for the last half hour.


Terms and conditions may dictate the outcome but there is an assumed risk by
everyone involved, even the slot machine owner for having a malfunctioning
product on display. How many people in this world that do play slot machines
would actually drop a quarter - if there was a sign disclaiming all warranty for
malfunction, fitness for a particular purpose, etc. Perhaps the Florida code
allows for this.

The house may always win but only in situations where the
rules are predefined totally in favor of the house to the point that it would be
a very poor decision for a challenger to enter the game to begin with as this
case may actually be.

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