I am currently employed with Ted's Music Co., which is a video poker game room. Ted's Music is also in affiliation with SSK Enterprises and Diamond Games. On Sept.16, 2001 I was working. That night I was there with several customers and we were all playng various games. I was playing one of the games and hit the jackpot for $25,000.

The machine did not ring or print out a ticket as it normally does. So I asked a friend to bring their cam corder there so we could record the screen, the paytable, and the serial number on that machine. I also called another employee to come and look at this machine as well. I left the machine on for my manager to verify it the next day. He did not know what to do so he told me to leave it on for now.

On Tuesday, when I arrived to work at 5pm, a technician was looking into the memory of the game. At the same time, two of my friends arrived. We all stood and watched as he went through various screens which in fact verified what I was betting and that I had hit the jackpot. The technician stated there was no malfunction in front of all of us, and said he wasn't sure what to do. Later that evening, their boss called and told them it was a malfunction.

I spoke with her first and she said something had to be wrong because it wouldn't hit the jackpot until at least $36,000 had passed through it (which is completely false). She then spoke with my manager and told him it was a malfunction and that I would not recieve any winnings. On Sept. 19th, three days after I won, she faxed a memo stating employees were not allowed to play the games and were ineligible to receive any winnings, although we have always been told that it was ok for us to play and win. In fact, this woman Cheryl, who sent the memo, has often came in to play, and received her winnings.

I have names, addresses, and phone numbers of all the customers who were there, a videotape of the game, a copy of the letter dated after the fact, and my previous boss who was employed with Ted's until 4 weeks ago willing to state that this is no malfunction.

We have always given our customers their gift certificates when tickets did not print. As long as it was verified in the game memory it was fine. Also, included in the memo was a statement about the collections made from the machines. They are claiming that they are short $4000, but there are 5 employees with acess to the machines. The manager made a comment to my co-worker that "he can pretty much guess where the money went," insinuating that I took the money. I am in a situation where I want to quit because of the $25,000, however, I do not want to leave knowing they will blame me for the loss of the $4,000.

We'd say Carolin should contact the District Attorney.