International Game Technology (IGT) and five casino operators have been named in a class action lawsuit over the company’s retail Wheel of Fortune slot machine, which features a mechanical spinning bonus wheel. The lawsuit, filed in Nevada’s U.S. District Court , contends that wheel’s design is deceptive because its segments are of equal size but aren’t all equally likely to result from a spin.
The suit, filed by David O’Mara of the O’Mara Law Firm in Reno on behalf of four plaintiffs, also names MGM Resorts International, Bally’s Corporation, PENN Entertainment, Station Casinos, and Boyd Gaming Corporation. It claims that the alleged “deceptive and misleading promotion and operation of [IGT’s] Wheel of Fortune-themed electronic gaming devices” are a violation of federal racketeering laws.
The complaint for Bownes et al v. International Game Technology PLC et al asserts that the presentation of the wheel suggests that it’s a mechanical device obeying the laws of physics.
Accordingly, casino players reasonably believe that when they play the game and are able to spin the wheel, the indicator [will have] just as good of a chance of landing on the highest-value segment as the player has of landing on the lowest-value segment.
In reality, the outcome is determined digitally, and the wheel stops wherever the machine’s internal computer tells it to. That system is essentially identical to the way reels work on any modern electromechanical slot. The key question in the lawsuit will be whether the physical design and visual presentation of the wheel differs significantly and in a misleading way from the spinning reels of other machines in that category.
How electromechanical slots work
Electromechanical slots have been around for decades and operate with regulatory approval in retail casinos across the country. Like the spaces on the Wheel of Fortune machine’s wheel, their reels aren’t equally likely to land on every symbol. That allows them to offer higher volatility than they otherwise could. Without the ability to adjust the probabilities, the frequency of the highest-paying outcomes would be constrained by the physical size of the reels.
However, those devices do spark controversy at times, particularly when a malfunction results in the reels showing a result that disagrees with the machine’s internal math. The same Wheel of Fortune machine at issue in Bownes et al was also the subject of another lawsuit earlier this year.
This past February, a New Jersey gambler playing Wheel of Fortune thought she’d won a $1.2 million jackpot. However, the casino denied her winnings due to a mechanical error known as reel tilt.
Reel tilt is an issue specific to these RNG-driven electromechanical slots. The results generated by the machine’s RNG, known as the virtual reels, relay a signal to the physical reels, allowing them to stop in the correct position to reflect the same results.
Reel tilt occurs when the physical reels stick in the wrong position and don’t match the virtual reels. It’s an expression dating back to purely mechanical slots, which had tilt switches similar to pinball machines and would void play in the event of tampering.
Bonus wheel likened to rigged roulette
The Bownes et al complaint goes on to contend that IGT and the other defendants intentionally failed to disclose the wheel’s unequal probabilities. This, it says, “fraudulently deprives players of increased winnings, and fraudulently induces players to play or to continue to play the subject devices, thus unjustly increasing Defendants’ profits associated with such devices.”
The plaintiffs argue that the wheel is equivalent to a roulette wheel with a magnet affixed “beneath the green zero and double-zero segment.”
The lawsuit could include additional plaintiffs who, like the quartet named in the suit, played Wheel of Fortune-themed games with a bonus wheel feature at any property owned or operated by any of the casino defendants within the U.S.
