I was sitting with my wife at a slot machine at a casino in the NW suburb of Phoenix when we hit a big win. It didn't require a W-2G or anything, but it made me start to think. We were sitting together with her player's card in the machine, but it was "my turn to play," so I hit the button. If we had won a really large amount, could they have denied it or voided it if they went back and looked at the cameras and saw that it wasn't my wife that was playing? Can a person win a jackpot with another person's card in the machine? Would the casino have paid me, since I was sitting at the machine, or pay my wife because it's her card that's in the machine?
This question comes up fairly frequently, but we haven't run it for a few years. So here it is again.
The answer is: Whosoever presseth the button winneth the payout.
It doesn’t matter who’s sitting in the chair, or standing next to or behind the machine. It doesn’t matter whose money it is. It doesn't matter whose player's card is in the machine. It doesn't matter if one of the parties produces a contract stipulating the split with the other party or parties. It doesn’t even matter if it's the person actually playing the machine; if a stranger happens to walk by, slap the button, and hit a big jackpot, it’s his or hers (though we suppose other issues might come into play in that situation.)
This is the policy in almost all casinos -- California, Nevada, Arizona, and everywhere else we know of.
We assume you and your wife wouldn't have a problem when one of you received the money for the win. But if there’s ever a legal problem between playing partners or parties, casinos stick to policy, even if the person who doesn’t get paid says he provided the money for the play and/or the players had an agreement. There have been many many lawsuits about this over the years.
In one case we followed in 2017, a man and his "girlfriend" were playing a slot machine at the Seminole Hard Rock in Fort Lauderdale. His money. Her finger. She pushed the spin button and hit a $100,000 jackpot. Casino surveillance confirmed that she’d done the deed. She not only collected, but also asked security to walk her out to her car to prevent him from harassing her — and so much for that relationship. In fact, we heard that the man couldn’t find a lawyer to take the case, which says a lot about the policy being quite clear and firm.
A casino might hedge a little, but only if the two players have a single club account or the same last name. In the overwhelming number of cases, the casino follows the exact policy.
The moral of the story: Don’t ever let anyone push your button, unless you're prepared for the potential consequences.
