Nothing good has ever started with someone thinking they just won a massive jackpot and then immediately choosing violence.
Enter George Smith, who turned what could’ve been the greatest night of his life at Grand Casino into an all-time disaster.
Smith is playing a video poker machine, things are heating up, and suddenly the screen blacks out right as he believes he just hit a $600,000 jackpot. Instant chaos.
Instead of, I don’t know, calling over an employee like a normal person, he goes full meltdown mode and starts absolutely destroying the machine. We’re talking full on smashing, like the machine personally robbed him.
Which, in his mind, it probably did.
The video goes viral because it looks like the most suspicious timing ever. Screen goes black, guy loses it, jackpot potentially gone. Internet immediately jumps to, “casino rigged it,” “no way that’s a coincidence,” all the usual stuff.
The investigation comes back and basically says, yeah, the machine didn’t glitch, YOU broke it.
Turns out the blackout wasn’t some shady casino move, it was caused by Smith repeatedly striking the machine. So the thing shuts down because it’s literally being assaulted.
So now instead of collecting $600K, Smith walks away with exactly zero dollars, a lifetime ban from the casino, and misdemeanor charges for damaging property worth over $1,000.
And look, casino machines malfunctioning is everyone’s worst nightmare. That’s the kind of scenario that makes your blood boil instantly. But going full Hulk mode on the machine is about the worst possible move you can make.
Because now, even if there was a chance something weird happened, you just destroyed the evidence.
