Despite hitting a big win at the Treasure Island Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Robert Taylor walked away unaware of his massive win due to a malfunction of the slot machine.
A few minutes after playing The Mask slot machine on Jan. 8, Arizona resident Robert Taylor encountered a glitch. According to Chief Taylor, he walked out of the store with about $40 after being paid his remaining credits and a few more dollars.
The Search Begins
NVGCB enforcement division chief James Taylor says it took weeks to find the winner and award him his money.
“It seemed unlikely that we would be able to identify him,”
Our goal was to find the owner of this money, so we put a lot of effort into it.”
Two days later, when the machine was fixed, the casino learned Taylor had hit a progressive jackpot worth $229,368.52 US dollars ($290,644.32 Canadian).
The Nevada Gaming Control Board was asked to assist Treasure Island in identifying the winner.
After searching thousands of hours of surveillance footage, the search took 20 days. As this was not a criminal case, Taylor’s team couldn’t use legal methods like subpoenas since there was no clue about the winner’s name or where he was from.
” We only had his clothing and his companions to go on, as well as the part of his face that wasn’t covered.” Taylor explained.
Uber to the Rescue
Investigators saw a person matching the winner’s description getting into a car after sifting through surveillance and cctv footage around the casino and hotel.
The group of people we were watching on video had taken an Uber, and we were able to identify them.”
In order to notify the winner’s family, investigators contacted the Uber company. The winner was skeptical at first, but when he realized it was real, he was over the moon.