Opinion ID: 1862032
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Mitchell's Testimony

Text: ¶ 20. CDS employee Gary Mitchell was in charge of monitoring the computers which track all of the Cool Millions slot machines in Mississippi. According to Mitchell, the CDS Transaction Logs (computer reports generated by CDS system) record every jackpot greater than $400, because the Cool Millions system was programmed so that every jackpot of $400 or more had to be paid by hand. The CDS computer showed that Freeman's slot machine was in a hopper tilt, that there was a slot open by the casino employee entering the machine; that the door was closed but the problem remained; that the door was reopened and then closed; and that play then began again. ¶ 21. According to Mitchell, if there had been a primary progressive jackpot, the reports would have indicated a jackpot on the both the CDS monitors and on the CDS computers. The CDS computer screen would have turned bright red, and CDS would have to verify the jackpot at the site. Mitchell further testified that CDS would have no motive to deny a legitimate jackpot, because the money to pay out had already been set aside and having a winner would bring positive publicity for their games. Furthermore, Mitchell stated that had a jackpot hit, the word jackpot would have appeared in the coin-in display, the meters would have reset to the base amount, and every fifteen minutes the Cool Millions meters in every Mississippi casino would have displayed the winning machine's number and the dollar amount won. ¶ 22. During cross-examination, Mitchell asserted that the computer system was on-line 24 hours a day, and that if the system were to fail, the information would still be reported by a back-up system. The system had previously been tested for two months at four different sites, and before installation, an independent testing agency, Gaming Labs International, had also tested the system.