Opinion ID: 1862032
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Freeman's Account of the Events of April 8, 1995

Text: ¶ 5. At the trial hearing before the Commission, Hearing Examiner Larry Stroud heard Freeman's claim that she placed three coins in the Cool Millions slot machine. Freeman said she had been playing for fifteen minutes, playing three coins the entire time, when three symbols lined up on the pay line in red, white and blue order, and the machine registered a jackpot. According to Freeman, the lights and bells went off, the front of the slot machine showed three coins in, and it showed three coins in the display. Freeman further testified that the big number that flashes on top just stopped. Like they normally run on the machine, it didn't run anymore. Shortly thereafter, a Splash slot attendant, Ms. Sandra Garner, [1] arrived and opened the machine and paid her $5.00 in tokens, which Freeman says were drawn from the hopper of the slot machine and not poured into the payout tray of machine automatically. ¶ 6. Freeman alleged that Garner moved something and removed one of the symbols from the pay line. To bolster her claims, Freeman presented the testimony of witnesses, all four of whom were her friends who had accompanied her to Splash Casino. None of the friends testified as to the number of coins played into the machine, and only one, Jackie Yarbrough, claimed to see three Cool Millions symbols in red, white and blue order and heard the bells ringing. Another, Lisa Curry, arrived at the same time as Garner, and she saw three ducks and the lights on top of the machine flashing. ¶ 7. Freeman also testified that a Splash Casino employee, Edna Erwin, [2] told her that she had won the jackpot. However, another of Freeman's friends who was present, Della Miller, testified that Erwin told her that Freeman had not hit the jackpot, but that the slot machine had jammed.