Gambler loses $100,000 casino jackpot to friend due to technicality
When Jan Flato let a friend push the button on a Double Top Dollar slot machine at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, he was hoping she’d win. And she did, making him a very happy man indeed, at least for a moment.
He thought he was the big winner that night, only he was wrong.
The managers at the casino looked at the video, and it showed the woman, 35-year-old Marina Medvedeva Navarro, was the one who pushed the button, making her the winner, not Flato.
To make matters worse, according to him, after winning, she asked the armed security to watch Flato as she left the casino. He has barely heard from her since.
She did however, send him a text a few weeks after her stunning win, asking, “Still hate me?” He responded, “How could you do that to me?” Her reply? “I miss you.”
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Flato has a message for other would-be gamblers: don’t let anyone push your buttons but you.
“I want everybody to know what happened so it won’t happen to them,” said Flato, who added he has known Navarro since 2015. “I’ve played slots all over the country and never had a problem like that. Even the people handing out the money said, ‘This isn’t right.’”
Flato met up with Navarro at the bar, and they headed straight to the high roller room, where he put the money into the slot machine.
“Push the button for good luck” he told her. And the rest is history.
Navarro has told the Miami Herald a different set of events. She stated that it was her that put the $400 into the machine and that she offered to give Flato some of the winnings, but he refused.
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