Sydney Star Casino ATM mistake causes millions of dollars to be handed out to ... trends now
A malfunction caused four casino ATMs to hand out over $3.2million in free cash to those in the know over a two-week period.
Word quickly spread among gamblers, criminals and even homeless people that cash was being dispensed freely from the 'ticket in, cash out' machines in Sydney's Star casino - with 43 people taking advantage of the bonanza.
In total the machines dispensed $3,219,420 over 13 days.
A software glitch occurred in machines that redeem tickets barcoded with gambling winnings as cash.
Gamblers discovered if they fed in more than one ticket, all of them would be paid out but only a single docket would be kept by the machine. The others were spat out allowing them to be redeemed multiple times for their cash amount.
An inquiry has heard how a malfunction caused four ATMs at The Star casino in Sydney to hand out free cash
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The lure of the free cash even caused one recovering gaming addict to relapse.
Thanh Lan Le told the Sydney Morning Herald that she had spent eight months away from her destructive habit when a friend's boyfriend showed her how the machines were handing the cash.
She spent the next 10 days milking the ATMs, visiting them on 34 times to take out $57,265 and then spending all but $5,000 of the funds at the casino.
'I was in this trance,' she said.
'I'm really annoyed with myself. All that work I'd done with my psychologist was out the window.'
Twice she fell asleep at pokie machines and was offered a room in the casino's hotel by staff, which she accepted and paid out of the money taken from the ATMs.
After the fault was detected Le and others who had benefited from
