A woman plays a slot machine at the Island View Casino in Gulfport, Mississippi November 9, 2009. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
TOULOUSE, France (Reuters) - A French court has split the jackpot from a casino slot machine between the woman who put in the money and the man who pulled the lever, ending months of argument between the two.
Marie-Helene Jarguel walked off with over 2 million euros ($2.91 million) in March after a bet of 50 euros on a one-armed bandit, only for her gambling partner Francis Sune to contest her gain based on the fact that he activated the machine.
A court in the southwestern city of Montpellier ruled on Tuesday that Jarguel should keep 80 percent of the earnings while the rest should go to Sune, a judicial source said.
The ruling was a legal innovation. The judges noted that there was “no judicial definition of the winner in a slot machine game.”
Reporting by Nicolas Fichot, writing by Estelle Shirbon, editing by Paul Casciato
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