Gambler Loses Lawsuit Over Jackpot : Court: Foothill Ranch teacher claimed casino owner was responsible for promise to hold slot machine; jury sides against her.

Legal bills are all Heather Devon has to show for an eight-year gamble that started with a yank of the handle on a Las Vegas slot machine and ended Tuesday in a Nevada courtroom.

A Las Vegas jury rejected Devon’s allegation that the former owners of the Frontier Hotel-Casino cheated her out of a $97,823 jackpot when it reneged on a promise to “reserve” a slot machine into which she had plunked dollar coins for 12 hours straight.

After Devon, a substitute teacher from Foothill Ranch, took a break that November morning in 1991, she returned to discover that another gambler had hit the jackpot--on that very machine.

When the shock wore off, Devon sued, demanding that the casino fork over a second jackpot, plus interest.

Devon said the casino staff promised to lock down the slot machine while she ate breakfast, but testimony at the trial indicated that workers opened the machine for another player--who slipped them a $20 tip.

Frontier attorney Steve Cohen said slot machines are “never due to hit,” a point backed up by an employee of International Gaming Technology of Reno, which built the machine. The employee told the jury that the position in which a slot machine’s reels stop is based on a series of random, constantly changing numbers picked by the machine’s computerized brain.

For Devon to win the jackpot, she would have had to pull the lever at the same exact millisecond the winner did, Cohen said.

Devon’s attorney, Cal Potter, argued that the casino should compensate his client because it failed to abide by its own policy about opening machines that are reserved. The casino also violated policy by not giving Devon a closure slip that states when the machine would be reopened.

“She had an opportunity to win, and this case is about lost opportunity,” Potter said during the trial.

Devon, then a Buena Park resident, had gone to Las Vegas with her mother and brother for what she had called a “memorial” to her father, who died four months earlier.

About 7:45 p.m. on Nov. 6, she sat down with a $100 kitty and a gambler’s optimism at the progressive dollar slot machine.

Over the next 12 hours, she cycled about $20,000 in winnings through the machine and watched the jackpot grow. She didn’t eat or take bathroom breaks, she said.

About 8:45 a.m., a casino floor worker recommended that she take a break to eat, Devon said. She hesitated, but the worker offered to shut down the machine so no one else could play it. Saving a machine for a gambler is a matter of individual casino policy and is not required, according to state gambling regulators.

Attorneys for Frontier disputed Devon’s assertion and said she was the one who asked for the break and that the machine be held. In most cases, machines are held long enough for a gambler to eat--about 45 minutes on average, the Frontier attorneys said.

Devon said she returned an hour and 45 minutes later, only to discover a crowd around a man sitting on the same chair--celebrating his jackpot win.

She complained to on-duty managers, who consulted with the owners of the casino, but she left the Frontier empty-handed. So she started calling lawyers.

Devon’s suit was against Unbelievable Inc., the company that owned the Frontier during Devon’s ill-fated visit. The casino was sold in 1998 after a six-year strike by kitchen and building workers. The hotel itself, under new ownership, was not a defendant.

Because she lost the lawsuit, Devon is required to pay court costs and jury fees, and attorneys for Frontier could also seek reimbursement for their legal fees.

Times wire services contributed to this report.