A casino in Arizona had to be evacuated recently due to a monsoon storm, leaving around 200 players at the slot machines wondering what would happen to their winnings.

Cashout Issues

The monsoon on August 11 led to a major power outage at the Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale, with casino officials stating that the power is still out this week. The casino, as well as resort, is expected to stay closed at least until August 19.

It has been estimated that as many as 200 people were playing the slot machines when the power outage occurred. Efforts are now being made to identify slot players and figure out how to make payments for wins.

Players who had gaming chips or slot tickets on hand when the power went out were able to travel to Casino Arizona to cash in. The Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community owns the Casino Arizona and Talking Stick Resort. The sister site began accepting the tickets and chips on August 13.

Players who had not pulled their slot machine tickets when the power went out are being asked by casino staff to be patient. Slot machines like those found at the Talking Stick are usually able to retain data from gaming when they are powered back up after an outage has occurred, according to the Arizona Department of Gaming.

Spokeswoman for the Arizona Department of Gaming, Caroline Oppelman said: “These are very sophisticated gaming machines, and we fully anticipate that they will retain the information that was in the machine prior to the power loss. That’s pretty standard, but until the power’s restored we just don’t know.”

Poker Championship cancelled

The power outage at the casino has resulted in the popular Arizona State Poker Championship being cancelled, with players none too happy about this change.

The casino says players who were registered to compete in the event will be refunded. Players who signed up to compete for this Saturday and Sunday will be able to receive a full refund by providing their sign-up ticket and a valid ID at the main cage at the Casino Arizona.

Those who were traveling from out of town to compete in the event will need to send a registration receipt, plus name and address to the casino via mail. Heidi Harris of the Poker Room needs to be alerted in the address for the refund to be given promptly.

Players who competed in a satellite event and received a ticket will be refunded $1,100 by taking their ticket to the main cage of Casino Arizona.

Any remaining players who competed last Friday and had chips remaining will be splitting the prize pool of $553,000 based on ICM chip count. These payouts will be announced at a later date.

A statement provided by the Talking Stick Resort said: “Talking Stick Resort continues to mitigate the impacts from the storm of August 11.

“Hundreds of people from multiple agencies have been working around-the-clock since the incident. The Salt River Gaming Board and management appreciates the collective work that successfully evacuated more than 600 of our hotel guests.

“Equally important was the quick action by emergency services and our gaming floor staff to safely guide the exit of all of our gaming guests without incident.”