Published on: April 17, 2026, 07:21h.

Updated on: April 16, 2026, 11:16h.

EDITOR’S NOTE: “Vegas Myths Busted” features new posts every Monday, plus an extra Flashback Friday edition. Today’s highlight in our ongoing series was initially published on April 7, 2025.

If you invest in a Las Vegas slot machine and allow a friend to make a spin, this choice could jeopardize your friendship. If your friend scores a significant jackpot, every cent belongs to them, and any share for you relies solely on their discretion.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) considers the pivotal moment of a slot machine wager to be the spinning of the reels. This action activates the machine’s random number generator (RNG), which determines the final result.

The RNG continuously cycles through thousands or even millions of number combinations each second, based on the machine’s internal clock—even when inactive.

Pressing the spin button does not initiate the RNG; rather, it stops it, instantly determining which symbols will display. The visual display of spinning and halting symbols is merely an entertaining front for the player.

Spinner Takes the Prize

This guideline isn’t formally documented in Nevada law; rather, it has become an accepted practice over years within the gaming sector.

Should a disagreement arise, the NGCB examines surveillance footage and bases its decision on who engaged in the act of playing, not who provided the funds. (Notably, if the individual who presses the button is underage, the jackpot is voided.)

The NGCB refrains from disclosing the results of patron dispute hearings unless escalated to court. However, an instance in 2021 circulated in various Las Vegas online forums when a player who financed the slot play was not awarded the $50K jackpot, which instead went to the friend who spun the reels.

A more publicly noted situation transpired in 2017 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Florida. Jan Flato invested $400 into a Double Top Dollar slot, asking his friend Marina Navarro to “push the button for good luck.” Navarro ended up pocketing the $100K jackpot, leaving Flato with no options for recourse, a story he later shared with the Miami Herald.

Choose Civility

If you believe the jackpot you funded is substantial enough to warrant legal action against your friend, civil court is an option—though precedents in this type of case are scant, making your chances of winning more favorable in slot play. (Flato indicated to the Herald that “no lawyer would take the case.”)