Hello, I wanted to tell you something regarding a woman from Queens, New York, called Jasmine Graves. She thought she’d hit the jackpot—so much as can be hit on a machine in a casino. It was a dream come true initially. The machine started beeping, lights flashed, and she kept saying to herself, “This is it!”
But that was the last she could remember, as all the rest afterward turned joy into sorrow.
A small flub, A serendipitous twist
Jasmine said she had accidentally hit the “max bet” button. The error rewarded her $13,000 in total. “The machine was beeping—I thought I was on a bonus round!” she cried in an Internet video that she made and uploaded to the Web. She was thrilled and already thinking about what she was going to do with the money. She was going to use it to buy new shoes for her children, bills, and catch up on that little bit behind at last.
The greal take-home: So much less
But when she stopped by to collect the cash, the euphoria hit the wall. Casino staff
examined her ID and told her she owed the State of New York. Since she had once been on public assistance, the state could draw from her winnings to pay for that.
They took out around $6,500 at first. And paid the federal and state tax afterwards. Then she was left with $1,400.
“I’ve already spent the money in my head,” she says in her video. “But even before I had actually received access to the money, it was gone.
“You won’t see me again.”
Jasmine was heartbroken. She concluded the video by announcing that she would never return to a casino again. “You won’t see me again,” she said. Something that should have been one of the highlights of her life now was a memory of past debts and an imperfect system.
A broader discussion online
As soon as her video went viral, everyone was talking about it on the social media platforms. Everyone sympathized with her. One of them commented, “They bully you when you are poor, but they attack you once you are a little more well-off. That is not right.”
There were also some who were sympathetic to some degree. Some thought she could have gone to a money advisor or that someone else could have received money.
Why did they take her money?
It just so happens, however, that the New York state law—and actually most of them, if one thinks about the issue—allows the government to take winnings from gambling in order to satisfy debts like child support, student loans, or welfare benefits. It is legal. It is just not what people are used to.
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A lesson learned the hard way
Jasmine’s story is a tough one, but it’s also a reminder: when money comes fast, debts come faster. She may have only walked away with $1,400, but the real cost was emotional. “I’m trying to smile to hide the pain,” she said.
And just like that, a lucky moment turned into a lesson she’ll never forget.
