Error Makes Money machine give $100 Bills

When casino customers find out that a machine is paying off, they'll keep playing it.

But it was no gamble recently at Bluffs Run casino in Council Bluffs when a bill changer began spitting out $100 bills instead of 20s. Customers walked away with almost $47,000 extra.

State officials say an employee at the casino in Council Bluffs mistakenly placed $100 bills in one of the bill changers at 5 a.m.Dec. 18. Customers who wanted five $20s for a $100 bill instead got five $100 bills in change.No one reported the mistake to casino managers and a $46,640 shortage wasn't discovered until the machine was shutdown.

'It went on for about six hours,' Janae Sternberg, the casino's finance director, told the Des Moines Register.'You know, some of the guests had figured out that there was a malfunction and they went back -- over and over and over.'

Surveillance videotapes were of little help in identifying those who helped themselves to extra cash.The employee who made the mistake was fired but an administrative hearing ruled she was entitled to full unemployment benefits.