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Slot machines started off as very simple gaming devices, but now it seems like individual slot machines have more lights and electronics attached to them than the billboards in Times Square.  With all of these complicated electronics, it is not surprising that a slot machine will malfunction, alerting a player that he is now a multimillionaire; as was the unfortunate case of an Ontario man this week.

But how does that happen?  How does a slot machine programmed to pay no more than $9,025 freak out and tell an unsuspecting player that he has won $42.9 million?  There are a few theories floating about from computer experts.

Sophie Quigley, a computer science professor from Ryerson believes the problem was a casting error.

“This looks like a casting error,” explained Quigley. “It's a programming error (that occurs when) a computer tries to interpret information one way, but it interprets it the wrong way.”

To clarify, the best we know how, a casting error works as such: Computers communicate in zeros and ones with a language known as bits.  Both positive and negative ones and zeros are typically stored in 32 bit sequences. 

By this system, the number series 4294967295 can represent the number -1.  If that many pennies are counted as number we arrive at $42,949,672.95. 

“Which seems awfully close to the number that was displayed on the slot machine,” argued Quigley.

Now here is the brain splitting mathematical portion: Filling 32 bits with 1s creates a binary number that represents positive 2 to the power of 32, minus 1, as 4294967295.  It is a rather common glitch that most computer programmers are familiar with.

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