In a nutshell: A casino in Sydney, Australia, accidentally gave away millions of dollars in cash to dozens of people due to an apparent software bug. The error was discovered and corrected two weeks later, but by then more than $2 million had been mistakenly distributed by the faulty machines. Police have now charged the “lucky” people who received the money with fraud and a host of other offences.

The incident occurred in mid-2023, when customers at The Star casino were able to withdraw tons of cash from four TICO machines affected by a software glitch. The beneficiaries included scammers, gambling addicts and even some homeless people who realized they could milk broken cars for quick cash.

TICO machines are ATM-like devices that allow players to convert their winnings into cash by scanning the barcode on the receipt they receive from the slot machine. Although customers can normally insert two receipts into TICO machines for use at a time, the glitch meant that the machines returned one of these tickets for reuse. However, TICOs can only print up to $2,000 in cash at a time to prevent money laundering; This is believed to ensure that the casino does not lose any more money.

News of the cash seizure emerged last week following an independent investigation into the casino’s operations, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. In his statement to the New South Wales Independent Casino Commission, casino manager Nicholas Weeks blamed faulty software for the confusion.

Weeks explained that at first “small additional sums” were paid in error, then “very large sums” were paid as a result of the fault. By the time the casino discovered the problem, it had already lost AU$3.2 million (about US$2.05 million). In total, it is believed that at least 43 people took advantage of this bug to withdraw money that did not belong to them.

Once the problem was discovered, the casino reported the errant customers to the police, who arrested some suspects on fraud charges. One of them is gambling addict Thanh Lan Le, who is said to have withdrawn $57,265 from faulty TICO machines after accidentally discovering the flaw. He has now pleaded guilty and promised to return the money he fraudulently obtained from the casino.