Three weeks ago, Verna Brown, a mental health worker, sat for the first time at the Sport of Emperors pokie in the Law Courts Hotel and fed $14 into the machine.
Less than 10 minutes later, and for a "brief wonderful moment", Ms Brown had won $42,959,187.29 - and even fielded a marriage proposal from a fellow pokie player.
"I couldn't believe it. I was just sitting there and watching it go up and up until it stopped at $42 million.
"I went up to the bar and said `I just won $42 million' - I think the bar lady thought that I had had a few."
Only when asking for the amount to be paid by "cash or cheque" did a staff member check the machine before passing the news to co-owner Eric Olsen.
"When I saw it, I thought I would have to sell the hotel and mortgage myself for 200 years," Mr Olsen said.
Fortunately, a light saying malfunction was lit on the machine and rather than call in the receivers, Mr Olsen called a technician to inspect the machine.
"The technician has serviced machines for 15 years and he has never seen anything like this happen before," he said.
The machine's logic boards were sent back to the Japanese manufacturer for analysis and it took two and a-half weeks "to establish she had actually won $500 from a jackpot".
The malfunction meant the hotel was not duty bound to pay the $42 million, but Mr Olsen decided to present Ms Brown with a mock cheque for the amount yesterday - and her $500.
Ms Brown said she had no need for the $42 million and was happy with her $500.
The money would go towards belatedly celebrating her birthday - after her March birthday was spent having chemotherapy for breast cancer.
"It has been a bit of a rough year . . . but now I think my luck has changed."
