Gambling in the Chinese territory of Macau is at the centre of a political storm after a 16 year old girl walked away with a payout of over £51,000.
The teenager who has not been named was given the equivalent of £6 to play with after her grandmother gave her the money as a lunar new year’s gift.
Accompanied by her mother and grandmother the youngster played one slot machine and within moments of entering the casino she had hot the jackpot.
The casino, which is run by US gaming giant Las Vegas Sands, at first tried to wriggle out of paying the winnings, arguing that as the girl was 16 she was underage and therefore not supposed to be in the casino in the first place.
However Macau's gaming watchdog forced the casino to pay up after ruling that gaming regulations only specified a minimum age for entering a casino and not for gambling once inside threatening to cause a wedge in US – Chinese relations.
"We have decided that the money must be paid, not to the child, but to her mother," Hong Kong's South China Morning Post quoted Manuel Joaquim das Neves, the territory's gaming bureau director, as saying.
Macau's gaming laws have had to be overhauled to keep up with a boom in the gambling industry that erupted when monopolies on gambling licences were ended in 2002.
In the meantime, the South China Morning Post reported that the watchdog temporarily barred the girl's mother from Macau's casinos as punishment for bringing in her underage daughter.
Its unlikely that the mother will be too upset though having seen the families life transformed by the win though.
