Fortune Valley casino in Central City, Colorado has refused to honor a $42 million slot machine jackpot saying it was a machine malfunction.

When Louise Chavez looked at the jackpot total on the slot machine she was playing at the Fortune Valley casino in Central City, she couldn’t believe her eyes. The machine indicated that she'd won $42 million.

The elation didn’t last long. A few minutes later, casino officials told her the machine had malfunctioned and she didn't win anything.

"Everyone who sits in front of a slot machine is well aware of what the top prize is," said Don Burmania, communications director at the state Gaming Division.

"In this case the top prize was $215,000. So it wasn't in the realm of possibility for anyone to expect to win $42.9 million on that machine."

Her brother, who asked that we not use his name, told 7NEWS that investigators need to get to the bottom of the dispute.

“If it was a legitimate malfunction, the company should be able to prove it and not just claim it was a malfunction to avoid having to pay the jackpot amount,” he said.

The machine was sent to a private lab for analysis.

This isn’t the first time there’s been a malfunction with a slot machine in Colorado.

A woman who thought that she’d won a $164 million jackpot at the Canyon Casino in Black Hawk in August of 2008, was also told it was a machine malfunction.