A tourist from Arizona won $229,000 on a Las Vegas slot machine but walked away unaware of his windfall, due to an error in the machine. It took nearly three weeks for gaming board agents to track him down and enrich him.

On 8 January, Robert Taylor hit a jackpot on a slot machine at the Treasure Island Hotel & Casino on the Vegas strip.

But the “slot machine experienced a malfunction that prevented Mr Taylor and casino personnel from realizing that a progressive jackpot had been won”, the Nevada Gaming Control Board said.

“By the time an extensive review of the slot machine and the communications technology was completed, confirming the jackpot had been won, Mr Taylor had returned home to Arizona.”

The casino struggled to identify its lucky patron. The gaming board launched an extensive investigation that included a review of hours of surveillance footage across numerous properties; witness interviews; a study of electronic purchase records; and analysis of ride-share data obtained by the Nevada Transportation Authority.

Eventually, the investigation was able to identify Taylor as the lucky casino patron. He was notified on 28 January, nearly three weeks after his win.

(Adapted from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/07/las-vegas-tourist-jackpot-winner-slot-machine)

In the sentence “The casino struggled to identify its lucky patron” (paragraph 5), the word “struggled” means