‘Violation’: Arkansas man taps 20% at Texas Roadhouse. Then he instantly spots a problem with the tip calculation
The numbers disagreed
Tapping 20% on a restaurant payment screen should not require pulling out a calculator. One Arkansas man, however, took one look at the number Texas Roadhouse gave him and immediately knew something felt off.
He had good reason to check. Diners have caught suggested tip amounts that didn’t seem to match their bills before, while an Applebee’s customer had the same question after selecting 20%. This time, the difference was large enough to make the customer stop before paying.
According to TikTok creator Whiskey and Violence Golf (@whiskeyandviolence), his check at Texas Roadhouse came to $66.66 when he selected the 20% tip option. Instead of adding $13.33, the payment screen suggested a $16.28 tip, bringing his total to $82.94. “Is my math off? Or is 20% of $66 not f*king $16?” he asked.
Something wasn’t adding up
His math was not the problem. Twenty percent of $66.66 is $13.332, which rounds to $13.33. The suggested $16.28 tip was therefore $2.95 higher than 20% of the check amount displayed on the screen.
However, there was a small line above the tipping options that could explain the difference. The screen stated, “Tip is calculated after tax and before discounts.”
That detail matters because the $66.66 shown as the check amount may not have been the number used to calculate the suggested tip. Working backward from $16.28 provides a much more interesting figure.
If $16.28 represents exactly 20%, the amount used for that calculation would be $81.40. That is $14.74 more than the $66.66 check amount shown to the customer.
A discount or special could explain that gap. If the bill originally stood around $81.40 before a discount reduced what the customer owed, the payment system could still calculate its suggested tip using the higher amount. The video does not show an itemized receipt, so it is unclear whether that is exactly what happened here.
Some viewers reached the same possibility in the comments. “I’m assuming something was on sale/discounted/on special,” one person wrote. “Calculated tip is on pre-special price.”
Others focused strictly on the number displayed in front of the customer. “You are right. It would be $13.33,” one viewer wrote.
The wording about calculating tips “after tax” also bothered some people. One commenter argued, “Tip on PRE-TAX only. why would we tip on the tax that’s collected?”
Another viewer was less concerned with where the $16.28 came from and more frustrated by tipping altogether. “Yea they doing something janky. But just for a minute, why are you expected to give an additional $16 at the end of your meal?!! Tipping is so ridiculous,” they wrote.
Some reactions went much further. One person called the calculation a “scam,” while another urged the customer to report it to Visa and Mastercard, claiming it was a “huge violation.”
The screen itself does not establish either claim. It shows a suggested tip rather than a mandatory charge, and customers can select a custom amount. More importantly, the fine print indicates that the percentage may be calculated using a different figure than the final check amount displayed below it.
That is where the confusion becomes understandable. A customer who sees $66.66 beside “Check Amount” and taps 20% could reasonably expect $13.33 to appear next. Instead, this customer got $16.28—and it took doing the calculation himself to figure out that the machine seemingly had a higher number in mind.
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