A $5.25 wager on a slot machine changed Nanaimo’s Erralyn Joseph’s life forever, after she won a $2,1 million jackpot at Casino Nanaimo on Feb. 23.
Joseph is an employee and member of the Snuneymuxw First Nation. She said her jackpot win almost didn’t happen.
“[My husband] and I weren’t originally going to go that evening. We had gone to a restaurant earlier and decided to pop over to the casino,” she said.
“Powerbucks” slot machines have a jackpot that start at $1 million and the prize amount goes up as more people bet on the linked slot machines across B.C., according to the B.C. Lottery Corporation (BCLC).
Joseph is the owner of Beefeater’s Chop House & Grill in Nanaimo and said she almost didn’t even play that particular machine.
“I was going to play Plinko, but on the other side of the floor I saw the Powerbucks slot machine. It was going to be one of my last plays of the night.”
On her third spin, Joseph saw she had triggered the bonus and all the arrows lined up.
“It all happened so fast and the machine was going off saying $2.1-million. My husband and I were shocked and stunned. Once we realized how much we had won, I screamed. I don’t think we were on Earth at that time, we were just sort of floating in the air.”
The odds of winning the jackpot on a $3 wager are approximately 1 in 25 million, according to BCLC.
