Page 10 - March 2004 • Southern California Gaming Guide

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
BIG JACKPOT WINNERS!
casino players who have won big jackpot prizes over the last year. Some have won hundreds of thousands of dollars. Some have won life-changing millions. Big jackpots, let’s say a win of at least $100,000, are usually the result of winning the top award of a wide-area progressive slot. e most popular Southern California progressive slot is Wheel of Fortune.
Big “Wheel” Winners
e “Wheel” creates more millionaires than any other game on the casino oor. In the last three months more than eight Southern California casino players have
Morongo Millionaire! Juanito of Los Angeles won a $1,792,691 $1 Wheel of Fortune® MegaJackpotsTM award on his second visit to Casino Morongo. “I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “I thought my vision was blurred. My heart pounded.”
First Ever Cash for Life Winner! On 2/2/04 Melvin, a culinary arts student from Sacramento, won the life-changing $1 Cash For Life jackpot at Thunder Valley Casino, northeast of Sacramento. He can choose between a one-time payment of over $1 million or nearly $1,300 per week, every week for the rest of his life.
won big “Wheel” progressives at Barona Valley Ranch Resort and Casino, Fantasy Springs Casino, San Manuel Indian Bingo & Casino (twice!), Soboba Casino, Sycuan Casino & Resort, and Viejas Casino (twice!) totaling almost $11 million ($10,879,121)!
Indeed, Wheel of Fortune is the most popular slot of all time! Patterned after the popular game show, it comes in both reel-spinning and video slot versions. e reel-spinners have a variety of games (Five Times Pay, Double Diamond, Red, White, and Blue) in the standard
3-reel 3-coin format. e machines are topped with the trademark “Wheel.” e video slot version has animated bonus rounds and delivers lots of thrills and fun as players yearn for the“Wheel” symbols on the 15th payout line to give them the top prize. Wheel of Fortune reel-spinners are in quarter, dollar and $5 denominations; the video slot versions are in nickel and quarter denominations.
Recent millionaire winner Alexander of Riverside (on our cover) got the lucky break of a lifetime when he won a $2,130,727.81 jackpot on a Wheel of Fortune® five-dollar slot machine at San Manuel Indian Bingo & Casino. On the morning of January 12th Alexander had been at the casino about 45 minutes. He says he played the winning slot “By total accident. I was going to play another machine, but the Wheel was right in front of me. I said what the heck, and put $100 in and pushed it five times and the three Wheel of Fortunes came around! I just sat there and said, what happened? There were no lights, no band, no nothing. I didn’t know whether I had won or not. One of the change clerks had told me she thought I had won.“
So what was the rst thing Alex bought? “I bought a ’99 corvette coupe in white. I’m going to put ames on the side of it.” But he says winning hasn’t changed anything that much. He says “ e funny thing is that I get more of a rush helping out other people. I have some friends that were losing their homes, and we took care of that. It’s more fun to do things like that. I’m a fairly lucky individual. Karma’s been good to me.“ His advice to other players: “Quit while you’re ahead. Don’t play with money you can’t a ord to play with. I go there with the attitude of winning and having fun.”
Cash for LifeTM and Thrillions® Winners
Right behind the Wheel in huge jackpot producers are Bally Gaming’s rillions® slots—Millionaire SevensTM, Blondie®, Betty Boop®, and the new Cash for LifeTM. Cash For Life is an exciting progressive slot that delivers at least $1,000 a week for the rest of a winner’s life. Featuring a progressive meter that resets at $1 million, Cash for Life is at Barona Valley Ranch, Spa Resort Casino and Sycuan Casino & Resort in Southern California.
Millionaire Sevens features an initial million-dollar top award that grows the more the games are played. Millionaire Sevens is a dollar, three-coin, three-reel
spinning slot with the trigger for the bonus round being three “777” symbols. Each free spin places the player higher up the bonus ladder. e ladder starts at $20 and increments a possible nine times (if you’re lucky), to $40, $60, $80, $100, $250, $1000, $10,000, and nally the
“Win Progressive” to make you a million dollar winner! e re-spins continue until a non-winning combination lands, setting o a “collect” light. Players love this game as the anticipation of the bonus ladder moving up is thrilling and fun! e Millionaire 777s jackpot can be hit at any one of the 13 casinos throughout California that o er the Millionaire 777s games. Millionaire Sevens has
Beginners Luck! Luck and faith paid off for Seroj when he scored a $1,448,486.01 jackpot on a $1 Wheel of Fortune® slot at Agua Caliente Casino. “It is coming...you have to believe,” Seroj said, just before the winning spin.
Gaming Guide Reader Hits the BIG ONE! Randall from Torrance stopped at a convenience store and picked up a copy of the Southern California Gaming Guide (that’s us!), looked at the ads and decided to go to Soboba Casino where he played and won $1,614,696.65 on a 25-cent Wheel of Fortune® slot!
Page 10 March 2004