Page 14 - Southern California Gaming Guide • February 2021

Safety protocols have now been firmly in place at Southern California casinos for the past eight months including requirements to wear face-coverings, have temperature checks before entering, plus in most casinos, 40-50% of slot machines have been taken out of service to comply with social distancing guidelines. You may think that reducing the number of slots on a casino floor would lead to fewer jackpots and fewer big winners.
But take look at the winning players on these pages who played slots and table games and won big jackpots — some really big. All these players and jackpots were won in the past several months. Note that most winners were photographed wearing their masks, as required by all Southern California casinos. But a few winners requested to have their photos taken without one.
Really Big Winners
The past several months have seen some huge casino play wins, many on Wide Area Progressives (WAPs). WAPs are electronically linked slot machines offering large progressive jackpots to players in many casinos simultaneously. The best-known and most popular wap is Wheel of Fortune® in all its many versions. Other waps include Buffalo®, also in all of its versions. Table games have also produced a big winner as you’ll see on the next page.
Pala Casino Spa Resort was excited to announce a jackpot win of $143,373.90 in mid October. A Fresno man,
Onesimo T., won big on the Wheel of Fortune® Triple Double DiamondTM slot machine. He was spending a few days celebrating his birthday at Pala Casino Spa Resort with his girlfriend when he hit the jackpot. It was his first time at Pala Casino, and he hit the jackpot on the day after his birthday. When asked, Onesimo said he planned to use the money to move to Southern California. He said he and his girlfriend like to think positive as it helps good things happen. The Wheel of Fortune Triple Double Diamond slot machine is part of a WAP network across California, and is operated by International Game Technology (IGT).
And on the following month, Pala Casino Spa Resort announced another big winner when Gabriela E. of Vista turned her bet of just $3.75 into a huge win of $573,221! Gabriela hit the jackpot on a 1¢ Buffalo GrandTM slot game during her first visit to Pala following the covid-19 outbreak.
The wildly popular, award-winning Buffalo Grand slot is a part of a multi-jurisdictional wap network operated by Aristocrat Technologies.
PAGE 14
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
FEBRUARY 2021