Nanaimo lottery winner: Woman wins $2.1M jackpot from slot machine
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A Nanaimo, B.C., woman was stunned to learn she won a whopping $2.1 million jackpot from a slot machine in the Harbour City last week.
Erralyn Joseph won the jackpot from a "Powerbucks" slot machine on Feb. 23 at Casino Nanaimo.
According to the B.C. Lottery Corporation, Powerbucks slot machines have a jackpot that start at $1 million, then the prize grows as more people bet on the linked slot machines across the province.
Odds of winning the jackpot on a Powerbucks slot machine on a $3 wager are roughly 1 in 25 million, says the lottery corporation.
"It all happened so fast, and the machine was going off saying $2.1 million," Joseph told the BCLC.
Joseph says it was a last minute decision to visit Casino Nanaimo that night, when her win occurred.
"[My husband] and I weren’t originally going to go that evening," she said. "We had gone to a restaurant earlier and decided to pop over to the casino."
Once they were at the casino, it was another spur of the moment decision to play on the winning slot machine.
"I was going to play Plinko, but on the other side of the floor I saw the Powerbucks slot machine," she said. "It was going to be one of my last plays of the night."
In total, Joseph won $2,129,070.54 on just her third spin of the machine.
"My husband and I were shocked and stunned," she said. "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."
Joseph is a member of the Snuneymuxw First Nation and is the owner of the Beefeater’s Chop House & Grill in Nanaimo.
