Nurse wins $54K at bingo
$5,000 Welcome Bonus
Merrilie Rousseau, a registered nurse, drove out to the Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula on Saturday, Oct. 26 to check out the resort and their new bingo center. It was her first time playing bingo there and she joined the evening session with several friends. After playing the $80 electronic bingo package for about half an hour, she got a bingo.
As she called out the win, green lights started flashing. In addition to getting a bingo, Rousseau won the bingo progressive jackpot, totaling $54,148.
“The lights started going off and my friends shouted, ‘you got a jackpot.’” Rousseau recalled. “I was in total disbelief, and I still am. Things like this don’t happen to me – it’s like winning the lottery.”
Rousseau has been playing bingo regularly for five years at a church in Vista. She said she likes the game because it involves thinking and it’s not just gambling.
Several bingo buddies suggested she try out Pechanga. Rousseau is still figuring out how to spend the winnings, after she pays Uncle Sam. Remodeling her kitchen is on the top of her list
The biggest win to-date for bingo at the casino was $22,000 won July 10 by a Murrieta man.
Rousseau’s windfall, though large for bingo, was a fraction of the winnings the casino paid out in October, which totaled nearly $30 million, according to Ciara Green, a spokeswoman for the casino.
“Winning $54,000 at bingo is rare—typical windfalls in bingo are usually from several hundred to several thousand dollars,” Green said.
Pechanga Bingo is unique in Southern California because players can win the progressive amounts without additional buy-ins or bets, Green said.
Each player automatically gets a shot at winning one of five multi-progressive bingo jackpots, which are classified by color, red, green, blue, yellow and purple.
A player wins the progressive amount when he gets a bingo and also has five number boxes in a straight line appearing as the same color. The color of the boxes determines the level of jackpot winnings.
Rousseau won the green jackpot.
The casino’s multi-progressive bingo, aka “MP Bingo” is tied into 13 casinos around the country.
Pechanga’s 14,000-square foot bingo facility opened July 4 with 700 seats and has huge flat-screen monitors and hand-held gaming consoles along with paper bingo cards.
