Ventura County Man Wins $1.3 Million at Chumash Casino
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Proving that lightning does strike the same spot twice, a Ventura man won $1.3 million in a progressive jackpot at the Chumash Casino Resort in Santa Ynez on July 1 after hammering $556,000 in May from the slot machine right next to the million-dollar winner.
“I was just surprised and very glad,” said the big winner, who wished to remain anonymous, adding that he planned to pay for his grandkids’ tuition and buy his granddaughter a new car on her upcoming 16th birthday.
Playing a $5 machine and betting x3, the gambler made a $15 bet to win the $1.3 million prize, which is the largest jackpot at the casino yet, surpassing $1.02 million pulled in 2014.
Opened by the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Mission Indians in 2003, the casino operates from the tribe’s reservation land along State Route 154 and is said to host more than 6,000 people daily. The resort’s entertainment lineup has featured guests from James Brown to George Clinton, B.B. King, and the Beach Boys, and the tribe regularly gifts tens of thousands of dollars to nonprofits like Planned Parenthood, Ridley-Tree Cancer Center, Toys for Tots, and area school programs.
