Dad’s slot bet at 11:11 a.m. leads to big CA casino win. ‘Hands started shaking’
A lucky gambler took home a big jackpot win after playing a slot machine at a Southern California casino.
While the Temecula man visited Pechanga Resort Casino on Wednesday, May 14, he tried “his luck at a few different slot machines,” the casino said in a May 15 news release.
He then set his sights on a Dragon Link slot machine, the casino said.
On his fifth spin at 11:11 a.m., the gambler played a $25 bet and hit the $1,044,559.11 jackpot, the casino said.
“It took me a second to realize what was actually happening,” the man told casino officials. “My hands started shaking.”
Even still, his win hasn’t quite sunk in.
“I still don’t quite believe it to be honest,” the man told the casino. “This is going to mean a lot for my family.”
The winner told casino officials that after he sets aside some money for his family, he has a family trip in mind.
“My kids have been begging me to go to Disney World,” he said in the release. “I can’t wait to see their faces light up when they hear the news we are going this summer.”
He is the third gambler to take more than a million dollar win home from the casino in recent months.
One guest won a $1,232,300.19 jackpot playing a Dragon Link slot machine on March 13, while another scored a $4,178,889.94 win on a Megabucks MegaVault slot machine in April, McClatchy News reported.
Pechanga Resort Casino, about a 90-mile drive southeast from Los Angeles, “is one of the largest casino resorts” in the country, according to the resort’s website. The casino features more than 200,000 square feet of gaming space, which includes slots machines, video poker machines and table games.
This story was originally published May 19, 2025 at 3:54 PM with the headline "Dad’s slot bet at 11:11 a.m. leads to big CA casino win. ‘Hands started shaking’."
