Synonymous with casino gaming, slot machines are known to eat up gamblers’ money quite fast. But they also reward those who have the patience to pull the lever hundreds of times, sometimes playing for hours without winning a thing. And there also those seemingly miraculous instances when you score a big win when you least expected it and at a place you least expected it. This happened to one lucky woman from the Canadian province of Saskatchewan earlier this month while she was playing slots at a local restaurant in Saskatoon. Donna Wiebe hit a progressive VLT jackpot, taking home more than half a million dollars.
Wiebe, a woman from the town of Waldheim, Saskatchewan, was spending her time playing the Vault Breaker slot machine at the Smitty’s Family Restaurant in The Mall at Lawson Heights in Saskatoon. The relatively small restaurant is not offering a lot of entertainment, but it has video lottery terminals (VLTs or simply slots) where customers can try their luck. This is exactly what Donna Wiebe decided to do on April 12 and after a few spins, she hit the top jackpot, winning CA$537,856. On Wednesday, she claimed her prize at the Saskatchewan Video Lottery office and said she was planning to retire.
The game she was playing, Vault Breaker, is networked with another 4,000 VLTs across the province and has a progressive jackpot. Progressive jackpots increase (or progress) every time the game is played and a bet is made. This particular game has three jackpots – Minor (between $100 and $500), Major (between $5,000 and $25,000), and Grand Jackpot (between $500,000 and $1,500,000). She won the third, biggest jackpot, which after every win, starts from a seed value of $500,000. If the jackpot had not been won for a long time, Donna Wiebe may have scored a much bigger reward.
The Game Awards Three Jackpots in Saskatchewan This Year
This is the third time in 2018 the Vault Breaker jackpot is hit in the province. According to the Saskatchewan Video Lottery, Lloydminster-based Trevor Kuntz hit the top tier jackpot of that same game at Rusty’s Canadian Grille and Lounge on February 17. He won $765,393 only two months after the jackpot had been resent to $500,000. In December 2017, a Saskatoon woman won $1.2 million playing the game.
Earlier this month, on April 2, another man took home $688,054 while playing the same game. Craig Hutchison from Regina was with friends at the Barley Mill Brew Pub when he decided to try his luck at the Vault Breaker. With his winnings, he said he would buy a house and take his wife on a vacation for their 10th anniversary.
Meanwhile, those who decide to play the lottery has the chance to win even more exciting prizes. In February, a retired couple bought a lottery ticket from a gas station in Pigeon Lake, Alberta, and won CA$12.5 million. Stella Sacrey and Edward Philpott from Wetaskiwin County purchased a $7 ticket for LOTTO 6/49. They claimed their massive win April 10 and said they are planning a trip to Ireland, California or Hawaii – somewhere warm, the lucky winners added.
