A Sweet Deal Slot Machine’s Nine Cherries Add Up To $80,000 For Lucky Man
Les Warburton turned 20 bucks into about $80,000 Tuesday.
His secret? Nine cherries.
That’s what rolled up on a video slot machine the 75-year-old Coeur d’Alene man was playing at Kootenai River Inn.
It was Warburton’s first time at the Bonners Ferry hotel, and he left with the largest jackpot ever offered at the Kootenai Indian Tribe’s casino.
“It’s a good chunk of change. I had them write me a check. There was no way I was going to take it all in cash,” Warburton joked in a thick Boston accent.
“I couldn’t believe they paid that much money on a nickel machine.”
Neither could the rest of the crowd at the tribal-owned inn. People gathered around Warburton, shook his hand and patted him on the back when the machine’s bells and whistles went off.
“He knew what he had done. He knew he hit the big one,” said Tom Turpin, the inn’s general manager. Turpin was called at home about 8 p.m. to come and present Warburton a check for exactly $79,098.72.
The jackpot was a state record for Indian gaming. The inn set the record just three days before when a Sandpoint man won $44,000.
“It’s not too often people in Idaho win nearly $80,000,” said Turpin. “It was pretty exciting. Mr. Warburton just happened to be at the right place at the right time.”
Warburton said he almost wasn’t. A friend talked he and his wife, Della, into leaving Coeur d’Alene Tuesday for an overnighter at the inn.
Within hours Warburton won $200, then he watched in surprise as nine jackpot-winning cherries popped up on his machine.
“I guess you could say I was a little lucky, but I wasn’t as excited about it as my wife,” he said. “She couldn’t believe it. She called her son in Coeur d’Alene and he couldn’t believe it either.”
He didn’t have any immediate
plans for the cash except for maybe a cruise with his wife. First, Warburton has to give the IRS its cut of the winnings, an estimated $20,000.
“What the hell, it’s still nice to win,” he said. “I think I’ll be coming back here. Oh, yeah.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo