Grandmother Presses Wrong Slots Button, Wins $33,858
July 28, 2015 11:25 amSometimes the best things happen by chance, and that was certainly the case for one lucky Canadian slots player from Amherstview in Ontario, who pressed the wrong button on the China Shores machine she was playing to release a series of free spins which eventually won her $33,858.
On July 17th, Shirley Lima, who has twelve grandchildren, was visiting the OLG Casino Thousand Islands whilst on a seniors day outing, and had won some money on her favorite penny-machines before deciding to move up to five-cent bets. That was when fate intervened, and as she explains:
“When I reached down to get my Pepsi I must have hit the max-bet button when I hit the spin-button – it was a complete accident. That bet $11.25, I didn’t realize it at first, I was drinking my Pepsi and I hit it a couple of times and I got 34 free spins, and I looked and thought ‘Oh my God, why am I on an $11.25 bet?’
The China Shores slot machine subsequently re-triggered for 160 spins, worth an equivalent cash-value of $6,000, at which point she decided to go outside to take a puff on her inhaler. On returning to the slot, she found a crowd gathered to watch her play, and continuing her good fortune the machine rang up more than 700 free spins, which then took well over an hour to complete. Elaborating further, Shirley said:
“It just kept spinning and spinning and spinning. I took my inhaler too many times, but I just felt like I have going to have a heart attack. I was so excited and so shocked. When it finished, I had $33,858. It was a complete and utter shock. It was a mistake, a good mistake.”
As to what Shirley now intends to do with her windfall, she said some of the money would be used to pay bills and also take a vacation with her husband Jack Byford. As to where they will travel, Shirley suggested she would like to holiday in her home province of Ontario and maybe visit the Casino Rama Resort near Orillia, or perhaps the Niagara Falls’ Fallsview Casino Resort.