Arizona Man Wins $5.7 Million Slots Jackpot
April 20, 2012 12:32 pmA 51 year old man couldn’t believe his luck after winning $5,707,069 playing the Wheel of Fortune at Casino Arizona, last Friday. But then again, neither could his wife who hung the phone up on him in disbelief after he tried to tell her the good news.
Mesa resident, Gerald Allen Phillips, Jr, hadn’t been inside the Casino Arizona in over a year when he decided to test his luck and play the 25c Wheel of Fortune slot machine. Time was running out, though, as his wife Kimberly, had been expecting him earlier and as he explains:
“I had been playing the machine next to it and kept hitting, but my wife wanted me home. As I got up and was ready to leave, I put in my last $60. Then the bells and lights went off and I was freaked out.”
Initially, Gerald Allen Phillips was feeling ecstatic thinking he had won $100,000, but when a bunch of managers and pit bosses rushed to his side to explain his colossal win, he said he was so nervous he almost passed out. After he was told he was the winner of one of the casino’s biggest ever jackpots, the Arizona man then phoned his wife to share with her the life changing news, but she hung up on him instead, thinking he was joking. If Mr Phillips had a hard time convincing his wife that they were now $5,707,069 better off, a follow-up phone call made by one of the casino’s managers did the trick nicely.
The couple currently live in a one bedroom apartment with his wife’s 11 year old son. The family can now look forward to a whole new world of possibilities after their amazing win, and when asked about what they planned to do with the money, Mr Phillips said:
“I’m going to buy a nice new truck, which has always been a dream of mine, but we are still going to be the same penny-pinchers we’ve always been. We want to buy a little house and then invest so the money can work for us.”
Mr Phillips has since bought a $60,000 truck and paid off around the same amount in back child-support.