A man from Stony Rapids has become the province’s newest millionaire. Early yesterday morning Fred Robillard made a trip to the Northern Lights Casino in Prince Albert. Little did he know that on his first spin he would be $1,781,924.70 richer after hitting the Smoke Signals progressive jackpot.
“I never expected to be that rich; the richest I wanted to be was one hundred thousand dollars—enough for me, but this million kind of shocked me,” Robillard said at a cheque presentation media event this morning.
“Congratulations to our newest northern Saskatchewan resident millionaire, Fredrick Robillard. We are so excited to be able to present him with his winnings at Northern Lights Casino today,” said Northern Lights General Manager Angela Isbister.
While speaking to MBC Radio News, Robillard explained that at first, when he hit the jackpot, he didn’t feel anything, but after being presented the cheque today, he feels as if reality is sinking in.
Robillard explained that he doesn’t have a plan on how to spend his winnings just yet but said he would like to help out his family.
“Now I have a future to look at; like supporting other people, I come from a big family; I still have six sisters and three brothers beside me out of 18 family members, and I want to do them good to help them out,” said Robillard.
To date, the Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority’s Smoke Signals progressive jackpot has paid out $71,554,918.81 in jackpot wins.
“As you know, Smoke Signals has been our signature game at SIGA across our seven casinos here in Saskatchewan right since day one in the mid-90s, and it was really something else because we opened Northern Lights here on March 6, 1996,” said SIGA President and CEO Zane Hansen.
Smoke Signals has now been reset to one million dollars.