New Jersey Man Collects Biggest Jackpot to Date

A man from New Jersey won the biggest online jackpot ever paid on a U.S. regulated gambling site reported Associated Press and the page nj.com. The man, who refused to reveal his identity, hit it big on Valentine’s Day, February 14th, claiming the prize to the tune of $1.5 million.

Previous to this, the biggest online payment was that of $1.3 million. That jackpot was won by Cathy Ruela, a 31-year old who started her adventure with 20 free spins on HarrahsCasino.com. She was able to initially turn this into $300, but on November 6 2014, she hit a randomly awarded jackpot, making her $1,334,000 richer.

Unlike Cathy, who opted for slots, the most recent big winners played the game of Let It Ride, a variation of poker where hitting the royal flush pays 1000 : 1. The man, who was playing on the BetfairCasino.com, placed three $500 bets as well as the 3 Card Bonus bet.

When the royal flush in diamonds came down, the man was awarded $1,500,000 for his three $500 plus another $22,000 for the 3 Card Bonus for the grand total of $1,522,000. While the Betfair representative came out with the statement, saying that it is always exciting to see one of the players hit it really big, the winner himself preferred to remain anonymous.

Online gambling kicked off in New Jersey late in 2013 and in 2014, the industry brought in around $122 million in revenues. 2015 started off well for the state as $11.6 million in revenues has been collected in January. Revenues from the online poker alone were on an uptick, but still smaller than in January of 2014.

Betfair has been operating in the state in cooperation with the Golden Nugget, enabling them to offer their games to those physically present in New Jersey. Although the company has been offering both poker and the casino games to its customers, it seems that poker could be removed soon, while the other games will still be available.