Hawaiian Guest Wins $500,000 Jackpot in Las Vegas While Visiting Grandkids

A Hawaiian traveler celebrated a trip to visit her family in the best way possible: by hitting the jackpot at a Las Vegas casino.

The lucky winner, who is a resident of Hawaii, won a $510,855 progressive jackpot on Light & Wonder’s Face Up Pai Gow Poker at the California Hotel & Casino in downtown Vegas on Saturday. 

A spokesperson for Boyd Gaming, A Nevada-based gaming company that owns the property, confirmed the win.

Las Vegas casinos pay big

The woman, a regular at the California, was in town to visit her grandchildren, Boyd said.

She earned the progressive jackpot by playing $25 per hand with a $1 progressive side bet until she was dealt a king-high seven-card diamond straight flush. In other words, she was dealt the seven sequential cards, all diamonds, topped by a king.

She used a joker to complete the jackpot win. 

The casino reset its Pai Gow progressive jackpot to $125,000 following the win. 

As is par for the course in the United States’ gambling capital, several other massive wins were also recently awarded. Caesars Palace paid $117,872 to a gambler, Glenn B., for his victory on the Dollar Storm machine.

Binion’s Gambling Hall & Hotel also announced on Monday it awarded $13,307.79 to the winner of a Mystery Lamp slot machine jackpot just minutes after the same customer won $2,000 on the same machine.

The fight for Hawaii casinos, sports betting

Las Vegas is an extremely popular destination for Hawaiian high-rollers, since Hawaii is one of just two states that completely forbid all forms of gambling.

A recent bill proposal aimed to finally change that. The bill would have granted 20-year licenses to casinos and offered them development rights at the New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District and Hawaii Convention Center.

It also would have created the Hawaii Gaming Control Commission, which would oversee the casinos’ operations and impose a 15 percent tax on gross receipts. 

“Considering that we kind of all joke in this community about how Las Vegas is the Ninth Island, this approach is to bring that Ninth Island back home, to bring the revenues back up, to bring the excitement of casino gaming to Hawaii,” said Sen. Glenn Wakai (D-15). 

Unfortunately for the bill’s supporters, it was pronounced dead in the state Senate on Feb. 14. 

However, gambling hopes are not completely dead on the islands. House Bill 1308, which would legalize up to four sports betting platforms, passed a vote in front of the full House on Tuesday, March 4, 35-15.

The House bill is now in the Senate, where its companion piece of legislation, Senate Bill 1569, is already stalled. Legislators have until the end of the Hawaiian legislative session on Friday, May 2 to adopt the proposal.