New Jersey online slots continue to churn out big wins.
PlaySugarHouse.com’s notoriously loose Divine Fortune paid out two jackpots between March 26 and April 5. The first winner was a construction company superintendent from Woodbridge and the second was a teacher from Marlboro.
The combined jackpots totaled more than $250,000.
The teacher remained anonymous at the time of publishing but her excitement over the win was detailed by a SugarHouse spokesperson who relayed the woman’s elation.
“You never think this is going to happen to you but I’m proof it does,” she was quoted as saying.
Wins came on a treadmill and a first spin
The unnamed teacher went on to detail the circumstances of her win. She was at home working out on her treadmill as she played Divine Fortune on her phone.
According to a report from the Press of Atlantic City, the woman had spent all of $10 and five minutes before hitting the $61,226 jackpot.
“I was so shocked I almost fell off the treadmill,” she said.
The teacher’s win came just days after another New Jersey resident, Anibal Lopes, hit a nearly $200,000 jackpot playing the same game on the same website.
While the 10-minute win was impressive, Lopes topped the teacher by snagging his jackpot on his first spin on the New Jersey online slots.
The Associated Press picked up Lopes’s story, coaxing the following gem of a quote from the 33-year-old:
“I couldn’t believe I won that much money. I told my wife, ‘I don’t feel well. My legs are shaking.’ She said, ‘We need to get you to the emergency room.’ I told her, ‘No, I’m not sick; I just won close to $194,000!'”
In a press release, Rush Street Interactive, the company who runs the SugarHouse site, said Lopes’ big win was the largest since the site launched in 2016. The site is affiliated with Golden Nugget Atlantic City.
“We are very happy for this latest winner that comes just one week after we had our biggest jackpot win since launching playsugarhouse.com a year and a half ago,” said Richard Schwartz, Rush Street’s president.
Jackpots are examples of the popularity of NJ gambling sites
Perhaps the most interesting angle in the narrative of the two jackpots is the force that is now New Jersey online gambling. Several big wins over the past 18 months have proven that patrons don’t need to set foot in a casino to earn a big pot.
Schwartz said as much in the press release, noting that the jackpots were big wins for both the players and the NJ gambling site industry.
“This is good for us and for the entire online gaming industry, showing that it is possible to win life-changing amounts online,” he said.
A new normal for New Jersey iGaming?
The two SugarHouse wins kept NJ online gambling’s hot streak going.
In 2017, there were nearly 30 jackpots of more than $75,000. Golden Nugget led the way with the biggest wins, notching four jackpots of more than $200,000, the biggest of which was an August win of more than $271,000.
Those wins were indicative of a great year for the online gambling industry in New Jersey: Revenue numbers went up around 25 percent compared to 2016.