Just one man and a dream
City of Orange, NJ – 38-year-old telecom engineer Simon Buckley won a $3 million jackpot in an online slots game despite not having an internet connection at home. Buckley, who has been working as a telecom specialist for a corporate firm in New Jersey for the past 17 years, has “never believed in having broadband or Wi-Fi at home”, but he hasn’t let that hold him back from his dream of becoming Orange’s first online slots millionaire. A dream that Buckley has had for nearly 10 years.
Nine years ago, his dream started to become a reality when he accidentally registered an account with a small online casino at his local cyber café after work. “I remember being slightly bewildered at the time; I only logged on for 30 minutes to add some things to my Amazon Wish List and before I knew it, I had this account set up with Roy’s Royal Royale Casino” Buckley recounted.
The City of Orange native had never even set foot inside a casino, let alone participated in online gambling, so he was wary of this luridly-colored digital money palace — “To be completely honest, I didn’t really understand what the website was at first. It took me about five years to figure out the lingo, and then another three to actually make a deposit, but once I’d gotten that under my belt I was well on my way.”
Every day after work, Buckley would head to his local cybercafé, We Can Haz Internette, where he would log on for the maximum time of 90 minutes to develop his craft. Playing in Roy’s Royal Royale Casino became an obsession, but despite hiring a workstation for as long as possible, every evening, Buckley was never able to win the “Big Hit”.
A new hope
Becoming despondent, Buckley thought his dream was over until one day, Roy’s Royal Royale Casino serendipitously offered a solution. The U.S. based online casino had been feeling the pressure to keep up with the innovations of its main competitor, 888 Casino, so it released its first progressive jackpot slots game that could be paused and returned to at any time. This was exactly the game he had been waiting for!
“I couldn’t believe it; it was like this game was designed just for me. And ‘cause it was a progressive jackpot, the more I logged on to play it, the bigger the jackpot got!” When the jackpot started reaching hundreds of thousands of dollars, Buckley found himself in need of a more constant online connection, so he made the decision to ask his friends for help — “I approached my best friend Mark*, and asked if I could move into his spare room on weekends. Unfortunately, Tracey*, his wife, had decided the pair needed separate bedrooms to “keep things fresh”, so there wasn’t any room for me inside. Even though I couldn’t stay inside the house, they pitched a tent for me in their backyard and their broadband connection was really strong, so I could log on from there.”
Going for the “Big Hit”
For six months, as the jackpot progressively grew, Buckley would follow his exhausting online casino regime of logging on for 90 minutes after work each day at We Can Haz Internette, and for 48 hours in Mark and Tracey’s backyard during the weekend. From Saturday to Sunday, he wouldn’t sleep for longer than 25 minutes to “maximize my time in the casino”. Then one Sunday last month, with the jackpot standing at $3 million, Buckley finally achieved his dream; he spun the “Big Hit” — “I was just considering taking a nap when before I knew it, I’d spun five Roy’s Crown Jewels; exactly the symbols needed to win the jackpot. I was a millionaire!”
When asked how he would spend his winnings, Buckley’s response was “I’m not really sure, I’ve still got to figure out how to make a withdrawal, but give me a few months and I’ll get back to you.” One thing is for certain, though, Buckley’s belief about not having the internet at home remains unchanged! Mark and Tracey were unavailable for comment at the time of an interview.
*Names have been changed.