Man hits Wildhorse jackpot

Published 11:16 am Thursday, March 25, 2010

A La Grande man is $2.2 million richer after deciding to stop by the Wildhorse Resort & Casino on the way home from the Tri-Cities area.

Terry Neustel chose the Megabucks MegaJackpot machine at random and invested about $100 before hitting the top prize. The retiree said he didn’t realize immediately he was a millionaire and credited his wife of 42 years as his good luck charm for the win. Immediate plans for Neustel include finishing a remodeling project and traveling to Hawaii.

The casino, along with over 300 tribal casinos across the nation, belongs to a 17-state Native American progressive gaming network. The network is made up of casinos that carry progressive gaming systems. Each time a coin is played in a linked machine, anywhere in the IGT network, the cumulative jackpot continues to grow. Megabucks is a dollar progressive system in which the player bets two to three dollars at a time while attempting to line up the symbols. The progressive jackpot reset to $1 million after Neustel’s jackpot.