The State - News from June 25, 1989

A Riverside County great grandmother playing MegaBingo, a satellite bingo game played simultaneously on Indian reservations in seven states, bagged a $500,000 prize, the largest in California history, officials said. Margruete Meador, 78, of Winchester hit the jackpot during a game at the Morongo Bingo Hall in Cabazon, 100 miles east of Los Angeles on the Morongo Indian Reservation. Meador, a retired grandmother of 11 and great grandmother of 22, flew to Oklahoma Saturday morning to pick up her prize at the Creek Nation’s Tulsa Bingo, where the game originates, said Bill Seaton, a MegaBingo spokesman. “I’m going to get all those little extras that will give me a better way to live,” said Meador after learning of her win. MegaBingo is a high-tech version of bingo in which the bingo numbers are beamed via satellite simultaneously to players in 16 game halls located in seven states. There are five MegaBingo halls in California.