Couple’s Luck Changes by $1.8 Million

A Granada Hills couple who recently moved to Las Vegas because they had been down on their luck won more than $1.8 million when they hit the world’s largest quarter slot machine jackpot Saturday, casino officials said.

Dean and Linda Marie Thomas relocated to Nevada in search of work after they lost their house and business a few months ago, officials said.

Linda Marie Thomas, an unemployed bookkeeper, went to the Aladdin Hotel and Casino to play bingo, but decided to play on a slot machine, said Bob Bugard, a slot machine supervisor.

After losing $2 on a nickel slot machine, she put a few quarters in a Quartermania progressive slot machine, officials said. Lights and bells went off when she hit the jackpot of $1,881,545.50.

The Quartermania slot machine system links more than 1,000 machines in 134 casinos throughout the state, Bugard said. The jackpot begins with $400,000, and a percentage of each quarter put into a Quartermania machine is added to the jackpot, he said.