Slots Game - Vince Marelli

Vince Marelli's friends consider him a part-time florist and a full-time practical joker, even though the 35-year-old owns and operates his own flower store in New York City. Despite his constant practical jokes, his floral store keeps him busy enough most of the year, making it difficult, but not impossible, to find time for vacationing.

Vince's last visit to Atlantic City , though, was not for a vacation. He went to the seaside, gambling city to attend a national floral convention for the weekend. Not wanting to be away from his store too long, he flew from New York to New Jersey, a thirty-minute flight, and planned to leave four hours after the conference had ended.

The highlight of the weekend up to that point, outside of the conference, had been when he convinced one of the younger florists that saltwater taffy had been invented by the local Native American tribe hundreds of years before. The most amusing part, according to Vince, had been that the gullible florist had relayed the information on to someone else.

He and a few other conference attendees, once the convention was over, relaxed and hung out at the Bally's chic Blue Martini lounge. The other florists thought Vince was joking when he said he hadn't gambled a cent during the trip. During the conversation, the topic turned from business to the Blazing 777's slots game. Vince remembered that his first win, ever, at a casino had been playing a Blazing 777 slots game, almost ten years earlier.

On a whim, on his way out of the casino to the airport, he decided to put five bucks in the newly-progressive version of the Blazing 777 slots game . With five dollars of credit, in the $1 machine, the maximum bet was five bucks – his entire deposit. The Blazing 7's slots game section, he recalls, seemed to be the busiest part of the casino.

"I decided to bet it all," he said. "I honestly can't say what made me do it."

Whatever urge did make him bet was a good one. He won the biggest jackpot he'd ever won in his life, $2800. "Definitely more than I won at the original Blazing 7's slots game, this jackpot is going to be harder to beat," Vince said. "But I don't mind the challenge at all," he added.

Vince said that he spent all of the money on saltwater taffy and donated the rest to the society for Native American saltwater taffy research institute. Ironically, none of his friends or family back in New York believes that he actually won the money, even though the casino gave him a novelty check for winning the slots game.