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Christy Barnett was reluctant about making the trip from her home in El Paso, Texas to Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
You could hardly blame her: the 730-mile trip is an arduous one and for her husband, Sherman, the primary motivation was preserving the couple\u2019s Seven Stars status with Caesars Rewards.<\/p>\n
But the fact Christy and Sherman are a self-described \u201c24\/7 couple\u201d who do everything together and are both avid slot players, meant eventually she acquiesced \u2013 a decision that would eventually land her in the money.<\/p>\n
The couple have had notable careers racing stock cars, trucks and other vehicles and often enjoy weekend trips to Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
On this particular jaunt, the couple would be staying at the well-known Caesars Palace, where Christy was soon quickly enthused by the Dragon Link machine in the high-roller salon, which offers the chance to win $1million (\u00a3823,000) for bets as low as $25 (\u00a320).<\/p>\n
READ MORE: <\/strong> Top 10 do’s and don’ts when visiting casinos – like not putting drinks on tables<\/strong><\/p>\n With one lucky pull, Christy hit the jackpot, achieving a 45-year-long ambition in the process.<\/p>\n Speaking to Casinos.com about the moment, which was also caught via footage that went viral, she said: \u201cWinning to me is winning. That\u2019s just the way I was built. Everything is a competition to me. This was just like taking it to the next level.<\/p>\n \u201cTo me, it\u2019s not so much the money, it\u2019s the fact that I did it \u2013 that I actually hit a jackpot for $1million. I\u2019ve been trying to do that for 45 years.\u201d<\/p>\n The moment had actually been a very sizable cherry on top of an already successful day at the casino, with Christy having already hit nine jackpots (albeit much smaller ones) on the same morning.<\/p>\n She explained: \u201cI played that same game from like 1pm in the afternoon until almost 11pm at night when it hit.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I went down in the morning, I hit nine jackpots in a row. I hit one on every machine I played. And I told myself, this is it, this is the day. I’m gonna hit that $1million. That was my plan and it actually happened.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the end, I hit like 19 jackpots that day. There were four machines together, all the same kind, and while I was waiting to get paid on one, I played one next to it \u2013 put in $100 (\u00a382) and that hit for $16,500 (\u00a313,582). So I had a lot of money to play with. [In total], I hit $97,000 (\u00a379,847) of jackpots before the $1million.\u201d<\/p>\n As Christy experienced, such a moment is difficult to believe, and she\u2019s explained she didn\u2019t sleep for around five days after.<\/p>\n She added: \u201cOn Saturday night I laid there awake the whole night, so at like 9am in the morning, I said I gotta get up. And when I did, I thought, you know, this might just be a really vivid dream. I better go look in the safe and make sure. So I went to the safe and the check was there and I was like, no, it’s real.<\/p>\n “My husband was still asleep and I went down and played some more. When he came down later, that was when he finally wrapped his head around the idea that it was $1million and then he was jumping around the rest of the trip.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was telling people in the bathroom, telling people in restaurants, telling cab drivers. He\u2019s telling everybody, \u2018You know my wife just won a million dollars’.\u201d<\/p>\n And what plans do Christy and her husband have for celebrating their winnings? Keep playing, of course.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/130\/590x\/secondary\/Caesars-Palace-casino-5042729.jpg?r=1698824301861\")
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