A man from New Zealand has won more than $1 million playing a real money pokie online, which will probably encourage the government to step up plans to clamp down on international online gambling sites.
Rawiri Pou attended a press conference held at an Auckland hotel where a giant novelty check in the tunes of a whopping NZ $10,144,395.82 was presented to him. The check was presented for winning the Mega Moolah slots jackpot at Casinoland.
27-year old Pou is a currently employed at a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Matamata. He said that his original win was $1,500 when he played the slot, but when he decided to rollover his winnings, it resulted in the giant payday. According to a Casinoland spokesperson, the company is thrilled and happy for Pou and promised that the life-changing prize money would be deposited in his bank account in the next few days.
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Pou says that he has not made any plans to quit his job at KFC, as he still did not know exactly how to feel about his good fortune. That said, he apparently did feel a little smug about getting scolded by his parents about wasting money on gambling sites.
The jackpot is an extremely impressive one, but it is far from a record. Last October, a punter from the UK won €17.9 million playing Mega Moolah by Microgaming at the online gambling site Betway.
Whether it is a record or not, Pou’s massive win is a major embarrassment for the government of New Zealand. At present, it is not illegal for Kiwis to bet with international gambling sites, but the government is actively exploring various ways to stop access to gambling sites like the UK- and Malta-licensed Casinoland.
The only form of online gambling accepted in the country is the online sports and race betting at NZ TAB. Local casino operator SkyCity Entertainment even got into a lot of trouble for launching a free-play online casino in the summer of 2015.
There is no comment as yet from the New Zealand government regarding Pou’s payday. However, the New Zealand Racing Board is probably burning up the phone lines with demands to know the action Racing Minister Nathan Guy is going to take to ensure that more people do not realize the full scale of options available to them besides the lowly TAB.
