‘I was ready to faint:’ Moose Jaw woman hits the jackpot on VLT

Tammy Topinka broke the bank at Bugsy’s.

The Moose Jaw woman won $1,436,484.22 in the grand jackpot on Vault Breaker at Bugsy’s Irish Pub in Moose Jaw on Sunday.

“I was ready to faint,” Topinka said in a release from the Western Canada Lottery Corporation. “I couldn’t believe it!

“At first, I thought I had won $14,000,” she continued. “The guy sitting beside me had to tell me that I had actually won the jackpot!”

Topinka has some plan for her win on the VLT.

“I’m going to pay some bills and put some money away for retirement,” she said. “We also have some home improvements in mind — a new central air conditioner, fence and dishwasher.”

Vault Breaker links 4,200 VLTs in around 570 sites in 270 communities across the province. There are three mystery jackpot tiers: The province-wide grand jackpot with a minimum value of $500,000 that pays out before it hits $1.5 million; the regional major jackpot with a minimum value of $5,000 that pays out before it hits $25,000; and the local site jackpot with a minimum of $100 that pays out before hitting $500.

Any of the three jackpot tiers can be won on Vault Breaker.

The province-wide jackpot has awarded $29,609,782.29 to 31 winners since June 2017.