Main Menu
News
Current
Top of Page
 
Top of Page
  | Home   | Index   | Info   | This Week   | Poker   | News   | Email
 
News

Welcome to the News desk.

World Record slot winner Jon Heywood gives his friend £4 million pounds and donates to the Army Benevolent Fund 04/09/18
Editor
• Mr Heywood won the jackpot £13,213,838.68 playing Betaway's Mega Moolah game which is officially a Guinness World Record for the largest payout in an online slot machine game.
 
World Record Slot Winner Jon Heywood
 
The then 26-year-old Lance Corporal Jon Heywood served with the 157 Welsh Transport Regiment in Cardiff and was in the army for nine years. Recently deciding to be interviewed about his experiences since the life-changing win, he said he was led into the army because "Granddad was in the RAF, my Uncle was in the army and his friend was going into the navy".

It was late at night on the 6th October 2015 when Jon was watching a TV programme about World War II tanks on the History Channel and noticed a mid show advert for Mega Moolah on the Betway casino platform. It was only a little later at around midnight when Mr Heywood discovered he had won the huge sum and said "I thought it was a hoax at first. I thought 'no, this isn't real'".

He was only a customer for 25 minutes before the reels lined up. Initially he believed he had won £10,000 but the total just kept rising to the final figure of £13,213,838.68. The Jackpot had not been won for the previous six months leading to the build-up of the giant prize.

Alan Alger, Head of Betway PR, called him the next morning and was surprised to find Jon not that excited but after a sleepless night he was just working out if he should go into work. When he did he told his boss who was more excited than Jon was who was still in disbelief.

The first person he told was his mother, Carol Sellars, who thought he was about to tell her he had done something wrong. She said 'he hadn't become a different person', but that 'he had to stop buying duvet covers instead of washing the ones he already had'.

Jon gave his friend Mike Wright £4m as part of a childhood pact that if either one won some money they would help each other out. "What would I do with an extra four million", Jon said. They used to go to bingo together when teenagers. Mike later joked had he won he would have pretended not to know Jon but then praising his life-long friend said, 'Jon was a man of his word'.

He has also donated money to the Army Benevolent Fund known as ABF and continues to help his father Douglas who has serious heart and lung issues, buying him a new house with features that make his life easier.

Since the record win Jon has become a property developer as he 'doesn't like not working' and only pays himself a mere £4000 a month. "I don't need any more", he modestly said. "The rest is in the bank or in investments or I'm using it to buy more houses and carrying on going". He continues to fit bathrooms himself and according to colleague Glyn Poole he's moving into disabled letting because he wants to help.

Other changes in Jon's life are starting a new family with a baby girl and changing his old Fiat Punto to a new Jaguar F-Pace with red and black leather interior.

Material for this article sourced from the original article and video on the Betway Casino blog.