Monday, Sept. 23, 2019 | 2:38 p.m.
Eric Santos of Kahului, Hawaii, hit a $96,000 video poker jackpot on Friday, Sept. 20, 2019, at the Plaza in downtown Las Vegas.
A man from Hawaii hit a $96,000 video keno jackpot Friday at the Plaza in downtown Las Vegas, a casino representative said.
Eric Santos of Kahului, Hawaii, hit the jackpot playing a progressive Keno game that had originally been installed on an older coin-operated machine that was taken out of service and is going to be given away in a casino promotion, officials said.
The game — along with its progressive jackpot — was reinstalled on a newer machine that Santos was playing, officials said.
During October, the Plaza is giving away a dozen classic coin video poker and slot machines as a way to pay homage to its vintage Las Vegas gambling roots, officials said. Some of the machines are more than 25 years old.
“While the coin machines like Joker Poker, Deuces Wild and Catch the Heat have nostalgic popularity, they are not compatible with new slot technologies and cannot track points and play. The vintage machines have also become increasingly harder to maintain,” the casino said in a statement.
The winner of a weekly video poker tournament each Tuesday next month will receive a classic coin-operated video poker machine as the grand prize.
In addition, the Plaza will host a points challenge from Oct. 1 to 29. Players can earn points playing reel slots, video poker and video keno. The eight players with the most points will win a coin keno, slot or video poker machine.
“These machines are a part of Vegas history, and we wanted to give our locals a chance to have their own piece of our city’s great legacy,” Plaza CEO Jonathan Jossel said.
To be eligible to win a machine, participants must be a Nevada resident with valid Nevada ID, 21 or older and a member of the Plaza’s Royal Rewards players club. The winners will have seven days to pick up their coin machine and will be responsible for future maintenance.
Full contest rules are online.
