When jobcentre worker John Orchard scooped £5.9 million in the world’s biggest ever online win last December the entire industry received a boost. The story was even more compelling when it was revealed that the 60-year-old from Long Sutton in Lincolnshire had collected the massive pay-out after betting just 30p on the Butlers Bingo website. If the public perception existed that winnings on online bingo sites were relatively modest then this huge win firmly blew that theory out of the water.
Inevitably, though we are still awaiting statistics from the period since, the win will have attracted even more players to British online bingo sites.
Today the grandfather-of-three can be seen whizzing along the windy Lincolnshire roads in a £40,000 Jaguar XF having traded in his Renault Clio thanks to the big win at Butlers Bingo.
Reacting to his amazing fortune Mr Orchard said at the time “I just couldn’t believe I’d won it. This will change my life completely. I was looking at working for another five years at the Jobcentre – but not any longer.”
The old world record for an online bingo jackpot was set in 2009 by ‘Georgios M.’, a 36-year-old married businessman from Greece, who won €6.3million (£5.1million) on the Riverbelle online casino.
The UK bingo win record was formerly held by Soraya Lowell, 38, who won £1.2million in Lanarkshire, Scotland, in 2008.
This year Mr Orchard and his wife Linda used some of their winnings to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary in style.
