On the right you see casino manager Jimmy Howard. On the left is Paul Bahbout holding up his winning card, but the full import of having won the jackpot of more than 200,000 GPB (over 2,5 million rand) doesn’t quite seem to have sunken in yet. “It was a surreal moment” Bahbout told the Southend Standard, “and the shock has been growing on me ever since.”
Mr Bahbout from Southend-on-Sea, a seaside city in Britain a little way east of London, had been hit hard by the recession. Formerly employed managing sports clubs and restaurants, he is not only currently unemployed but had also amassed a 50,000 pound debt (R600,000). Bahbout won the 200K jackpot through a 1 pound side-bet in a blackjack tournament hosted by the Genting Group, a UK casino operator. To win the 200,000 pound jackpot, a player had to come by a hand of 4 Aces, and Bahbout, at these incredible odds, happened to do just that.
He is planning to use some of the money to go on the holiday of a lifetime with friends, and intends to give the rest to friends and family who have also suffered from the economic crisis.
