When Samantha McKay decided to log in to an online bingo site for the first time in over a year, she never in her wildest dreams could've guessed the outcome.
The 32-year old from Porthcawl, Wales placed six bets, the first with an initial stake of just £1. A few bets later and Samantha was over the moon to find out she had won £10,000. Deciding to ride her luck, she upped the stakes to £50. By the third bet, Samantha was staggered to find she had won £50,000. Whilst most dabbers would've banked their winnings by then, the mum of two decided to ride her luck and placed the maximum allowed on a single bet – £200 – and was shellshocked to find out she won again, this time an incredible £200,000, taking her total winnings to cool quarter of a million pounds in just a few bets starting at only £1.
The massive win was made all the sweeter by the fact that the self-employed hairdresser was turned down for a mortgage only a week before. After a long, hard 11 year slog to save a total of £18,000 for a deposit to buy a house, Samantha along with her husband Damien, were able to buy a house outright with the bingo winnings.
Spending the Winnings
After buying a three bedroomed property, Samantha also purchased a holiday caravan for her mum Julie, with some of the leftover winnings.
Now, Samantha has gone back to work in the hairdresser shop she owns and said of the win:
“When I saw the amount flash up on the screen I nearly died – I couldn’t believe it.
“My husband and I have been saving for nearly 11 years and we were even competing to see who could save the most each month.
“When I sat him down and told him I’d been playing online bingo, I think he thought I’d blown our savings.
“Then I told him I'd won, he was in absolute shock when I said it was £250,000.
“It was perfect timing for us after the mortgage we applied for was rejected.
“We also got brand new furniture and I treated myself to the most expensive bedding I could find.
“It still doesn’t feel real that we own our house – it’s more than we could have dreamed.”
A regular online bingo player in 2018, Samantha decided to close her account and have a ‘cooling-off period' having not enjoyed any real success playing. An email from the site persuaded her to reactivate her account and the rest, as they say, is history!
