Casino Player September 2022

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PLAYER OF THE MONTH

Mega Millions with the Live! Casinos Team By Sean Chaffin

A mericans across the country got Mega Millions mania in July as the interstate lottery reached a colossal $1.3 billion. Some employees at Live! Casino and Hotel properties were probably watching those numbers pretty closely as well. Parent company Cordish Gaming Group purchased 4,000 tickets for the lottery,one for each of the company’s more than 4,000 employees across properties in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Maryland. Live! Philadelphia General Manager Joe Billhimer led a delegation of employees to Mike’s News Stand in South Philly to purchase the tickets. “We saw this $1 billion mark and we thought we’d give all of our team members across the Cordish Gaming division a chance to win,” Billhimer said.The GM added one caveat for employees after the purchase:“Please show up for work tomorrow.” This kind of employee reward is nothing new for the Live! Properties,which have also run some other creative ways to recognize hard-working employees in the past. One of those came recently when Maryland Live! celebrated its 10-year anniversary. The festivities included a “Shop ’Til You Drop” shopping spree for 100 employees. These lucky teammembers were given 15 minutes to fill up their carts at Costco.The promotion cost Live! about $336,000.

As the Mega Millions lottery reached a colossal $1.3 billion in July, Live! Philadelphia General Manager Joe Billhimer (l.) led a delegation of employees to Mike’s News Stand in South Philly to purchase 4,000 lottery tickets for each of the company’s 4,000-plus employees across properties in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Maryland.

“But this was our first time joining the Mega Millions madness,” a spokesman told Casino Player of the recent Mega Millions fun.“There was already a general buzz about the Mega Millions drawing among team members, so we saw this as an opportunity to up the ante even more. It was just too big to pass up and we received a tremendous reaction.Team members were very excited and already thinking about what they would do if they won.” That’s part of the fun of playing the lottery, dreaming about what just might be in the future—perhaps a nice new car or maybe a home on the beach in the Caribbean.Helping out family and friends might be nice, and some players may want to earmark some for charity as well. As those kinds of dreams went through so manyAmericans’minds, Live! teammembers listed some of their own wishes for their share of the money in the lead-up to the drawing.Some of their own desires included the practical, like paying off student loans.One employee promised not

to“call out sick,”but rather to“call out rich.”While the Live! team didn’t win big,company officials say they still won by sharing a fun experience and saying“thank you” to such a dedicated staff. This was the third time in Mega Millions’ history that the jackpot reached more than $1 billion, with a hefty lump-sum payout of $780.5 million.On the night of the final drawing, the lottery’s website couldn’t be accessed because of the high volume of traffic as players looked to see if they might cash in. So who was the lucky winner? That honor goes to a single lotto player in Illinois.After taxes, this gambler may not quite be a billionaire, but many lottery players would certainly trade places. It’s a life-changing turn of events. “We are thrilled to have witnessed one of the biggest jackpot wins in Mega Millions history,”Mega Millions Lead Director Pat McDonald said immediately after the big drawing.“We’re eager to find out who won and look forward to congratulating the winner soon!” ´

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