From: Steve Masticola (????????????????????????)
Subject: A fine cigar can be _very_ worthwhile!

Hi, all,

I clipped the following from the Sunday Trenton Times (August 14,
1994). Enjoy! -S.

-=-=-

SURGEON HITS RECORD $8.5M IN A.C.

ATLANTIC CITY (AP) - A New York surgeon's penchant for cigars paid off
in a big way yesterday.

Shunned from a nonsmoking blackjack table in Bally's Grand Casino
Hotel, Dr. Frank Oliveto moved to a progressive $1 slot machine that
ended up paying out an $8.5 million jackpot, officials said.

Yesterday's Megabucks payout is the largest ever in Atlantic City,
said Pam Sinderbrand, a spokeswoman for International Game Technology,
which manufactures the 186 Megabucks slot machines in the city's 12
casinos.

The jackpot had been accumulating since the previous $3.9 million
record prize was paid out in November 1992, Sinderbrand said.

"Smoking is bad for your health, but it's good for my pocketbook,"
said Oliveto, of Port Jefferson, N.Y.

Oliveto, 54, received the first of 20 annual checks for $427,275
yesterday, said Sinderbrand.

The orthopedic surgeon went to the Megabucks machine with $100 of
dollar coins. He had played about $80 and won back roughly $35 before
hitting the $8.5 million, said Sinderbrand.

Twelve people have won at Megabucks  since the progressive slots
debuted in the resort's casinos in 1990. Every time someone drops a
dollar in any of the machines, which are linked with the machines in
each of the city's gaming halls, the jackpot increases by a percentage
of that bet.

"To hit the primary jackpot, you have to play three coins, the maximum
bet," she said. The $3 wager landed Oliveto the big bucks when four
Megabucks symbols appeared on the third payline.

Oliveto is a physician at Mather Memorial Hospital and St. Charles
Hospital in Port Jefferson. He says he even joked with his operating
room staff earlier this week that he would win the big jackpot this
weekend. 


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