‘Couldn’t have come at a better time’: Wadena, Sask. man wins over $1 million at a Yorkton VLT

Mirzet Imocanin of Wadena is the latest province-wide grand jackpot winner on the Vault Breaker wide-area progressive, winning $1,143,539.17. (Courtesy: WCLC)

A Wadena, Saskatchewan man won over $1 million dollars while playing a VLT in a Yorkton sports bar, and he said the windfall “couldn’t have come at a better time.”

The Western Canada Lottery Corporation (WCLC) said Mirzet Imocanin was playing at Tapps Sports Lounge and Grill in Yorkton on Oct. 23 when it happened. He hit the Vault Breaker jackpot, a progressive prize that links approximately 4,200 VLTs across the province.

The pot of money in the Vault Breaker starts at $500,000, and climbs until someone claims it. When Imocanin won, the jackpot had reached $1,143,539.17.

The Wadena resident told the WCLC he initially thought he won the minor prize when the Vault Breaker symbols began appearing in different positions on the screen.

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“When I realized I had won, I jumped up!” he said.

Imocanin says he’s going to take the opportunity to pay off some debt, and to buy a new truck “to get back and forth to work.”

The Wadena man told WCLC has a family member who is seriously ill, and that he hopes to use part of his windfall to pursue treatment.

There are three mystery jackpot tiers in the Vault Breaker, WCLC says, a province-wide grand jackpot that starts at $500,000 and pays out before it hits $1.5 million, a regional jackpot that starts at $5,000 and peaks at $25,000, and the local jackpot at the over 550 participating sites that runs from $100 to $500.

The WCLC says the province-wide jackpot has awarded $68,881,641.89 to 69 winners since June 2017. Vault Breaker’s province-wide grand jackpot has now been reset to $500,000.