Local Marine Hits Jackpot

Wins $2.8 million

A local Marine has hit the jackpot, winning nearly three million dollars at a Las Vegas slot machine.

Corporal Alexander Degenhardt and a friend were hanging around the Bellagio Casino, killing time before catching a flight back to the District.

Degenhardt says he decided to play the Money Vault Millionaires Seven slot machine, which takes bets of 40 cents to $2.

Degenhardt said he fed in a $100 bill, expecting the cash to go quickly.  Instead, he hit a jackpot: $2,882,808.32.

The Marine corporal told the Las Vegas Sun that just a few days earlier, he had volunteered as a bone marrow donor, and wonders if that gave him a little good luck.

A couple of days before he hit a jackpot of nearly $3 million, Cpl. Alexander Degenhardt learned he’d been accepted as a bone marrow donor to an anonymous patient.

“They asked me if I was sure I wanted to go through with it, because it’s kind of painful, but what’s a little pain if it will save someone’s life?” the U.S. Marine said Friday. “I look at this as kind of good karma for that.”

Degenhardt said he plans on helping his sister and his mother catch up on bills with some of the winnings.  He's based at Naval Support Facility Indian Head in southern Maryland.

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