At $161,000, it’s the biggest jackpot reaped from a local betting shop in the Island’s history.For Progressive Labour Party chairman Maynard Dill, yesterday’s cheque from Sea Horses was certainly also a fine return on a $2.50 wager.Lucky winner Mr Dill and his wife Wilma will use the unexpected cash to pay off the mortgage on their Pembroke home, the couple said yesterday.Ironically, the big win was cast on February 23 on a bingo-style numbers game — the same weekend local punters lost their bets on Bradford City and Nahki Wells.It was several days before Mr Dill even found out he’d won.“You want the truth? I was laying in bed on Wednesday morning, relaxing,” Mr Dill recalled.His wife came in and told him the winning ticket was being sought and he instantly knew it had to be his because he never bothered checking his ticket numbers until the next week.“After she told me, I jumped out of bed and said, ‘That’s mine’,” he said.Mrs Dill said her ordinarily cool husband got the jitters when he read out and confirmed the winning numbers.The 57-year-old father-of-five, also foreman of plant operations at Belco, said he’d based the winning numbers on his family’s ages.The game in question, the 49ers Jackpot Rollover, is a progressive jackpot. If nobody wins, the money stays in the pot.The numbers come from a UK draw, but the game itself is a Bermuda speciality.For bookie Lee Beauchamp, the win was important for transparency.“When no one wins, even though you can see live on TV that the numbers are being drawn 3,000 miles away in the UK, people start saying it’s fixed,” Mr Beauchamp explained.Never before has anyone managed to call six out of seven numbers on the jackpot.Mr Beauchamp was only too happy to present the couple with champagne on top of their winnings.Mr Dill said he’d been playing the jackpot for about four months and has enjoyed betting for years. According to his wife, he’s never won more than turkeys or hams before.“I don’t put much store in money,” he explained.Accustomed to giving away ten percent of his income to charity, Mr Dill said he hadn’t seen any sour grapes from others.“Most people said it couldn’t happen to a better guy.”Mrs Dill said the couple looked forward to assisting more of their favourite charities once their mortgage was paid off.With a grin, Mr Dill said: “I might go to Steven’s lunch wagon and get myself a beef pie.”Useful website: www.seahorsesonline.com