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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Tuesday, June 5, 2001

'Ewa Beach man wins $1 million in Las Vegas

By Walter Wright and Yasmin Anwar
Advertiser Staff Writers

Alex Aris shows off the $1 million check he won playing keno early yesterday at the Fremont Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

Fremont Hotel & Casino


Past Hawai‘i winners of major jackpots:
• Debbie Perez Nakamura, of Waipahu, won the largest quarter-slot jackpot in Las Vegas history when she won $4.5 million on the Jeopardy progressive game at the Mirage in 1999.
• Praxedes Respicio, of ‘Ewa, won $1.5 million in the Las Vegas jackpot from a California Hotel's slot machine in 1996.
• Frederick Oishi, of Pearl City, won the $2 million top prize in the Let-It-Ride Las Vegas poker tournament in 1995.
• Terry Abella, of Kailua-Kona, won a $1.5 million jackpot on a progressive slot machine at the California Hotel in Las Vegas in 1995.

A $13-an-hour airline chef from 'Ewa Beach who used the birthdates of his four children to win $1 million in a keno game in Las Vegas said yesterday he will use the money to open a restaurant and set up a hair styling business for his wife.

Alex Aris, 57, is only the third person in Nevada gaming history to beat the odds of almost 8 million-to-1 for a $1 million keno prize, said Howard Jochsberger, marketing director at the Fremont Hotel and Casino.

"It's very, very surprising, but it looks like a dream for me," Aris said last night, groggy from lack of sleep some 20 hours after his big win.

"I am not a big gambler," Aris said. "I only come to Las Vegas if I have vacation from work and my work on my house is finished."

He bought five $1 keno cards Sunday night shortly after arriving at the Fremont with his 28-year-old son Aristotle. The two were on a four-night Boyd Gaming Vacations Hawai'i-Las Vegas package, which usually costs around $500. The Fremont is a popular hotel for Island visitors.

Aris selected 10 of the 80 numbers on the card. When the last of 20 numbers were called at 11:03 p.m., they included Aris' lucky 10.

"The last number I am waiting for is the number that is coming up," Aris said.

He wants to use the winnings to fulfill his dream of owning his own restaurant, but Aris said he sees no reason to move from the "brand new" 'Ewa Beach house he and his family bought in 1995, a dozen years after emigrating from the Philippines. He said he will return to his regular job as a cook at LSG Sky Chef before deciding if he should quit.

A step up in the world

After winning, Aris and his son were instantly upgraded from their standard Fremont room to the 12th-floor penthouse presidential suite (two bathrooms, a Jacuzzi, a living room, full bar and refrigerator) reserved for the casino's highest rollers. But he caught only a few hours sleep before returning to the casino floor.

"I have still been playing a little bit to remove all the inferiority complex of my mind and of my heart. I sleep a little bit, three hours, then I go down and make a little bit for the roulette," he said. He also spent some time rolling dice at the craps tables.

"I hope he quits while he's ahead," another son, Onassis, 25, said at the 'Ewa Beach home.

"At $5 a pop?" laughed Fremont Vice President Stacey Noble. "I think he's got a long ways to go."

Aris said he's counting on help with how to manage his new-found wealth from his oldest son Aristotle, who works at ABC stores while completing his degree this year at the University of Hawai'i in business administration.

"We are going to be very organized," he said.

Aris' wife Rebecca, 50, was stunned at the news.

"You're kidding," she said when reached at Waipahu High School where she is a teacher. "I'm ready to collapse."

She had been getting anxious that she hadn't heard from her husband and son. Aris said he tried to call yesterday, but nobody was at home.

Spending a million dollars

Rebecca Aris said she and her husband allotted part of their income tax refund to his Las Vegas trip, with a plan to spend any winnings on home improvements and their children's education.

Aristotle and and Aris' son Onassis are University of Hawai'i students, daughter Rebyrose, 20, is a nursing student at Leeward Community College, and youngest son Jack, 14, is in high school.

"Whatever we do, we will spend the money wisely," said Rebecca Aris, who met Alex in Manila when she was a school teacher and he was a cook at the U.S. embassy.

Onassis and Jack Aris pick up their mom Rebecca in front of their home. Their father won $1 million at a Las Vegas casino.

Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

Because of the size of the prize, casino security reviewed in-house surveillance tapes and equipment to make sure everything was in order, Jochsberger said.

"We're ecstatic. Especially with someone from Hawai'i" Jochsberger said. "We love winners. That is what we are here for. If we won all the time, we would not be a casino."

Earlier million-dollar keno prizes were awarded at a casino in Sparks, outside Reno, and at the Las Vegas Hilton, he said. The million-dollar prize has been a special promotion at the Fremont since 1998, and very few casinos offer it; the top prize in traditional keno games is $100,000, he said.

The win doesn't disrupt the odds for the next player, Jochsberger said, because the balls in the keno machine pop up at random.

"We could pay out another million dollars right now," he said.

Aris will receive $50,000 now, and the balance within 30 days, much of it from SCA Promotions of Dallas, Texas, a jackpot promotion and guarantee company.

It will be up to Aris to talk to the Internal Revenue Service and the Hawai'i tax collector about his income, but tax practitioner Jan Holl of Honolulu, an enrolled agent with Janell Israel Associates, licensed to practice in front of the IRS, said winning that kind of money exposes an individual to the top 39.5 percent federal tax rate and the top 8.75 percent state rate.

In other words, Uncle Sam and Uncle Ben could take almost half of Aris' million-dollar prize.

Aris might reduce his tax exposure if he can spread the payment over a number of years, Holl said.

Son Onassis was the first family member in Hawai'i to hear the news. "No way!" Advised that the win was real, Onassis couldn't contain himself. "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God," he said.

Man of his house

His father's first use of the money might be to pay for a fence he had been wanting to build at the four-bedroom family home in 'Ewa Beach.

"He loves to take care of his house, he likes to garden and grow vegetables. He is good at saving his money, he saved enough money to put down a down payment on this house," Onassis said.

Onassis, who works at Kaiser Hospital while completing his UH degree, said his father is a hard-working, thrifty man.

"Tight, but in a good way," he said. He also said his parents had moved the family seven times after arriving in Hawai'i in 1983, before they were able to buy their home.

All but the youngest son were born in the Philippines.

Aris' father, Chris, 84, of Honolulu, a former security guard at the U.S. Embassy in Manila, had planned to accompany his son and grandson on their trip to Las Vegas, but couldn't go.

Then he got the big news from Las Vegas yesterday.

"Oh boy," he said.