Glasgow dad scoops life-changing £122,000 jackpot at local Grosvenor casino
A GLASGOW dad is celebrating a shock life-changing win - having though he'd only won £500!
James Taylor Gray from Rutherglen was playing blackjack at Grosvenor's stunning Glasgow Riverboat when landing the ultimate feat with just a £1 bonus chip.
2
Glasgow dad James Taylor Gray collecting his winnings
Blackjack - a mix of strategy and chance - is one of the most popular casino games, where players aim to have a hand value closer to 21 than the dealer without going over.
Gray - a full-time dad - is expecting his second child this summer and is an occasion visitor to the picturesque venue.
Both Gray and the dealer at his table revealed an Ace and King of hearts which sparked scenes of celebration from others at his table.
Gray was thrilled thinking he'd pocketed £500 and was stunned shortly afterwards in learning he'd bagged the remarkable £122,000 jackpot instead!
In winning this jackpot, it was actually a good payday for the other players at his table, who themselves all bagged £500 from the casino for Gray's jackpot hand.
2
The jackpot landed for just £1 on blackjack
Credit: Grosvenor Casino
He plans to support his family - including his wife who is due next month - as well as book a family holiday and invest a significant portion of the money.
He said: "At first, I thought I'd won £500, which was the amount everyone else at the table won because I hit the jackpot.
"Everyone was cheering, and I couldn't understand why. The person next to me told me I'd won the jackpot and the rest is a blur!
"I was in complete shock! I can't really remember what I said apart from 'you're kidding?' when I was told I won.'
Mark McCluskey, General Manager at Grosvenor Casino Glasgow Riverboat, commented: 'What a win!
"The atmosphere was electric with the entire casino cheering and celebrating.
"We are thrilled for James and congratulate him on both his winnings and his family's new addition!'
Remember to gamble responsibly
A responsible gambler is someone who:
Establishes time and monetary limits before playing
Only gambles with money they can afford to lose
Never chase their losses
Doesn't gamble if they're upset, angry or depressed
Gamcare – gamcare.org.uk
GambleAware – GambleAware.org
Read our guide on responsible gambling practices.
For help with a gambling problem, call the National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133 or go to gamstop.co.uk to be excluded from all UK-regulated gambling websites.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
3 minutes ago
- BBC News
Clacton Airshow: Everything you need to know
An Essex seaside town is preparing to welcome thousands of visitors for its annual air display over the next two days. Described by organisers as "one of the biggest and most anticipated events in the East of England", Clacton Airshow aims to celebrate aviation, heritage and do you need to know if you're heading to Clacton this year - and where can you follow the action if you're staying at home? Which aircraft will be flying this year? It's the 32nd time the coastal resort of Clacton-on-Sea will host the event, which sees aircraft flying over the town's renowned beaches and seafront year, the RAF Red Arrows and the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight – featuring the Spitfire, Hurricane and Lancaster – will be taking to the will also be a twilight display on Thursday evening, featuring Otto the helicopter, the Firebirds, and the P-51D Mustang "Moonbeam McSwine".Other aircraft set to take part include the Rolls-Royce Heritage Flight's Spitfire PRXIX, the Fairey Swordfish Mk1, P-51D Mustang "Jersey Jerk", Republic P-47D Thunderbolt, F-86 Sabre, BAC Strikemaster Pair, de Havilland Vampire, Westland Lynx AH7, OV-10B Bronco, RAF Grob Tutor T1, and Team will also be a replica Chinook on the ground at West Greensward, which visitors can board to see the scale of the iconic military aircraft. What time will it all be happening? Organisers say displays will commence at about 13:45 BST on Thursday, with the twilight display at 20:00, and starting again at 13:00 on Friday. The Red Arrows are due to close the day display on Thursday at about 17:00 and open the event on Friday at about 13: organisers say that display times are subject to change due to operational requirements or weather including flight times, aircraft facts and other information will be available to buy at the West Greensward Airshow site. How can I get to the event? If you're travelling by public transport, there is a park and ride service operation from Clacton Shopping Village in Stephenson KonectBuses services will operate from there every 10 minutes from 10:00 BST and will take visitors to the last buses back are at 22:00 on Thursday and 18:30 on the trains, Greater Anglia will be laying on extra rail services on both is available at various locations, but drivers are advised to leave extra time as surrounding roads will be busier than normal. Hastings seafront car park and the main Martello coach park are unavailable for public West Road car park is being managed by the Rotary Club of Clacton-on-Sea, which is selling tickets for £10 per car, and also has disabled parking spaces with an accessible shuttle service to and from the District Council says Marine Parade West and Pier Gap will be closed for the duration of the Road, St Vincent Road, Nelson Road and Trafalgar Road are subject to resident-only parking orders, the authority says, which will be monitored and enforced by enforcement officers. What else do I need to know? Organisers recommend checking the weather forecast before arriving, planning your journey in advance, bringing plenty of water and sun cream, and wearing comfortable, light clothing. They say it's a fun family event which is suitable for children - but the louder, faster jets can be very noisy and may cause distress to those that are sensitive to noise."If you have ear defenders it's advisable to bring them," organisers also said no public Wi-Fi was available and internet and phone signal could be patchy because of high demand, so advised agreeing a meeting point with your group in case someone got viewing areas stretch from the east side of Clacton Pier (towards Holland-on-Sea) to Martello Beach, including the upper and lower promenades and the West will also be a fireworks display after the twilight flights on Thursday. Where can I listen along or watch the action? BBC Essex will broadcast coverage of the event on BBC Sounds and its 103.5FM frequency on the Ian Wyatt and Steve Scruton will team up with pilot Sam Williams to provide commentary on the displays as well as behind-the-scenes airshow will also be live streamed on AeroView Essex's coverage starts at 12:00 BST on Thursday. Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
The Independent
34 minutes ago
- The Independent
Scythers cut back the King's wildflower meadow in annual tradition
The King's wildflower meadow at Highgrove has undergone its annual scything. Mowers and members of the Scythe Association of Britain & Ireland were pictured cutting back the species-rich plot at Charles's Gloucestershire estate this week as the end of the summer approaches. The King is known to be a fan of the traditional country craft and has in the past turned his hand to the skill, which was once boosted in popularity by actor Aidan Turner scything topless in the BBC drama Poldark. The age old practice, of using a tool with a long curved blade to cut meadows by hand in a low sweeping motion, produces a closer cut to the ground, allowing for better seed germination and maintaining biodiversity while providing crucial winter fodder for livestock. The meadow, which was established more than 40 years ago, covers four acres and is one of the most picturesque gardens at Highgrove House near Tetbury. It was developed by gardening expert Miriam Rothschild in 1982 with special seed mix which replicated old meadows which had been lost over time. Charles, then the Prince of Wales, wanted his experimental meadow to protect native flora and fauna which were in decline thanks to modern farming methods. The original seed mix comprised 32 varieties of native plants, including ox-eye daisies, yellow rattle, common spotted orchid, meadow crane's bill and ragged robin. Managed as a traditional hay meadow, it is cut in summer for hay, and grazed by sheep in the autumn, which helps to tread seeds back into the ground. Yellow rattle keeps grasses cropped, and more than seven types of orchids thrive in the soil. Spring is a highlight when scores of Lent lily and Ice Follies daffodils appear, followed by swathes of yellows, pink and purples. The meadow was named as the first of 60 Coronation Meadows in a project initiated Charles ahead of the 60th anniversary of Elizabeth II's coronation in 2013. It now contains more than 70 varieties of plants. Highgrove is open to the public from April to October, with all proceeds from visitors going towards the work of The King's Foundation – Charles's charity, based on the site, which works to protect traditional skills and crafts.
The Guardian
35 minutes ago
- The Guardian
The art of the city: a walking tour of Edinburgh's best landscape sculptures
A distinct farmyard smell lingers near the muddy Sheep Paintings. People walk slowly between two dense hedges of windfallen oak branches, or stand silently in a fragile cage of bulrush stems with light seeping through the mossy skylight overhead. I'm visiting the largest ever indoor exhibition of work by Andy Goldsworthy, one of Britain's most influential nature artists. His recent installations have a visceral sense of rural landscape: hare's blood on paper, sheep shit on canvas, rusty barbed wire, stained wool, cracked clay. The show is a sensory celebration of earth – its textures and temperatures, colours, character. The seasons cycle through an ongoing multidecade series of photos featuring the same fallen elm. There are leaf patterns and delicate woven branches, crusts of snow, lines of summer foxglove flowers or autumn rosehips. Andy Goldsworthy: Fifty Years is a National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) exhibition in the neoclassical Royal Scottish Academy building. After the exhibition, as a sort of cultural pilgrimage, I'm walking six miles across Edinburgh in search of works by the Dumfriesshire-based Goldsworthy and other artists who engage with the landscape. I start at the Royal Botanic Garden (free and open daily, a short bus ride north of the National Gallery. Just inside the east gate, there's a perforated sculpture by Barbara Hepworth with sunlight pouring through it. 'Art has made me look at the world … and engage with what's around me,' Goldsworthy writes in the notes for Fifty Years. Walking up through shady beeches, blazing wildflowers and scented, bee-buzzing lavender, there's a bronze girl in a waterlily pond, and a sundial by the Scottish artist and writer Ian Hamilton Finlay near the terrace cafe. Finlay's best-known artwork is the garden he created with his wife, Sue, in the wild Pentland Hills (£15 over-16s, £10 for 10-15s, under-10s free, open Thursday to Sunday until 28 September, He also built a stone temple in the rolling, wooded acres of Jupiter Artland, a few miles from Edinburgh, where Goldsworthy has put rocks in trees and trees in a stone-walled barn (£11.80 adults, £7.50 children). Celebrating both artists, Jupiter's exhibition Work Begat Work runs until 28 September. In the Royal Botanic Garden, Goldsworthy's Slate Cone stands next to Inverleith House, where the gallery is showing feminist photomontages by Linder (free, until 19 October), who opened this year's Edinburgh art festival (until 24 August). Enlarged images from her work (smiling mouths, bees, lilies) are dotted among ponds and flowerbeds. Goldsworthy's Slate, Hole, Wall, a round enclosure of stacked grey stones, stands in the gardens' south-east corner, under a weeping silver lime tree sweet with honey-fragrant blossom. The Water of Leith Walkway runs close to the John Hope Gateway on Arboretum Place, and I follow it south-westwards. In Stockbridge, the Sunday market, shaded by whitebeam trees, offers loaves of artisanal bread, Perthshire strawberries and cakes made from insects. Almost hidden in branches under a bridge, a lifesize cast-iron figure stands in the river nearby, one of Antony Gormley's 6 Times statues. Another of the figures is buried chest-deep by the zebra crossing between National Galleries Scotland: Modern One and Two. Wandering past domed St Bernard's Well, with its statue of the goddess of health, and picturesque Dean Village, crammed with fellow camera-wielding visitors, I detour to the Modern galleries up the riverside steps. Linking both museums is Charles Jencks' huge Landform, with its grassy hills and curving pond. There are days' worth of galleries, artists' rooms and sculpture gardens to explore here, but the afternoon is passing and I have more miles and museums to cover. Heading back along the leafy Water of Leith, I climb another steep flight of steps towards Haymarket. On the south lawn of St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, a labyrinth winds through aromatic yarrow and knapweed. Around this flowering meadow, as part of an installation called On Sacred Ground, there are rough benches elegiacally listing threatened Scottish species: corncrake, hawfinch, wryneck, ring ouzel, capercaillie. I walk on through Princes Street Gardens, back past the Royal Academy building, and drop into the National Gallery (free) next door to see Van Gogh's impasto Olive Trees and William McTaggart's stormy seascapes. Up more steps, pausing to look back at distant views of the firth, and then down again across photogenic Victoria Street. Finally, I stroll through Greyfriars Kirkyard to reach the National Museum of Scotland (free, In 1998, Goldsworthy installed four sunset-coloured blocks of split sandstone on the museum roof, with its panoramic city views. But the blue skies have turned stormy. 'Our roof terrace is closed today – the weather is too dreich!' says a red sign by the lift. Sign up to The Traveller Get travel inspiration, featured trips and local tips for your next break, as well as the latest deals from Guardian Holidays after newsletter promotion Instead, I head to the basement, where more late-1990s works by Goldsworthy complement a brilliant gallery about Scotland's early inhabitants. There's Hearth, a burned circle on a platform of salvaged wood from the museum's construction site. Stacked Whalebones is a pale ball of interlocking bones, the whole skeleton of a five-metre pilot whale found beached in Northumberland. Around golden bronze age torcs and silver Viking arm-rings, Roman carvings and flint arrowheads, the artist also designed Enclosure, two curving walls of reworked Edinburgh slates. Another backdrop is of stained Dumfriesshire clay like the Red Wall in the Fifty Years exhibition. Outside, the Edinburgh fringe is in full swing (until 25 August). Among the crowds are buskers, jugglers, unicyclists. With just one night to sample its anarchic offerings, I plunge into dodgy cabarets and sweaty comedies in tiny underventilated venues. At 9pm, I'm back at the National Museum for an accomplished Lloyd-Webber-esque musical about Van Gogh. Towards midnight, I head to Summerhall for a strange, polyphonic prequel to Hamlet by the Polish choral-theatre group Song of the Goat. The next day, as I walk to Edinburgh's Waverley station, there's a prismatic haze caught between the misty drizzle and breezy summer sun. It reminds me of Goldsworthy's 1980s photo series with titles like Rainbow Splash Hit Water With Heavy Stick Bright, Sunny, Windy. As the train speeds south, through Northumberland and North Yorkshire, I see with new eyes the wave-pounded cliffs and bale-studded headlands, the dry-stone walls and sheep-scattered patchwork dales. The trip was provided by Visit Scotland, NGS and LNER, York to Edinburgh from £23 each way, London to Edinburgh from £52 Andy Goldsworthy 50 Years runs until 2 November, £19 adults, £5 children,
