Northern Lights Casino General Manager Angela Isbister (left) and SIGA President and CEO Zane Hansen (right) present Fred Robillard with his cheque his first-ever spin on the Smoke Signals jackpot. (Nick Nielsen/paNOW Staff)

By Nick Nielsen

Big Win

68-year-old Stoney Rapids man wins nearly $1.8 million on Smoke Signals progressive jackpot

Mar 7, 2025 | 12:57 PM

For Fred Robillard, whenever he’d come into Prince Albert he knew that he would be coming to spend time at the Northern Lights Casino where you’d usually be able to find him at the blackjack table.

On March 6, after Robillard’s blackjack table was shut down, something inspired Robillard to take a shot at the Smoke Signals progressive jackpot slot machine, and his first spin would win him $1.78 million dollars.

“I was playing blackjack, and the after that table was shut down, so I started walking around and something must have said, ‘hey, play that machine’. I never did play that Smoke Signal before, I played the other machines, but something just told me to go to the machine. So I just put a $53 voucher in there and that first spin, something came down and then people start running to me and says, ‘holy s@*!, you did hit that smoke signal!”

Robillard said that he wasn’t nervous or feel any different until he had to make a speech on Friday afternoon in celebration. Before this win, Robillard said his biggest win was around $700-800.

As one of the youngest in a family with 18 siblings in total and a member of Black Lake First Nation, Robillard plans to use the money to take care of his friends and family, and he may even move away from Stoney Rapids into Prince Albert.

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“I want to take good care of them now. I don’t want to make plans because sometimes plans can be broken, promises can be broken. So I’m not going to rush into things.”

This is the first time the Smoke Signals jackpot has been hit in 2025, which usually cashes out about twice a year according to SIGA President and CEO Zane Hansen. With a seed amount of $1 million, it’s set to cash out before it gets to $2 million, meaning this is one of the larger jackpots collected.

“We’ve had it in the company Smoke Signals right from the start in the mid 90s. We got probably 45-50 machines connected on the network and we put in a seed amount of money and then as the players play, the pot grows and then it hits at some point, I think it’s supposed to hit generally before $2 million. So yeah, so it was really exciting to see Fred coming with a win at that.”

Hansen continued, “We wanted to set this one up to be that life changing type experience, give something back to our players that you’re just not going to see in a lot of other casino properties, and it’s been really well received. It’s one they get really excited about and we have a lot of fun with it.”

The Northern Lights Casino is the busiest out of the casinos managed by SIGA, and as a result has seen a lot of wins of the Smoke Signals jackpot over the years. There have also been winners in Yorkton at the Painted Hand, Gold Eagle Casino in North Battleford, and the Gold Horse Casino in Lloydminster.