Land casino big wins can be every bit as uplifting as news of Internet jackpots, but few are as pleasing as the windfall that an
Ecuadorian woman received on a visit to a casino near Lisbon this week.

Holidaying in , the woman hit a slot machine jackpot of nearly Euro 550 000 (US $ 700 000) to become one of the biggest prizewinners ever recorded by a Portuguese casino....and she did it with an outlay of a mere 60 cents, officials said.

Rosa Maria, who was visiting the Casino Estoril with her Portuguese husband, inserted a third 20-cent chip into the machine when she hit the prize, the casino said in a statement.

The couple, who live in the , said they would use the money to help Rosa's children from a previous marriage, especially her daughter who lives in the Ecuadorian capital Quito and who requires surgery.

"Obviously we were very pleased with this jackpot," Rosa's husband Manuel Goncalves, told daily Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manha. "After meeting my second wife in New Jersey, this is in reality my second big prize," he said, adding he often visited casinos with his wife in the but they had never won a significant prize before.