New millionaire: 'I'm not a gambler'

Even though he won $2.6 million from a Carson City slot machine over the weekend, construction company executive Steve Gibson said Tuesday he's "not a gambler."

Gibson, 61, of Camino, Calif., near Pollock Pines, said he had lost $20 in a "Wheel of Fortune" slot machine at the Pi-on Plaza late Saturday night, but decided to risk another $20.

"I had hit some small jackpots, but then everyone started yelling and I looked up and thought I had won $2,000," Gibson said.

"Somebody said, 'You'd better look again,' and I thought it was $200,000 and I said, 'Pretty good.'"

But when Gibson realized the jackpot was a $2,621,685, "I nearly had a stroke," he said in a telephone interview from his regional vice president's office at Varsity Construction. He has worked with the company for 25 years.

"I'm not a gambler -- really, I'm not," Gibson said.

He said he's not sure yet what he will do with his winnings. "I know I won't put it in the stock market -- that's where I lost my tail," said Gibson who said he showed up for work Monday as he plans to do for a while.

He said he is meeting with his tax consultant to see what would be the best way to take the jackpot: in installments or a lump sum.

He said he and his wife, Candice, did not come to Carson City to gamble.

"We're rock hounds and we had just come from Virginia City to stay at the Pi-on Plaza Hotel," he said.

He said, the couple was here to visit his wife's brother and her sister-in-law, Phil and Mandy Heskett, who live in Dayton.