The Seminole Casino Hollywood wrapped up its Ringmaster Stash of Cash promotion on Monday night with a circus-themed stunt featuring David "the Bullet" Smith, who bills himself as a "human cannonball." Each month the casino’s Player’s Club has a promotion to give away a grand prize as large as $15,000 at an event or staged stunt at the end of the month.
“We always like to do something different from the other casinos [in the area] and always have it be exciting for our players,” said the casino’s director of marketing, Robert Dearstine. “The entire marketing team sits down every month to think how we can make it bigger and better and [into] an attraction players don't get to see in south Florida.” Other stunts the casino has staged for the grand prize drawing included crashing cars and pig races.
The Player’s Club members qualified for the drawing throughout the month of August by using their card at the casino game machines. On Monday, every half hour between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. four people won $500 cash and one person from each group qualified for the big drawing.
At 10:15 p.m. about 150 club members, contestants, and casino visitors headed outside for the big reveal. A ringmaster, jugglers, and stilt walkers from Sixth Star Entertainment and Marketing entertained the crowd until Smith crawled inside the oversize cannon, which shot him 70 feet into the air and about 150 feet across the casino’s parking lot to a safety net.
After landing, Smith revealed the winning ticket number that corresponded to one of the two-foot-long tickets the nine finalists held. The winner then picked one of eight mini circus tents set up on a nearby table, each holding between $5,000 and $15,000 dollars, and walked away with the top prize money.
