Sarnia's Jackpot City raised nearly $18,500 and collected over 7,500 food and clothing items this holiday season in support of the Salvation Army.
The Upper Canada Drive gaming centre held a cheque presentation Thursday morning to celebrate the fourth annual Operation Christmas Drive.
Sarnia Charitable Gaming Association President Shirley Pettit said 102 local charities associated with Jackpot City chipped in.
"Whatever that donation is [from the charities], Jackpot City either matches or upgrades it, so it's a wonderful opportunity for us to help the charities at Christmas time."
Pettit said 7,668 food and clothing items were also collected.
"And those come not from our charities, those are from people that come and play bingo."
Salvation Army Lieutenant Brad Webster said the donation will help a lot of Sarnia-Lambton residents who are in need.
Webster said there's been an increase in need this year for their annual Christmas Gift Hamper campaign.
"It's been a decrease in families, but it's been an increase in children. So households have gone down a little bit, but the size of the households have gone up, so we've actually seen an increase this year in teenagers and children, which just, it tugs at the heart," he said. "So I believe this year we were at about 750 families through our Christmas campaign, and I believe it was close to 1,000 children, so it hurts to see the number rise that high."
Webster said Sarnia's Salvation Army is definitely in a business that wants to be put out of business.
"Us being out of business means that families are taken care of and independent and able to continue on their own," he said. "So to see a donation like this come in it means that we're going to be able to assist those families, those children, making sure there's meals on the table, clothing, transportation, whatever we have to do to encompass the family and their needs."
Residents can also help The Salvation Army by making a donation to the organization's Christmas Kettle campaign -- Webster said they're hoping to raise $139,000.
Earlier this year, Jackpot City announced that it had raised $5 million in three years for area charities through the revitalization of charitable bingo and gaming.
