I was recently playing quarter slots at the Cherokee Casino in Roland, OK. We heard lots of excitement and noise coming from one part of the floor so we went to check it out. A lady was on her first trip to a casino playing slots....she was playing $1 slots, the game was Star Spangled 7's. She had won like $500 on one machine, $1500 on the machine next to it, then her first machine spun Star Spangled, Star Spangled, Star Spangled, which are the wild symbols. It was a jackpot of $10,000 because she was playing 3 bets every spin. It was neat to see the machine say "Paid Out: 10000".

I'm not sure why it's always the first timers that hit those jackpots....she'll probably be hooked for life.

I think you solved it. I wonder sometimes if the house controls who wins and when it is a story like this they want publicity like word of mouth.
Because nothing makes people want to gamble in a certain casino like actual stories of people winning, especially people who don't have a ton of skills.