RAMA -- Talking about a winning jackpot.

The big winner was Casino Rama last night, with the potential loser being concert promoters in Toronto.

"That's exactly what we had mind," jokes Mnjikaning First Nation Chief Sharon Stinson Henry. "The message to the rest of Ontario is we are here to compete."

If the rumoured "$1 million" that star Faith Hill was paid to open the casino's brand new 5,000-seat showroom is true they will certainly be doing that.

Not many concert halls have a beautiful casino for people to hang out in after.

Whatever the price, the Nashville star puts on a heck of a show. She started with This Kiss and kept it up with hit after hit like Breathe and Wild One. She seems to be having fun. And what a class act.

"Thank you so much for asking me to come and open this place up," she told the crowd. "I am excited to be here. This is my only show of the year since, you see, (husband) Tim (McGraw) and I are having another baby -- I'm just starting to show a little bit."

The crowd erupted. Many came from the Orillia area or from cottages, while many -- like Country Music Television employees Alina Sollazzo, Lisette Culley, Brenda Lloyd, Nichole Seepersad and Mira Laufer -- came up on a bus.

The crowd was just delighted with Hill's performance.

"She's so sweet and so geniune," says Joan Ball, who came from London.

"You can feel her love for the audience."

At one point, Hill handed her scarf to Jamie English, 18, of Alliston. "I told her I'll put it on my bed post," he said jokingly.

And Faith wasn't the only star on the premises. Husband McGraw was hanging around backstage and prior to the show casino president Art Frank introduced Ringo Starr to the crowd. "I never thought I would be standing on stage with a Beatle," joked the president.

And Starr, who has been rehearsing for his upcoming tour here, says, "I sure hope this many people come out and see us."

In addition, in the crowd, Scrawler saw Canadian hockey heroes Paul Henderson, Ron Ellis and Darryl Sittler, with their families.

"We are all up at a cottage nearby," says Sittler, who joked "when I played, what Mats (Sundin) got today was our whole team's payroll."

Also in the crowd was CHFI's Erin Davis and her husband Rob and Mojo Radio's Spider Jones and his wife Jackie.

And what a lot of people may not have known but the band chief Sharon's husband is Walter Henry, who was nine-time Canadian flyweight boxing champion and represented Canada in both the 1964 and 1968 Olympics.

But, he said, it was his wife Sharon's night.

"I am so proud of her," he says. "I have been dating her since 1960."

That's what all the guys say when their lady has just hit the jackpot.