Jackpots: The Most Important Winnings in Slot Machines
It’s not too often that gamblers leave a casino with more money than they’d brought. As the saying goes—the house always wins. Be that as it may, the thought of striking a jackpot is the first thing that crosses most players’ minds when they see the rows of blaring and blinking slot machines. The truth is some players go home with much more than they brought. Some even leave as millionaires. You may probably be wondering who they are, how much they won, and how they pulled it off.
Playing slots can be a fun and rewarding pastime, but also an expensive one. The opportunities to play for free are many, such as platforms that offer free spins no deposit slots to practice and try to win with the minimum or no investment. Playing for free allows you to familiarise yourself with the games, bonus features, and more. With a little luck and practice, maybe you too can be a multi-million dollar jackpot winner. Some lucky players decide to keep what happens in Vegas in Sin City. In this article, we'll look at some of the biggest jackpot winners and reveal how much they won from spinning the reels.
Megabucks: $39 million
A lucky 25-year-old software engineer from Los Angeles bet $100 on the Megabucks slot at the famous Excalibur Casino. Little else is known about this player who beat the one in 16.7 million odds to win $39,710,826.36. The win still holds the record for the largest jackpot in Las Vegas history.
Megabucks: $35 million
The Megabucks progressive jackpot also comes in at number 2, having broken the highest slots jackpots ever to be paid. A lucky 37-year-old cocktail waitress won $34.9 million on a Megabucks slot machine at the Desert Inn. However, in an unfortunate turn of events, Cynthia Jay-Brennan's car was rear-ended by a repeat drunk driving offender just six weeks after winning. Her sister was killed in the accident. The accident also Cynthia Jay Brennan paralyzed. A notorious Las Vegas urban legend that big jackpot winners usually have bad things happen to them was, thereafter, fuelled a lot more.
Megabucks: $27.5 million
Yet another appearance by Megabucks—this is surely a must-play game for jackpot hunters. A 67-year-old retired flight attendant didn’t want to bet anything above her $100 bankroll when she visited the Palace, Las Vegas. She, however, ended up betting $300, which was turned into a whopping $27.5 million by the Megabucks progressive jackpot. This was the first time the jackpot had paid out anything more than $20 million. This winner seems to have a strong lucky charm, as she’s previously won $680,000 on the Wheel of Fortune slot machine at the same casino.
Mega Fortune: $24 million
This winner proves that you don't have to bet hundreds of dollars to win a significant amount of money. A Finish man bet a measly 25 cents bet at a Scandinavian casino and came out on top with a jackpot prize over $24 million. Little is known about this lucky player, except that he was playing the Mega Fortune slot when he won the biggest prize of his life.
Megabucks: $22 million
The first thing that the 74-year old Johanna Huendl thought when she won a $22 million jackpot in 2002 was, you can never lose hope. The old-timer was about to eat breakfast when she decided to give the Megabucks slot a spin and struck gold. Johanna was initially happy as she thought she'd won $2 million. When she put on her eyeglasses, she was ecstatic to realise that she'd missed a number and had missed one more digit. The multi-million jackpot was from a bet of just $170.
Microgaming: $17 million
Mega Moolah is one of the most popular online casino progressive jackpots. The slot machine regained popularity in 2015 when a British soldier hit the jackpot. Today, the prize pool seems to be growing much quicker as more slot players seem to be attracted to Mega Moolah. Apart from tens of other winners on the game, Jon Heywood managed to take one of its biggest jackpot home.
As you can see from our list, not everyone goes back home from Vegas empty-pocketed. Most of the winners on our list didn’t even expect to go back home with such a motherlode. A lot of them were only trying to have fun. Some were even playing for the first time. Whichever circumstances apply to you, this is a testament that ordinary players do sometimes win the jackpot.