- August 23, 2014: Linda and Walter Misco, of Chester, N.H., pose next to the Lion's Share slot machine after winning its $2.4 million jackpot, the first time the machine had paid out in its 21-year.
- 20-year-old machine garnered international attention as jackpot mounted LAS VEGAS – Aug. 25, 2014 – A lucky couple has walked away the winners of a $2.4 million jackpot from the legendary “Lion’s Share” slot machine at MGM Grand Las Vegas. The machine hit the enormous jackpot just after 11 p.m. One of the winners inserted $100 into the machine and was playing the.
By Pashtana Usufzy. Published Monday, Dec. 1, 2014 11:37 a.m. Updated Monday, Dec. 1, 2014 1:22 p.m. A local man who put $20 into a slot machine hit a jackpot Sunday afternoon, walking away.
Photo of Trinadad Torres courtesy of Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino.
Admit it. You have the same dream we do.
Everything conspires and you find yourself in the right place at the right time – seated in front of a Megabucks slot machine that’s primed and ready to hit. You push the button (of course, pulling a lever would be more dramatic, but this is 2015 and the one-armed bandit has gone the way of the horse and buggy). The logos on the reels all line up. And then the moment you’ve been waiting for finally arrives…you realize you’re a millionaire.
Correction: A multimillionaire.
IGT’s Megabucks has been paying out ginormous life-changing jackpots for almost 20 years. Its slogan is “Dream big. Win big.”
A network of slot machines linked throughout Nevada, Megabucks boasts a top prize that builds from a base amount of $10 million. To play it costs $1 a spin, but to quality for that top amount you’ll have to shell out $3. That sounds pretty steep, we know. But trust us, if you hit Megabucks with only a buck or two invested, you’ll leave with a jackpot in the thousands instead of millions. And just imagine trying to live with that.
As you’d expect, Megabucks lays claim to having paid the largest slot jackpots in Vegas history. It last hit here in mid March at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino. The lucky winner was Trinadad Torres, a 78-year-old woman from Magna, Utah. She played $100 before netting the $10,744,292.71 jackpot. Her plans include traveling to the Philippines and buying a yellow Mustang.
While nothing to sneeze at, Torres’ windfall just misses placing her on our list below of the 10 biggest slot jackpots ever won in Sin City.
Photo of Excalibur courtesy of MGM Resorts International.
Jackpot amount: $39,710,826.36
When: March 21, 2003
Where:Excalibur
Vegas Slot Machine Winners 2014 List
More than 12 years ago, a 25-year-old software engineer from Los Angeles, who wanted to remain anonymous (and who can blame him?), hit the city’s largest slot jackpot after playing $100 on a Megabucks machine. A C-note in return for nearly $40 million…now that’s what we’d call a damn good investment.
Photo of Cynthia Jay-Brennan at the Desert Inn courtesy of Ethan Miller / Las Vegas Sun.
Jackpot amount: $34,959,458.56
When: Jan. 26, 2000
Where: Desert Inn (imploded in phases in 2001 and 2004 to make room for Wynn Las Vegas)
Gobs bigger than any tip she’d received, cocktail waitress Cynthia Jay-Brennan, then 37 years old, hit the second largest Megabucks slot jackpot in Vegas (at that time it was the city’s highest Megabucks payout). But her story took a tragic turn when her car was rear-ended about six weeks later by a drunk driver. Her older sister Lela died in the accident, and Jay-Brennan was left paralyzed.
Photo of Palace Station courtesy of Station Casinos.
Slot Winners In Vegas Youtube
Jackpot amount: $27,580,879.60
When: Nov. 15, 1998
Where:Palace Station
Ignoring your budget isn’t always a bad thing. Just ask the then 67-year-old retired flight attendant from Vegas who racked up the city’s third largest Megabucks slot payout. She’d only intended to play $100 at Palace Station that day, but wound up putting $300 in…and we’re pretty she doesn’t regret overspending one bit.
Jackpot amount: $22,621,229.74
When: May 27, 2002
Where:Bally’s
How does that old expression go? The early bird catches…the $22.6 million slot jackpot. Well, that’s how Johanna Heundl (then 74 years old) of Covina, California, might remember it. She was on her way to breakfast when she decided to stop and play a Megabucks machine. Having looked away for a moment, she couldn’t believe her eyes when she turned back and saw all the logos aligned in the payline.
Photo of Caesars Palace courtesy of Caesars Entertainment.
Jackpot amount: $21,346,952.22
When: June 1, 1999
Where:Caesars Palace
An Illinois man, then 49 years old and described as a “self-employed business consultant,” put a $10 bill into a Megabucks machine at the Roman-themed property and hit this whopping multimillion-dollar slot jackpot on his first spin. Here’s what we want to know: Is he still consulting? Can we hire him to help us get into the business of being millionaires?
Jackpot amount: $21,147,947
When: Sept. 15, 2005
Where:Cannery Casino Hotel
One man, two times a Megabucks winner. What are the odds? They’ve got to be astronomical. Certainly, anyone would be happy to score a single multimillion-dollar slot jackpot. But not everyone is Elmer Sherwin. A frequent Vegas visitor, Sherwin hit his first Megabucks jackpot of $4.6 million at The Mirage back in 1989. It was a sign of even better things to come. Sixteen years later, at the age of 92, that lucky son of a gun (kidding, we’re not jealous…really) did it again, adding another $21.1 million to his bank account.
Photo courtesy of the M Resort.
Jackpot amount: $17,329,817.80
When: Dec. 14, 2012
Where:M Resort
Oh, the best things in life are free…especially when they lead to a $17.3 million jackpot. A Las Vegas woman stopped by the M Resort in Henderson to gamble with her “free play” credits and enjoy a meal with some dining vouchers. Before she knew it, she’d become a multimillionaire.
Photo of “Rampart Lucky Local” courtesy of the Rampart Casino.
Jackpot amount: $14,282,544.21
When: Nov. 30, 2014
Where: Rampart Casino
Late last year a Las Vegas man put $20 in a Megabucks slot machine at the Summerlin-area Rampart Casino. Within five minutes he’d hit a jackpot worth $14.2 million. His plans were altruistic (unlike ours). The man, dubbed the “Rampart Lucky Local,” said he would make a donation to his church. The church, which had been holding services in a high school gym, can now have its own location built.
Photo of Aria courtesy of MGM Resorts International.
Jackpot amount: $12,769,933
When: Jan. 21, 2011
Where:Aria
A woman visiting her niece in Vegas decided to drop $6 in a Megabucks slot machine before heading back to her room. Her reaction when the winning symbols lined up: “The machine broke.” Luckily, her niece was there to clarify things. We think we should book a room at Aria because about four months after that jackpot occurred, another Megabucks jackpot hit at the resort for $10,636,897. Talk about lightning striking twice!
Photo of New York-New York courtesy of MGM Resorts International.
Jackpot amount: $12,510,549.90
When: April 14, 1997
Where:New York-New York
New York-New York opened its doors on Jan. 3, 1997. Perhaps due to a little of the “city that never sleeps” magic, Vegas resident Suzanne Henley made her fortune at the Big Apple-themed megaresort just a few months later. On her way home from work, she stopped in to play a Megabucks machine – one that she’d had an inkling might hit. Henley waited in line an hour before she could play. And at 1:44 a.m., after putting $100 in, her diligence paid off…to the tune of more than $12.5 million.
Comments
After two decades, our annual report on the most generous slots in the business comes home to Strictly Slots
by Frank Legato
For exactly 20 years, one of the most popular annual features of our sister publication, Casino Player, was the annual Loosest Slots survey. Player, in fact, invented the term “loose slots” in the late 1980s by pioneering the practice of reporting the payback percentage numbers for casinos every month.
The move triggered a change in the way slot machines were viewed and marketed. Casinos in commercial jurisdictions were required to report “slot hold”—the percentage of slot wagers kept by the casinos—in regulatory reports that were made public every month. The editors at Player decided to flip-flop those numbers to show which casinos were offering the highest percentage of wagers back to the players as winnings—the “payback percentage” was born.
It wasn’t popular with casinos at first, but business acumen soon took over, and the casinos with the highest payback percentages began advertising that they had the “loosest slots” in this market and that market. The payback charts in Casino Player became a monthly ritual for players, and the annual Loosest Slots issue became the publication’s most popular.
That’s because the savviest players know that payback numbers for any one month can be skewed. For instance, a few big jackpots in the highest denominations can result in a payback percentage higher than 100 percent—not exactly a good long-term business model, but anything can happen in the short space of a month. Statistical results even out to a true payback percentage over several months. Over a year, they are reliable indicators of which casinos, by policy, offer the most back to their players.
Last year, Player published its 20th annual Loosest Slots report. The end of last year also happened to be the 15th anniversary of this magazine. Strictly Slots was launched in December 1998 to serve the slot player, and to focus on the culture surrounding slot-machine play. So, it seemed logical to begin the third decade of the Loosest Slots survey here, in the magazine dedicated to the slot and video poker player.
As always, there are a few points of interest that we impart before we give you our survey results.
First of all, in the “Slot Spotlight” section of this magazine, you will see statistics indicating “payback percentage range” for each new game. Those numbers represent the theoretical payback percentage set at the factory for each game. Although the numbers may be similar, the Loosest Slots report is different because there is nothing “theoretical” about these payback numbers. They are based on actual, historical statistics—this is how much real money was given back to players out of the thousands wagered each month on the slots. And, because it covers all 12 months of the previous year, it is quite simply the most accurate picture you will find of who offers the best returns on the slots.
Secondly, among the common questions we receive every year are why video poker numbers are not separated out from the slot payback numbers. We are also asked why all jurisdictions are not included, and why all denominations are not included.
There is one answer to all these questions: We can only report statistics as they are publicly reported. Many Native American jurisdictions do not require tribal operators to publicly report hold percentages. In those cases, the operators consider the information proprietary, and do not publicly report the numbers.
Many jurisdictions no longer break out numbers for denominations like dimes and 50 cents, particularly since the advent of multi-denomination machines. Some place those numbers in a vague “Other” category; others in a dedicated “Multi-Denomination” category.
Other jurisdictions—most notably and surprisingly, Atlantic City—do not even break out the numbers by denomination. Early this year, New Jersey’s Division of Gaming Enforcement passed an “emergency regulation” eliminating the requirement that casinos report hold percentages by denomination. Thus, future Loosest Slots reports will not break out Atlantic City casino payback by denomination.
Additionally, this year, New Jersey only made 11 months of statistics available in time for this report—although for the sake of gaining a good picture of which casinos are most generous 11 months of statistics provide a clear view. (We did not include numbers for the Atlantic Club under New Jersey, since that casino has closed.)
There is no jurisdiction that separates video poker percentages from the overall slot returns in public reports. However, over years of covering the casino industry, we have verified that the casinos with the highest overall paybacks consistently offer the highest-returning pay schedules on video poker.
And the Winners Are…
Once again, our survey proves that if you want loose slots, go to the Silver State. The award for the Loosest Slots in America once again goes to Reno, Nevada—the seventh consecutive Loosest Slots crown for the Reno casinos led by the Atlantis, the Peppermill, the Eldorado, the Silver Legacy, the original Harrah’s, the Grand Sierra and others.
Reno’s gambling halls combined for an overall slot payback percentage of 94.89 percent, down half a point or so from last year, but way ahead of the rest of the nation.
Also repeating this year were the second-place and third-place jurisdictions for Loosest Slots—also, not surprisingly, in Nevada. The “Balance of County” group, which refers to casinos in Clark County, Nevada, but off the Strip, like the Orleans, Hard Rock, The Palms, Palace Station, M, Silverton and others, returned 94.64 percent of slot wagers to players. Right behind that at 94.39 percent were the Boulder Strip casinos, which are the properties on and around Boulder Highway in Las
Vegas (Sam’s Town, Boulder Station, Cannery East, Arizona Charlie’s, etc.).
These regions were a full percentage point higher than the closest in our survey, Cripple Creek, Colorado at 93.58 percent.
Besides Nevada topping the nation, another constant in our survey is the winner among casinos in jurisdictions that break out the numbers for individual properties. Casino Queen in East St. Louis, as it has for more than a decade, gets the crown for loosest slots among individual casinos, at 92.94 percent.
There were a few minor surprises elsewhere in the survey. For instance, for the first year, the Borgata in Atlantic City—which won the Loosest Slots crown for that jurisdiction last year—is not among the top three New Jersey casinos for Loosest Slots. The award for Loosest Slots in Atlantic City goes to Harrah’s Resort, at 91.58 percent, with Resorts and Trump Plaza close behind in second and third place, respectively.
Other switches in the crown include Indiana, where Rising Star managed to just nudge Hoosier Park for the crown (although at .06 percent, it really can be considered a draw); and Pennsylvania, where Parx Casino at Philadelphia Park takes the Loosest Slot crown. (Last year’s winner, the Meadows, came in fourth.)
Repeaters in loosest slot include Cripple Creek, Casino Queen, Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, Prairie Meadows in Iowa, Lake Charles in Louisiana, the Mississippi Gulf Coast and Isle of Capri Booneville in Missouri. Finally, Ohio enters our survey for the first time this year, with Horseshoe Cleveland edging out Hollywood Columbus for the Loosest Slots crown.
Congratulations to all of our winners. You’ve proven that you care about giving the slot player a fair shake. •