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There’s no doubt that gambling is an exciting experience. Regardless of whether you’re just starting out or have years of experience, the potential of winning is always exciting. These 5 lucky people below have inspired players of casino games all around the world.
At the start of January 2000, Cynthia Jay Brennan was a young cocktail waitress living off tips in Vegas and struggling to make ends meet. Her life was changed forever when she finished a shift and decided to visit the Desert Inn Casino to try her hand on the ‘Megabucks’ slots game with some of the cash she’d made over the course of her. When Cynthia Jay-Brennan hit the world-record $35 million Megabucks slot jackpot in January, the 37-year-old cocktail waitress could afford all of the best things in life.
5 biggest casino wins of all time
Gloria McKensie – $590.5 Million. In May 2013, Gloria McKensie set a new record in winning the Powerball Lottery, making it to the top of the list of the greatest casino wins of all time. With chances of winning being 1 in 175 million, this 84-year-old grandma supposedly jumped the queue thanks to the kindness of a total stranger. Unfortunately for that person, they’d lost out on half a billion dollars. Winaday casino instant play. Rather than take the winnings over 30 regular annual installments, Gloria opted to cash out half of it straight away. Funnily enough, the town where she lives, Zephyrhills in Florida, survives on a budget equal to a mere one-tenth of her winnings!
Archie Karas – $40 Million. In December 1992, Archie Karas managed to lose $2 million in a poker game, leaving him only $50 when he headed to Vegas. Fortunately for him, when he met a friend at Binion’s Horseshoe Casino, he managed to borrow $10,000 with a 50% interest rate. His luck turned around, winning $17 million and paying off his debt. However, things then took a turn for the worst, when he then lost $17 million on baccarat and a further $2 million on poker. All of the casinos latched on throughout Nevada and Las Vegas, and he received a lifetime ban as a result.
Unknown Engineer – $39.7 Million. A man, who chose not to reveal his name, rather, referring to himself as a 25-year-old engineer from LA, entered the Excalibur Casino to pass some time before waiting for a baseball game. He deposited $100, able to win back $40 each time. His total winnings came to an impressive $39,713, 982.25. This was actually the amount of profit the venue was earning per month at the time. He was dubbed as receiving one of the highest payouts ever in Vegas, pretty impressive for someone looking to pass some time before a baseball game! Unlike some other winners, who took out a chunk of their earnings, this unknown man opted to take out $1.5 million over the next 25 years.
Kerry Packer – Between $20 and $40 Million. Australian billionaire Kerry Packer entered a Las Vegas Casino one night with a curiosity to play blackjack and baccarat. That initial curiosity led to him winning in the region of $20 and $40 million that same evening. Rather than keeping the money, he used it that same night at the MGM Grand, tipping some of the staff there up to $1 million in total. Unfortunately, this fortune was short-lived, when, after gambling in London, he managed to lose $28 million. Perhaps the moral of this story is, know the right time to quit.
Cynthia Jay-Brennan – $34.95 Million. As a way to pass some time, Cynthia had a go at a Megabucks slot machine while attending her mother in law’s birthday party. She never realized that by her 9th attempt, she’d manage to win $34.95 million, one of the biggest jackpots for this game at the time. With this life-changing sum of money, she was able to quit her job, travel the world, and marry her partner.
Big winnings don’t guarantee a positive future
Regardless of whether you’re an absolute beginner or a seasoned professional, the chances of becoming a multi-millionaire from gambling are slim. However, there are the select few that do manage to win it big, even despite a lack of experience. Gloria McKensie holds the title of biggest ever win at a casino, taking away $590.5 million. Money like this is clearly life-changing, enabling the winner to quit their job, get married, or travel the world if they choose. Which is precisely what Cynthia Jay-Brennan did with her winnings.
On the other hand, big wins aren’t everything, as demonstrated again by Cynthia, who suffered the death of her sister and permanent disability after her involvement in a severe car accident. Then there’s the case of Kerry Packer. The multi-millionaire who didn’t know when to stop and lost all his winnings.
Megabucks Slot Winners
Megabucks is a Nevada state-wide slot jackpot network that is owned and run by the slot machine company, International Game Technology (IGT). Considered Nevada’s state lottery, Megabucks is extremely popular and has created quite a few millionaires in its 19-year history.
Thanks to a wonderful marketing strategy, Megabucks continues to ignite a firestorm every time the jackpot reaches ‘megabuck’ status. It is also a slot machine that generates a ridiculous amount of gossip and urban legend circulating on the game and its winners.
However, if you look at the real truth behind IGT’s Megabucks, even with all the myths and legends dispelled, it will become apparent that this progressive slot is a poor place to spend your money.
How Does Megabucks Work?
IGT’s Megabucks is a dollar coin slot machine that requires 3 coins or $3.00 to hit the jackpot. The jackpot is reset to a predetermined amount after every mega win. While the present reset amount is $10-million, there is chatter that this will be increasing to $11-million.
Megabucks is part of the company’s MegaJackpot slot system that connects about 750 machines in 136 Nevada casinos to one primary jackpot that builds from the base jackpot amount. International Game Technology owns the Megabucks machines and the casino gets a cut of the money that each machine wins from the players. It is common knowledge that IGT created Megabucks to compete with state lotteries.
Where Can You Play Megabucks?
Nevada is the true home of Megabucks and is found in nearly all of the casinos on the strip. Casino york pa. Unlike multi-state lotteries, this game does not cross state lines. IGT runs Megabucks jackpots in the states of California, New Jersey and Mississippi, as well as some Indian reservations.
I’ve had the opportunity to throw a few dollars in the Megabucks ring on a trip to Mississippi. I noticed the jackpot was much lower than I have seen in Las Vegas and while I did feel like, by some magic formula, my odds were better because the stakes were lower I did not win.
However, these don’t include as many venues as the Nevada edition and their jackpots are usually only a fraction of the original. Each state that offers Megabucks has a separate jackpot system with individual meters and winners. If a jackpot is won in one state, it does not affect the progressive jackpot in another.
Each Megabucks machine has its own random number and hence chooses its own outcomes. These outcomes are then reported to a central location. When the jackpot is hit on one machine, the central station sends out a message to the other machines, resetting their respective meters.
How About the Odds of Winning Megabucks?
Statistics about the true odds of winning the Megabucks jackpot remain sketchy at best.
Some put the odds down as astronomical as 1 in 50-million, yet others, such as the Las Vegas Sun, put it at 1 in 17-million.
It is certainly understandable why the betting for the Megabucks sometimes reaches chaotic proportions and has people crossing over the state line just to have a shot at winning so many millions.
But do winners really receive what the games advertise? Let’s take the example of a $35-million win. Initially, for that amount of money, winners get a check of $1.4 million. They then have between sixty and ninety days to decide whether they want to take their money in annual installments over twenty-five years or a lump sum of 60% of the money.
For a $35-million win, that would result in $21-million before taxes. Obviously, most winners choose the former and take the lump sum payment.
Whichever option the winner chooses, he or she still needs to take into account the taxes payable to the IRS. They are subject to the maximum tax rate of nearly 40%, with state taxes also needing to be taken into account. When all is said and done, the prize money dwindles somewhat miserably after Uncle Sam takes a bite.
Of course, nobody has ever refused the money all together & taken $0. So, I suppose most people wouldn’t scoff at $14 million or so.
Megabucks Curse
No slot machine in the history of the world has had close to as many urban legends, myths and stories surrounding the game of Megabucks.
Typically, these legends center around the unfortunate fate of Megabucks winners, which leads the masses to believe that winning the multi-million dollar jackpot will result in an ultimately unlucky death. While pretty much all of these stories have proven to be fabricated, Megabucks still has the obstinate reputation of being cursed.
Many believe that the genesis of the rumors hanging over Megabucks is based on the truly tragic story of a 37 year-old cocktail waitress named Cynthia Jay-Brennan. In 2000, Jay-Brennan, was the lucky winner of a $34.9-million Megabucks jackpot, played in the Desert Inn Casino in Vegas.
Less than 2 months after her win, Jay-Brennan was surprisingly involved in a car crash. Her sister was killed instantly and poor Cynthia, herself, was left a quadriplegic. The driver of the car that hit the pair was under the influence of alcohol and was eventually tried and sentenced to 28 years; however, this did not stop rumors flying that Megabucks was a cursed game to win.
The fact is that Jay-Brennan’s accident was not the first of these rumors, as they circulated well before the year 2000. However, since this event, stories continuously surface regarding the tragic fate of every winner of the latest Megajackpot win.
When another young man hit the jackpot in 2003, rumors spread like a virus of his untimely ‘death’ through various ends, including a fatal drug overdose in a casino hotel and in a gang fight as far away as Los Angeles. All these stories have, thus far, proven to be false and while the winner chose to remain anonymous, IGT has assured the public time and time again that the lucky young man is alive and well, and enjoying his new found wealth.
Other urban legends related to Megabucks spin stories of underage players who could not claim their winnings, employees of a casino who played Megabucks and couldn’t claim their prize because of a law prohibiting workers to gamble at their places of work and other tales along the same vein.
To date, none of these stories have come up as anything other than tall tales.
A rumor, which has not yet been dispelled, is one regarding the change in the Megabucks programming system. Some claim that IGT changed the programming of the system to make the jackpot hit less frequently but for more money. While IGT claims that they did not do anything of the sort, there are many experts in the gambling field who feel that some sort of change was made in the past.
Finally, a minor rumor that can be dispelled is one that says that the central station to which each jackpot machine reports chooses the winner. IGT assures its gambling public that each machine has its own RNG and thus every machine chooses its own outcome.
Conclusion
Las Vegas Megabucks Winners List
So, while you now understand that most stories flying around the industry regarding the curse of Megabucks are false, I cannot ignore the fact that this is simply a bad slot game to play for 2 reasons.
Biggest Casino Winners
First is the house “hold”. Megabucks holds between 10% – 15% of every dollar played. Many slot machines in Nevada hold as little as 2% or 3%. The second reason that makes Megabucks a terrible play for the serious gambler is that you only receive 60% of your jackpot. There are many other progressive slots in your casino that pay big jackpots, but give you the whole thing.
Cynthia Jay Brennan
When we strip Megabucks from all the pomp and glam that surrounds it, we find a middle of the road progressive slot game that doesn’t give you much for your money. And even if you do get incredibly lucky and win, you don’t exactly get the flashy numbers promised to you. Instead you will have to settle for a sum that is much more modest in nature, paid off to you over a period of 25 years. Final conclusion? Megabucks is not a mega hit. In fact, there are lots more fish in the proverbial gambling sea.