The Biggest Jackpots in Casino History: Tales of Life-Changing Wins
It’s the promise of jackpots that keeps so many players coming back for more. They may not even realise it as they pump quarters into the machine, but it’s true. Casinos are all about momentum, and excitement. Stimulation. And in those categories, jackpots take the cake.
They may be elusive, but people win them from time to time. Sometimes, those wins dole out bragging rights rewards. Other times, payments can be life-changing. Today we are interested in the latter category. Read on to hear tales from some of the biggest jackpot wins in gambling history.
The Mega Moolah Jackpot: record-setting rewards
The spring of 2020 was a tough time for most people living all over the world. Ask someone what they were doing at that point, and the word “Netflix,” is sure to come often. And yet there are several Canadian gamblers who surely look back at the early days of the pandemic with a certain starry-eyed nostalgia. After all, they struck it rich.
How? The Mega Moolah jackpot game, a progressive slot with awards that often exceed $1 million.
It was April 2020 when a Canadian player (name not released to the public) walked away from the Mega Moolah jackpot game with—brace yourself—$16 million in winnings.
However, they were far from alone in their extravagant earnings. That same year saw another $20 million+ paid out, and the year prior to that was similarly generous.
Mega Moolah is an online slot that can be played in many locations all around the world. It currently holds the Guinness Book of World Records entry for the most money paid out by an online slot. The entry describes a 2013 win by British soldier Johnathon Heywood, 26, who won $13 million.
Since then, there have been larger wins, though the Heywood victory remains moving. It came right on the heels of finding out that the soldier’s father needed a heart transplant. Heywood vowed to use his winnings to secure the best possible care for his father, providing a happy ending for his jackpot games casino experience.
The Las Vegas Megabucks Jackpot
Few jackpots can match the lore surrounding the Vegas-based “Megabucks Jackpot.” The stories began in Spring, 2000. It was then that waitress Cynthia Jay-Brennan won a life-changing sum on the “Megabucks,” slot machine. One second, she was a woman with a bartending job. The next, she had a net worth of $35 million and (one can presume) little interest in going back to taking drink orders.
Jay-Brennan planned to spend the next year travelling the world. Her plans were cut short six weeks later when a drunk driver slammed into the back of her car, killing her sister and leaving her paralysed.
Since then, reports of a “Megabucks curse,” have circulated around darkened casino corners. Of course, the curse is nothing more than conjecture—gossip surrounding a miracle turned tragedy that impacted one person more than 20 years ago. Experts believe that stories continue to ferment as a form of taking consolation. “You may not have won, but it’s really for the best, isn’t it?”
Sorry, but no. Just 3 years after Jay-Brennan’s tragic accident, a 25-year-old software engineer turned his spin into nearly $40 million in casino jackpots winnings. To this day he still has not been cursed.
The Beach Life Jackpot
In the summer of 2015, a player named “Hilton,” struck it big on the Beach Life Jackpot slot after making a $10 bet. His wager was neither high nor low, but rather the game’s standard. The Beach Life Jackpot game is minimalist in terms of its playability offerings.
In this case, the lack of options worked out just fine. The winner wound up bringing in around $4 million with a single spin.
Hilton—who is interestingly enough one of the game’s ambassadors—decided, probably wisely, to keep his last name out of the headlines. However, he did declare that he would use his winnings to get his parents a new bungalow and get his nieces and nephews started with a good life. Our guess is that with the kind of money he’s earned, it will be a very nice start indeed.
Interested in becoming a jackpot winner? Checkout this progressive slots guide, and then think about heading over to an online casino NZ to try and hit it big.
