Seven Biggest Slot Jackpots in Las Vegas History

Posted on: June 26, 2024, 02:16h. 

Last updated on: October 22, 2024, 09:18h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Restaurants, Las Vegas Myths.

The top seven slot jackpots in Las Vegas history were all hit on Megabucks progressive machines, which is no surprise. These slots present by far the longest odds of winning, but also the greatest payouts to those who somehow manage to beat the odds.

Megabucks was created in March 1986 by IGT as a way to win back some of the business Nevada casinos had been losing to state lotteries, which paid megamillion-dollar jackpots.

Whenever someone takes a Megabucks spin, a small portion of the bet gets placed into a jackpot that anyone, at any of Nevada’s approximately 750 Megabucks machines, can win at any time. The longer the interval between jackpots, the higher the amount.

Most of the information below was provided by International Game Technology (IGT), which pays out the Megabucks jackpots. Contrary to a popular myth, the casinos don’t.

As for why the latest jackpot on this list happened in 2012, they still hit. For example, three did so in Vegas just last year, for $10.4-$12.2 million. However, for some officially unexplained reason — or perhaps for no reason at all — they haven’t paid off enough to make the top seven.

1. $39.7 million

March 21, 2003
Excalibur

An unknown 25-year-old software engineer from LA holds the record for the largest jackpot win ever, in Vegas or anywhere else. The winner, who exercised his right to remain anonymous, was visiting family members in Las Vegas when he played about $100 in a machine, then turned his head away for a second. When he looked back at the machine again, the winning symbols were lined up.

Cynthia Jay celebrates the second-largest slot jackpot in Las Vegas history in 2000. (Image: Las Vegas Sun)

2. $34.9 million

Jan. 26, 2000
Desert Inn 

Cynthia Jay-Brennan, a 37-year-old cocktail server at the Monte Carlo, made nearly 1.3 million times her $27 investment back. But this story has no happy ending.

Jay-Brennan married her boyfriend and they made plans to travel the world. But just six weeks later, Clark Morse, a drunken driver with 16 prior arrests, slammed into the back of her car while it was stopped at a red light. The collision killed her sister, Lela Anne Jay, 45, and shattered Jay-Brennan’s spine.

Morse received a 28-year prison sentence. Jay-Brennan remains permanently paralyzed below her upper chest. And far too much of her jackpot has been spent on medical expenses.

This barely believable “Twilight Zone” of a horror story sparked the myth of the Megabucks curse.

3. $27.5 million

Nov. 15, 1998
Palace Station

Before this off-Strip locals’ casino became famous for O.J. Simpson’s memorabilia robbery, a much better headline was made by an anonymous 67-year-old Las Vegas woman who set aside only $100 to play her favorite machine.

Worrying that she would deeply regret violating her limit, she played a second hundy and hit this whopper only $40 in.

4. $22.6 million

March 27, 2002
Bally’s (now Horseshoe)

Johanna Huendl, a 74-year-old tourist from Covina, Calif., made her fortune on a Wheel of Fortune Megabucks while waiting for her breakfast. She was already $1,000 in the hole during a gambling day that had hardly begun. It remains unknown whether Huendl ended up eating that breakfast.

5. $21.3 million

June 1, 1999
Caesars Palace

This was won by an anonymous 49-year-old business consultant from Illinois on his very first Megabucks spin ever. It cost him $10 to change his life.

Elmer Sherwin begat the persistent myth that Megabucks jackpots are more likely to hit on a casino’s opening night. (Image: Facebook)

6. $21.1 million

Sept. 15, 2005
Cannery Casino

Elmer Sherwin, a 92-year-old Las Vegas resident, was not only a veteran of WWII, but also of Megabucks jackpots. On Nov. 22, 1989, he turned $100 into a $4.6M at The Mirage.

“Hitting a Megabucks jackpot twice is “like getting struck by lightning while sitting on your living room couch without a cloud in the sky,” Anthony Lucas, a professor of casino management at UNLV, told Casino.org in 2023.

Sherwin is also the second person on this list whose Megabucks win sparked its very own Vegas myth. That’s because his Mirage jackpot happened on the casino’s opening night. Since that win, 47 Las Vegas casinos have opened without producing a single Megabucks jackpot on opening night. In addition, Sherwin’s second win occurred more than two years after the Cannery’s opening night.

But try explaining that to the throngs who predictably beeline for a Megabucks slot on the opening night of every new Las Vegas casino.

7. $17.3 million

Dec. 14, 2012
M Resort

Technically, the M is in Henderson, not Las Vegas, but unlike a Megabucks spin, we’ll except close enough. The winner, who chose to remain anonymous, won by using a free play and food voucher. He didn’t even realize he had won the top prize until another player pointed it out.