Biggest Casino Win Ever Recorded
William Lee Bergstrom Bets it All - The Biggest Bet Ever Placed in a Casino Casino owner, Benny Binion revolutionized gambling in Las Vegas. Before him, casinos just accepted 'small' bets and wanted to slowly but steadily capture every player's bankroll.
You may have seen the news story a few years ago about a woman in Queens, New York who almost won the largest slot machine jackpot in history. Unfortunately, the nearly $43 million win was a machine malfunction that went well above the $6,500 max payout.
In May 2013, the highest single winning record of the Powerball lottery was set by Gloria McKenzie. Topping the list of the biggest casino wins of all time with a hefty $590.5 million, this 84-year-old grandma beat the odds of winning the game by 1 in 175 million. There are many high roller adventures in the history of gambling that brought the gamblers the biggest prizes ever. Here are the biggest jackpots in the history of gambling and other gambling records ever recorded in the Book: The biggest slots jackpots. 15 November, 1998, Megabucks casino. The largest jackpot ever won at 'one-armed bandit. The biggest ever jackpot recorded was at the Excalibur hotel in March 2003 when a 25-year-old Los Angeles resident put $100 in a Megabucks machine, and won a total of $40 million. Close Share options.
A new record may not have been set, but there have been a number of huge casino jackpots throughout history. If you’re gearing up for a trip to Vegas or a casino party, check out these stories of life-changing, mind blowing jackpot wins.
Biggest Slot Machine Jackpots
Think you can’t get lucky on a slot machine twice? In 1998 a retired flight attendant proved that lightning can strike twice at the casinos. The unnamed woman first won $680,000 on a Wheel of Fortune slot machine at Palace Station. She decided to keep trying her luck and months later she won $27 million on a Megabucks machine at the same casino!
Elmer Sherwin is undoubtedly a lucky guy. He also hit not one but two of the largest slot machine jackpots in history! The first win of $4.6 million was on a Megabucks slot machine at the Mirage in 1989. Sherwin decided to visit Cannery Casino in North Las Vegas in 2005 to test his luck again. There he won again on a Megabucks slot machine, but this time he walked away with $21.1 million. Mr. Sherwin was in his 90s when he hit his second jackpot.
A few years early a 25-year-old software engineer won the highest slot machine payout in history. In 2003 the young man won $39.7 million playing a Megabucks machine at Excalibur. He decided to take an annual $1.5 million payout for 25 years instead of one lump sum payment. That means he’ll be raking in the dough for another decade.
In 2000 Cynthia Jay scored the largest jackpot at the time. She won nearly $35 million at a Megabucks slot machine in the Monte Carlo Casino in Vegas. But less than two months later Jay was in a horrible car wreck that killed her sister and left Jay paralyzed from the chest down.
In August 2016 a resident of Hawaii came to the mainland for a Vegas vacation and traveled back home with a lot more money. What was really impressive is that the woman was playing penny slot machines at the Wynn casino when she won $10,777,270.51.
While it isn’t the biggest slot machine jackpot win in history, a Florida man identified as only Fred S. did get very lucky in July 2018. He hit not one but two big jackpots at the Hard Rock Biloxi within a matter of minutes. First, Fred got a massive $1,291,918 win with a $20 bet. While he waited on the casino to verify the win he got a $14,000 win on another slot machine to bring the total winnings over $1.3 million.
Biggest Hands at the Poker Table
Hands down, the World Series of Poker (WSOP) is where you’ll find the biggest Texas Hold’em jackpots. Once the field gets narrowed down to just two players, a single hand can bring in millions. After 10 hours of heads up poker playing, John Cynn was named the 2018 WSOP winner and received $8,800,000. His opponent Tony Miles didn’t do so bad himself. Even though he lost, Miles received $5 million for second place.
But that wasn’t the biggest payout in the history of the tournament or even that year. Four other WSOP winners have won more:
Jamie Gold - $12 million in 2006
Martin Jacobson - $10 million in 2014
Peter Eastgate - $9,152,416 in 2008
Jonathan Duhamel - $8,944,138 in 2010
In 2018 Justin Bonomo won $10 million in the World Series of Poker's $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop. But by far the later poker jackpot ever was $18,346,673 when Antonio Esfandiari won the 2012 Big One for One Drop.
Highest Payouts at the Craps Table
Patricia Demauro is easily one of the most successful craps players in history. In 2009 she famously won 154 consecutive throws while playing at the Borgata in Atlantic City. The actual amount was never disclosed, but based on the minimum buy-in of $10 the payout would likely range from well over six figures up to $1 million or more.
Not long ago a player won over $5.3 million at the Tropicana Casino and Resort, mainly at the craps tables. The unidentified man had a 6-hour hot streak, but he had to bet big to win the millions. At one point he was placing $100,000 bets.
Biggest Casino Win Ever Recorded Hits
Huge Win at the Roulette Wheel
In 2004 Ashley Revell made a huge gamble. He sold everything he owned, headed to Vegas and put his entire life savings on a spin of the roulette wheel. Crazy – yes. But it paid off. Revell put just over $135,000 on a red bet and won over $270,000. The whole thing was filmed and eventually became a short reality show called Double or Nothing.
Biggest Blackjack Winners
The most infamously successful blackjack players were a group of MIT students who used card counting to win around $100 million. However, this situation was unique because the mathematical geniuses worked as a team so their winning streaks wouldn’t get noticed by dealers.
But one man bested the MIT players. Gambler Don Johnson made millions at blackjack tables over a six-month period in 2011. Instead of card counting, Johnson sought out casinos that had the most favorable rules, like being able to split a hand up to four times.
Another thing Johnson looked for were casinos that offered a guaranteed payout, which refunds part of what’s lost on a hand. All that research paid off to the tune of $15 million in half a year of playing.
A billionaire by the name of Kerry Packer also won big at the blackjack tables. During a trip to Vegas in 1997 he reported won somewhere in the range of $20-40 million. The winnings came from a combination of black jack and baccarat.
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Photo of Trinadad Torres courtesy of Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino.
Admit it. You have the same dream we do.
Biggest Casino Win Ever Recorded Win
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
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.
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
Biggest Casino Win Ever Recorded Record
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!
Biggest Casino Win Ever Recorded Super Bowl
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.