The two men participated in a cheating scheme that involved placing high-risk phantom bets at Bellagio’s craps tables. Two men have been added to Nevada’s “black book” of banned casino players after scamming Bellagio of nearly $1.2 million by placing the so-called hop bet in a series of craps games, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. Las Vegas is a hot spot for slot tournaments, with many casinos hosting multiple tournaments per week. Some of these tournaments are free to enter, and most offer prizes of at least $1,000, making. Incredible $433,865.00 Jackpot Hit at Bellagio on Sat, 12-06-14. 3-coin $5.00 slot machine: '10X10X10X.' This one had my name on it-see linked video from my.

It’s the dream of every slots player all over the world – to spin the reels, expecting nothing, only to feel the surge of adrenaline rushing through your veins as the realization slowly dawns that you have won millions of dollars and are set up for life.

Who wouldn’t want to win a mega jackpot? I know I certainly would!

Yet, for some lucky slots players, the dream becomes a reality. Every day in Vegas and other casinos around the world, players walk in hoping and walk out smiling from ear to ear.

Every now and then, the jackpots are unthinkably big. I took an urge recently to discover some of the biggest slots jackpots of all time, and I put together this list of the 10 biggest ever Las Vegas jackpots just for you.

Enjoy, and remember – if you’re not in, you can’t win!

From Software Engineer to Baller

Sometimes the fates of ordinary people take extraordinary turns, and that was definitely the case when an unnamed software engineer from L.A. walked into the Excalibur Casino in Las Vegas in 2003 and burned his way through $100 on Megabucks slot.

By the time he was done, he had $39,710,826 in his back pocket, winning the biggest jackpot ever paid out in Vegas, a record which still stands to this day.

The lucky winner chose to remain anonymous, so we can’t tell you who he was. All we know is that he was 25 at the time, and we can bet he didn’t go to work coding for the firm the following Monday!

A Tip From the Gods

If you’ve ever worked in the service industry, you probably remember the biggest tip you ever received. Cynthia Jay-Brennan, a 37-year-old cocktail waitress probably remembered hers, too, but it wouldn’t have been anything like the tip she was about to receive from life itself on a January night at the Desert Inn in Vegas.

Cynthia won $34,959,458 when playing Megabucks, which was the biggest jackpot ever paid in Las Vegas until our anonymous software engineer came along three years later and topped it.

Sadly, lady luck can be a fickle mistress, and Cynthia got rear-ended by a drunk driver at 60mph six weeks later, leaving her paralyzed from the chest down. On the one hand, she was lucky to survive since her older sister was killed outright, but on the other, this is a tragically sad story and is a reminder that you should never drink and drive.

Some attribute the accident to “The Curse of Megabucks”, a legend claiming that winning the Megabucks jackpot ultimately results in the winner’s misfortune, but there’s little evidence to support such a theory.

When Bad Decisions Pay Off

Generally speaking, I preach time and time again that one of the key tenets of responsible gambling is to never exceed your intended budget. However, I’m also aware that the moment can take you places you didn’t intend to go, and that rule is a lot easier stated than kept.

Sometimes, breaking the budget pays off, as was the case for Johanna Heundl, a 67-year-old retired flight attend playing the Megabucks slot machine in Vegas. She set a budget of $100, but got carried away and ended up feeding the machine $300 over the course of her gaming session.

While this is the starting point of far too many bad nights, it was the start of a stellar one for Johanna. She wound up winning $22,621,229, and I bet her golden years were a lot more golden thereafter.

The Fastest $21.3 Million Ever Made

Sometimes, good luck is just written in your stars, and a big payout is simply meant for you, as this case illustrates perfectly.

A 29-year-old business consultant (who chose to remain anonymous) walked up to the Megabucks slot machine at Caesar’s Palace, fed the machine $10, and hit spin. As luck would have it, he won $21.3 million on that first tap of the button, probably inducing a state of shock that would have killed many men.

While he didn’t give his name, he did reveal that he was a business consultant by profession. It’s a safe bet that was the greatest return he ever made on any investment.

However, the poor soul who had just finished playing before him probably didn’t ever recover!

Some Guys Have All the Luck

It’s been a question which philosophers have pondered for millennia – why do some people have such rotten, destitute luck in life, while others seem to be born with a golden horseshoe stuck where the sun doesn’t shine? I’m sure Aristotle put it more elegantly than that, but you get the picture!

Elmer Sherwin was one of those guys who lady luck has a fondness of, because not only did he live well into his nineties, but he won two slots jackpots over the course of his long life. The first was at the Mirage in 1989 ($4.6 million) and the second was at the Cannery Casino ($21.1 million) when he was the ripe old age of 92.

Bellagio Slot Jackpots 2019

I’m not sure what he did with it at that age, but I’m sure he had a blast in the sunset years of his life, and his descendants were well taken care of.

The Lord Works In Mysterious Ways

Gambling and the religious are not two things I would immediately link together in my mind, but hey, I guess people are people and one doesn’t necessarily prohibit the other.

In 2014, a local man decided to drop $20 into the Megabucks slot machine just for kicks. A few minutes later he was $14.3 million up, and he knew right away what he was going to do.

Lucky local won $14 Million #jackpot on #MegaBucks today. #Summerlin‘sHomeforJackpots #LasVegaspic.twitter.com/93HvqrtuHP

— Rampart Casino (@RampartCasino) December 1, 2014

I admit the first thing that would come to my mind if I won that kind of cash is champagne and longing on the deck of a cruise ship in the Caribbean, but that’s the sinner in me I suppose. This man had another idea – he was going to build a church to help the one he had been attending in a local gym.

One For the Road

One for the road is the premise of too many tragic stories in movies and books, but this is one occasion where deciding you have nothing left to lose and playing down to the wire was a great choice.

Back in 2011, a lady who has chosen to remain anonymous, had given up after an unfruitful night of gaming at the Aria. She was actually on her way back to her room when she decided to sink her last $6 into Megabucks.

As if the gods of fortune had been testing her resolve, she won $12.7 million as a result. There are so many cliche quotes about trying one last time I could use here, but I’ll spare you.

I’ll bet this lady is glad she did try again, though, wherever she is today.

You’ve Got Mail – And it’s a Check!

I’ve written another post on this site about lotto winners who lost it all, some of whom claim the win ruined their lives. As it turns out, there are slots winners who claim the same, and this story is about one of them.

John Tippin was a postal worker on an average salary when he landed an $11 million Megabucks jackpot in Vegas. Yet, in 2001 he released a book called “I DID IT! My life after Megabucks” in which he claims the life-changing win made him lonely, paranoid and caused him to isolate himself.

I for one wouldn’t mind switching places with him. I bet I could find the right balance needed to deal with a win like that. How about you?

Winning at the Wynn

Another winner who has chosen to stay anonymous is a lady from Hawaii who won $10.7 million playing slots at the Wynn casino.

It turns out that she won the fortune while playing for $3 spins on the Megabucks Wynn Wheel machine, which was created especially for this casino and is named after its founder.

Bellagio Slot Winners

While most of us would definitely consider taking a vacation to Hawaii after such a win, this lucky lady gets to spend the rest of her life there spending the vast fortune she accumulated while on vacation in Vegas.

Bellagio Slot Jackpots 2018 2019

That’s what Vegas is all about, is it not?

Instant Karma’s Gonna’ Get You

I think we can all agree that the brave men and women in uniform who risk life and limb to protect us deserve a little luck more than almost anyone else, and this story shows that it can happen.

Bellagio Slot Jackpots

In February 2012, a 26-year-old US marine named Alexander Degenhardt sunk $100 into Money Vault Millionaires Seven slot at the Bellagio casino. He walked away with $2.9 million and had been in the city for a little R&R while training at a nearby Air Force base.

When interviewed by CNN later, he credits karma for the win, since he had been accepted as a bone marrow donor just a few days earlier. He also decided to stay on and serve in the military, proving what an upstanding guy he truly is!