We are always hearing about lottery winners and how they spend their winnings. When someone wins the lottery, he or she is plastered all over the news right after it happens, and then again a year later or so as an update on how their lives are going.

The media gives lottery winners a lot of attention because we as a society are incredibly curious about them. What were their lives like before they won? Do they deserve the money? What are they doing with the money? Are they spending it wisely?

Many people do not really realize that casino winners sometimes win just as much money as lottery winners do. Gamblers have unexpectedly won millions and millions of dollars by playing slots, craps, blackjack, roulette, and other games at casinos, both online and offline.

Megabucks are slots with progressive jackpots, combined into a single network that covers casinos in several American states. The owner and operator of this network is International Game Technology, better known by its abbreviated name IGT. Megabucks slot is considered as an alternative to state lotteries and enjoys incredible popularity among Americans. $11.8 Million Megabucks Jackpot won at the Fremont! Help us in congratulating Rodolfo T. Management reserves all rights.

Let’s talk about three lucky ducks who have hit it big and instantly became high rollers at casinos all over the world. What were their lives like before they won? What did they do with the money? Where are they now? Let’s find out!

1. Cynthia Jay Brennan / $34,959,458.56 / Las Vegas, NV / 2000

In 2000, Cynthia Jay Brennan, a cocktail waitress, became one of the luckiest people in the world when she won the largest Megabucks jackpot in history at the time. She was playing a state-wide lottery jackpot slot machine called Megabucks in Las Vegas when she struck it big and won $34,959,458.56. The next nine weeks were wonderful for her. She celebrated her good luck, married her boyfriend, and was planning on traveling the world with him.

Unfortunately, nine weeks after she won $35 million, Cynthia was driving her new Camaro with her sister, Lela Jay, when a drunk driver with 16 prior arrests slammed into her car at a red light. Lela was killed right away, and Cynthia’s spine was shattered. The driver walked away with just a few scratches.

Today, Cynthia is paralyzed from the waist down and uses a wheelchair. She can only move her arms and shoulders, and she requires assistance to do the simplest of tasks like brushing her hair and dressing herself. Her husband, Terry Brennan, is still working as a bartender at the Monte Carlo Casino in Las Vegas and is taking care of his paralyzed wife.

Cynthia says she’d give the $35 million back if it meant walking again and getting her sister back.

2. Ashley Revell / $270,000 / Las Vegas, NV / 2004

Ashley Revell’s story is pretty interesting. Ashley was hanging out with his friends at a pub when one of them commented on how great it would be if they could bet everything they had on one spin. So Ashley did just that… and won.

Ashley was a 32-year-old man from London, England with a Rolex watch, a BMW, golf clubs, and 10,000 pounds to his name. He sold all, and we mean all, of his possessions at car boot sales and auctions and then headed over to the Plaza Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas with only the clothes on his back and nearly 80,000 pounds to his name to place his one bet at a roulette table.

Ashley was originally supposed to place his bet at the Hard Rock Hotel, but negotiations with the hotel’s management fell through. Plaza Hotel & Casino stepped in and accepted the wager because they were looking for a lot of publicity. They offered Ashley a free suite room and a special roulette table where the bet could be videotaped and broadcast live through the Sky Network.

At first, Ashley couldn’t decide whether to bet on red or black. He came to decide on black, but a lot of his supporters preferred red, so Ashley switched over to red at the very last minute. It was the right choice, because the ball landed on number seven… red!

Everyone, including Ashley’s family and friends, cheered and popped open a bottle of champagne. His stack went from nearly 80,000 pounds to 153,680 pounds.

He celebrated his win by going on a trip around Europe on the back of a motorcycle. When he was in Holland, he met his future wife. When he came back home, he set up an online poker company named Poker UTD (which eventually went out of business in 2012) and later established iGaming Recruitment, a website that matches job applicants to online gambling companies.

So what does Ashley’s life look like now?

He does not gravitate towards the flashy lifestyle. He’s still an ordinary guy who drinks at the pub over the road, manages his business, and hangs out with his wife and two children.

Elmer Sherwin / $21,147,947 / Las Vegas, NV / 2005

Elmer Sherwin was probably the luckiest man in Las Vegas. He was a two-time Megabucks winner. In 1989, he won $4.6 million right after the Mirage opened on the Las Vegas Strip.

On an early Thursday evening in September 2005, 92-year-old Elmer Sherwin, a World War 2 vet, decided to plop down in front of a Megabucks machine at the Cannery Casino & Hotel in Las Vegas because he had a feeling that the machine was lucky. Well, he was right because he won the $21,147,947 jackpot.

With that money, Elmer donated a lot to the Hurricane Katrina relief fund and helped support his family, including his son and daughter-in-law.

Elmer passed away two years later, in March 2007.

The motto for most gamblers who come to Las Vegas on a lark is rather simple – go big or go home.

If you’re going to wager real American dollars on games of chance and skill, there’s no reason to take the conservative route. Bankroll management notwithstanding, the goal for any gambler in Sin City is to hit it big, win the jackpot, and walk away with more money than you know what to do with.

Of course, the vast majority of us who take these shots don’t mint themselves instant millionaires. Instead, the house’s inexorable edge and every gambling game’s inherent odds against the player combine to pour our money straight into the casino’s coffers.

For this reason, what happened at the Excalibur casino on March 21^st of 2003 when a random tourist from Los Angeles decided to hit the slots has become the stuff of Las Vegas legend.

On that day, an anonymous 25-year old gambler arrived in town to visit his family. With the annual “March Madness” college basketball tournament in full swing, the player figured they might as well get some action down on Duke, Arizona, and the rest of the sport’s heavyweights.

The young man’s uncle heard about the trip to Excalibur Hotel & Casino and offered his nephew a little sage advice from a Las Vegas local – play the Megabucks slot machine and see what happens.

And with a $10 million starting seed* – not to mention millions of tourists plunking down the requisite $3 per spin to give themselves a chance – the Megabucks jackpot had swelled to an astounding $39.7 million.

*Megabucks initially offered a $1 million starting seed, before increasing to $7 million in 1997, and $10 million in 2005

Thus, the visitor from L.A. found a Megabucks machine and took a seat with $100 in hand.

Megabucks Slot Machine Winners

What happened next made history…

How Does the Megabucks Slot Machine Work?

First things first though… in case you’re unfamiliar with the Megabucks slot, here’s a quick crash course on the greatest progressive jackpot game of them all.

Casino game manufacturer International Game Technology (IGT) introduced its Megabucks slot way back in 1986. At the time, slot machine jackpots were static in nature, meaning each individual machine offered its own kitty based on how many coins had been previously deposited in between major payouts.

IGT had a revolutionary idea, however, so the company linked its various Megabucks machines all over the Silver State together. In other words, whenever a player in Reno, Mesquite, or anywhere in Nevada for that matter played one Megabucks machine, their coins contributed to the same jackpot total.

This wide area progressive jackpot concept proved to be an immediate hit with players, who loved to watch the meter continuously climb into the seven-figures.

And those meters did climb on a daily basis too, thanks to the Megabucks game’s enormous odds against on the topline jackpot.

Megabucks is a deceptively simple game, one which eschews the multiple paylines and expanded reels that make up the bulk of a casino’s slot inventory nowadays. For a maximum bet of $3, players send three reels spinning, each featuring traditional symbols like 7s, cherries, and BARs. To form winning combinations, players hope to hit three matching symbols along a single payline.

The game’s jackpot symbol is a golden “Megabucks Eagle” which depicts the slot’s distinctive logo. The only thing is, landing even one of these crucial symbols along the payline requires the player to beat odds of 1 in 368. Knowing this, the odds against spiking all three at once come to an astronomical 1 in 49,836,032 – or (1/368)³.

For this reason, the Megabucks progressive jackpot often goes unclaimed for extended stretches, many of which lasting more than a year. With so much time in between big winners, and so many players statewide tossing $3 per spin into the kitty, Megabucks jackpots soon became notorious for reaching epic proportions.

Before that fateful day in 2003, Megabucks players enjoyed an incredible run which saw the jackpot rise to a then record $27.5 million in 1998. That life-changing sum was won by a lucky slot spinner at Palace Station in November of 1998, but the record was eventually broken with a $34.9 million payout awarded to a cocktail waitress playing at the Desert Inn in January of 2000.

A little more than three years later, a new record was waiting to be set at the Excalibur.

$100 Flier Turns Into Life-Changing Record Jackpot Win

Starting out with only $100, the player from L.A. had just 33 spins to work with given the $3* price of play.

*Megabucks can be played for $1 or $2 spins, but the progressive jackpot is only awarded to players who opt for the max-bet of $3

Even so, as a press release issued by IGT later revealed, the player with a birthdate featuring three 7s seemed to have Lady Luck on his arm from the very start. Within the span of those 33 spins, the man watched as not one, not two, but three of the “Megabucks Eagle” symbols slowly spun and came to a rest alongside one another.

Just like that, the player had beaten odds of nearly 1 in 50 million to put nearly $40 million in his pocket.

Well, not all at once anyway. The winner elected to take $1.5 million installments over the course of 26 years – which means he’s still receiving seven-figure payouts annually to this day. In fact, the winner has another 10 years and $15 million remaining on his record-setting payment plan.

Maine Megabucks Winner

Although he chose to remain anonymous, the winner provided the following statement to IGT:

“I’m still stunned; it doesn’t seem real yet. But both of my parents are still working, so some of this money will be used to fund their retirement.”

Largest Megabucks Jackpot Ever – And By a Long Shot

John Sears – who served as vice president of IGT’s MegaJackpots program at the time – confirmed that the $39,713,982.25 payout smashed the previous record for largest slot machine jackpot ever awarded:

“This MegaJackpot is nearly $5 million more than the previous world record slot jackpot amount of $34.9 million – this one goes into The Guinness Book of Records.”

Check out the table below – featuring 10 real megabucks jackpot wins – to get a better sense of just how ridiculous the record-setting jackpot really is:

Megabucks Jackpot History (Wins of $10 Million or More)

Competing Jackpot Hunters Lament Loss of Record-Setting Total

Within the slot machine gaming enthusiast community, learning that Megabucks’ massive jackpot had been won proved to be bittersweet indeed.

In an interview with the Las Vegas Sun conducted shortly after the news broke, Kim Wong from Kailua, Hawaii told the newspaper how she felt watching the meter reset back to $10 million:

“I was here at lunchtime around 12:30 and it was still around $39.7 million. Then I came back around quarter after one and it was resetting. It was such a drag. It was a little more enticing with the $39 million up there, but I’m still playing.”

Judy Selasky from Lavonia, Michigan provided a similar story, telling the paper that even though a record payout was off the table, she and her husband would still play in hopes of a “lightning strikes twice” type of moment:

“I said, ‘Hurry up and get up to the room, so I can get downstairs. I figure if he won, there might be some magic here. I’m not a hog.”

Megabucks Winner Slot Machine Winner 2018 Results

Conclusion

In a city like Las Vegas which was founded on excess, setting the world record for slot machine jackpot winnings really is something special. And while we don’t know much about the software engineer from L.A. who did the deed, learning that a 25-year old tourist took the honors should give hope to every gambler who makes the sojourn to Sin City.

Megabucks Winner Slot Machine Winner 2018 Winner

More than 16 years have passed since the record-setting spin, and nobody has even come close to claiming such an incredible Megabucks jackpot over that span – which shows just how astonishing that memorable moment in March of 2003 really was.