$5 Bet Wins $10.4 Million Jackpot At Las Vegas Casino
On a $5 bet, one gambler at a Las Vegas casino recently walked away with a $10.4 million slot machine jackpot.
The April 1 win at the Mandalay Bay hotel-casino turned out to be no joke. The jackpot’s grand total was $10,486,432.04.
The win came on IGT’s Megabucks Triple Red Hot 7s Spitfire Multipliers slot machine. The company announced that the “lucky player” wished to remain anonymous. In an statement on its website, IGT said its Megabucks “has been awarding life-changing jackpots since 1986.”
What’s The Slot Jackpot Record?
While the $10.4 million win this month at Mandalay Bay was colossal, it is not the largest slot machine win ever.
The largest payout in history, $39.7 million, occurred March 21, 2003, on a Megabucks slot machine at the Excalibur hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip, according to Guinness World Records.
The winner, a 25-year-old software engineer from Los Angeles, put $100 in the machine, resulting in the record-breaking jackpot. He also wished to remain anonymous.
"The man was in Las Vegas visiting his family and to watch college basketball's March Madness tournament,” Guinness World Records said. “He said he had put in about $100 when he turned his head away for an instant. When he looked back, the winning symbols had lined up and he was $39 million richer.”
Mandalay Bay Site History
The Mandalay Bay property, where this month’s jackpot was won, is on the west side of the Strip. An MGM Resorts property, it was built where the now-demolished Hacienda hotel-casino once stood.
The Hacienda was one of four casinos in the Las Vegas Valley once overseen by Mob associate Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal. In the 1995 movie “Casino,” Robert De Niro portrays a character based on Rosenthal.
The Mandalay Bay also is where the Michelob Ultra Arena is located. The 12,000-seat arena is home to the WNBA's Las Vegas Aces. The league opens its season in May.
The Aces are part of an effort to rebrand Las Vegas as the Sports and Entertainment Capital of the World. Other teams in that category include the NFL's Raiders and NHL's Golden Knights. In 2028, Major League Baseball's Athletics are slated to play home games at a stadium being built on the Strip where the Mob-era Tropicana hotel-casino once stood. Recently, the NBA began the process of putting a team in Las Vegas.
