For most people, a trip to the casino is a form of entertainment where the dream of a life-changing win is part of the thrill. Though large wins are rare, some lucky individuals have hit jackpots so massive they've gone down in history. Let's look at a few legendary tales of astonishing casino victories.
The Megabucks Jackpot: A Software Engineer's $39.7 Million Win
The largest slot machine jackpot in history was won in March 2003 at the Excalibur Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. A 25-year-old software engineer from Los Angeles decided to play the famous Megabucks slot machine while waiting for casino a basketball game to start. His relatively small investment of $100 resulted in the ultimate prize. The life-altering sum was so huge that it was structured as an annuity, paying him $1.5 million a year for 25 years. The winner chose to remain anonymous, and his story remains the ultimate testament to the incredible, albeit minuscule, chance of hitting it big on a slot machine.
Beating the House at its Own Game
Not all legendary wins come from pure luck. Between 2010 and 2011, a man named Don Johnson went on an unprecedented winning streak, taking three Atlantic City casinos for a combined total of over $15 million playing blackjack.
His secret wasn't card counting in the traditional sense. Johnson, a savvy businessman, negotiated special rules with the casinos before he even started playing. These included a 20% "loss rebate" (where the casino would refund him 20% of his losses if they reached a certain amount), the ability to bet up to $100,000 per hand, and favorable rules like splitting and doubling down on any four cards. With these conditions, he played with a positive expectation, a rare feat in casino gaming. He won so much that he is no longer welcome to play at many of the world's top casinos.
Winning the Jackpot... Again
The odds of winning a major lottery-style jackpot are astronomical, but winning it twice seems impossible. But that's exactly what happened to World War II veteran Elmer Sherwin. In 1989, at the age of 76, he won a $4.6 million Megabucks jackpot at The Mirage in Las Vegas, just 10 hours after the casino opened. He used the money to travel the world, but he continued to play the Megabucks slots, dreaming of a second win. Incredibly, 16 years later, in 2005, at the age of 92, he did it again. He won a staggering $21.1 million jackpot on another Megabucks machine at the Cannery Casino. He was incredibly generous with his second windfall, donating a large portion to charity.