At the beginning of May, Greece was already enjoying the ever-more-relaxed life after its first major wave of the pandemic. Great news for Greece – and even greater for Georgios M., who won the Atlantean Treasures Mega Moolah progressive jackpot at the River Belle Casino, taking home a grand prize of €7.78 million. The amount certainly sounds great – especially coupled with the news of a passing pandemic – but it’s nowhere near the biggest win ever recorded on an online slot machine.
The highest-paying progressive online slots
Actually, there’s a bit of a competition here between Isle of Man-based casino game provider Microgaming and Sweden’s own NetEnt.
Microgaming’s Mega Moolah has a history of paying out fabulous sums to its luckiest players. Released in 2006, the Mega Moolah progressive slot has attracted countless players around the world not only because of its generous potential payout but also its fun look and feel. And it’s been quite generous quite often: it holds the official Guinness World Record for the highest-ever jackpot payout for an online slot machine (17.88 million euros, paid out to UK-based veteran Jon Heywood in October 2015), with its total payouts exceeding €1.1 billion to date. The Mega Moolah jackpot is associated with several progressive slots, it is hit, on average, once every eight weeks, and has paid out €26 million to lucky players – including the above-mentioned Georgios M – this year alone.
NetEnt’s Mega Fortune is another progressive jackpot associated with several slot machines with equally generous payouts. It’s been around since 2012 and has broken a few records over the years – its biggest recorded win is a bit over €17.8 million, paid out to an unnamed Swedish player at the Paf Casino in January 2013. The jackpot is hit, on average, once every 10 weeks, with average payouts of around €3.9 million.
How about land-based slots?
Progressive jackpots are not exclusive to online casinos, though. Actually, the biggest jackpot wins in history are associated with land-based slot machines – specifically, the Megabucks slots provided by IGT.
There are over 700 Megabucks slot machines in Nevada alone, and many more across the US states that have regulated gambling. And the machines have paid out seven-figure amounts several times over the years.
One of the most resounding wins is tied to a retired flight attendant who spent $300 on such a slot machine at the Palace Station Hotel in Las Vegas in 1998. Her money was well-spent: when the reels aligned, she earned the payout of her life: $27.5 million. World War II veteran Elmer Sherwin was even luckier: he won his first Megabucks jackpot in 1989, taking home a stunning $4.6 million, then hit the jackpot again, this time in 2005 – at the age of 92 – winning $21.1 million.
But the biggest slot machine win in history is linked to an anonymous software engineer from Los Angeles who, playing $100 spins on Megabucks at a Vegas casino, hit the largest jackpot in the world: $39.7 million.
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