- International Game Technology reported late Sunday that its $1 “Wheel of Fortune” slot machine paid out a $1,156,474 jackpot at New York-New York on the Strip.
- Excalibur Las Vegas tweeted a photo of a big win on one of the casino's slot machines Tuesday: 'Congrats to a lucky slot player who won $5,482,229 on one of our Wheel of Fortune machines!
In year 2000 a very lucky waitress won over $34 million over slots. An urban legend developed after this incident as a few weeks after that humongous winning, the lady and her sister figured in a vehicular accident, paralyzing the waitress and killing her sister. The tragedy became the fuel that ignited the myth that bad things happen to those who win whopping jackpots. Well, not true especially on Wheel of Fortune slots jackpot winners!
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There is a long list of Wheel of Fortune jackpot winners. From August 2015 to September 2018 alone, there is close to 300 very lucky winners of IGT Wheel of Fortune slot variants. These winners have beaten the odds even if most of them did not hit a $1 million pot prize. However, history of IGT winners do show a handful of uber lucky slot players who have won millions of dollars playing Wheel of Fortune Slots.
There are more than 1,500 Wheel of Fortune slot players who have won a least $1 million. The biggest recorded Wheel of Fortune jackpot won happened in March 2009. A man from Biloxi took home a total of $14.3 million. In July 2013, a retired woman from Indiana won $8.3 million playing at a 25-cent Wheel of Fortune slot in Mississippi.
Over $7 million was won in 2007 by a someone playing Wheel of Fortune Special Edition. In 2006, the jackpot of $5.9 million was won on the Wheel of Fortune Dollar slot machine. The required bet to win the jackpot was a mere $3.
In 2001, $4.5 million was won playing a 50-cent Wheel of Fortune slots. Caesars Palace created another multi-millionaire when the jackpot of over $4.5 million for its Wheel of Fortune Triple Wild Spins Duo Wheel slot game was hit by a very fortunate slot player in January 2014.
A story about another multi-million jackpot winner is quite astonishing. Gracie Salinas won $3.8 million with a bet of $3 on a Wheel of Fortune. As she had only $2, she had to borrow a dollar from her mother promising that she’ll split any winnings. And she did!
In March this year, New Yorker Theresa P. won close to $3 million at a Wheel of Fortune slots in Empire City Casino.
There are two latest big-time winners in Wheel of Fortune slots. The first one won $3,349, 616.56 on a $5 Wheel of Fortune machine in June 16, 2018. Another super fortunate soul won $3,225,340.08 on a $1 Wheel of Fortune slot machine only a week before June 16.
Wheel of Fortune slots are owned and operated by IGT, and therefore is the one responsible for paying jackpots won. The casinos only provide the location for the slot machines and get 10% of the gross earnings of the machines. Wheel of Fortune slots’ popularity is simply amazing!
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The dream of instant riches, nothing is more alluring than the thought of suddenly becoming rich. That desire has made the Wheel of Fortune, Megabucks, and other high jackpot slot machines so popular. Year after year the Wheel of Fortune and Megabucks slot machines continue to be a favorite of casino goers. Even people that don’t really like to play slots will throw $20 in a machine to see if they can hit a life changing jackpot. My personal favorite is when the casino “comps” (free) a certain number of max credit plays on Megabucks, which is currently at 15 million. That allows me to play without any guilt because they’re FREE!
Most of the real high value jackpots are progressive jackpots. Progressive means the jackpot continues to increase as the machine is played; until someone hits it then it goes back to the reset value. Progressive jackpots can be several jackpots put together into one. They link together many different slot machines and as people play any of the machines that are linked, the jackpot rises. The machines can be all in the same casino, or sometimes they are in several different casinos. Those are the machines that offer the Megabucks and Wheel of Fortune jackpots for millions of dollars.
As gamblers, we must ask ourselves what is the cost of playing these life altering machines. Well, let’s think this out logically. How in the world can a casino afford to payout a couple million dollars on a 25 cent or $1 denomination slot machine where the jackpot is usually a few thousand dollars?
There are two answers:
Wheel Of Fortune Progressive Slots
1. The first answer consists of the payback percentage. Payback percentage is the amount of money that the casino pays out to the players. For all the money that is put into the machine the percentage that the casino pays back to the customers as winnings is known as the payback percentage. In other words, if a casino takes in $100,000 on a specific slot machine, and during that same time period the machine pays out $90,000, the payback percentage would be 90%
Don’t get confused by payback percentage. It doesn’t mean if you sit down at a machine that has a 95% payback and put $100 in that you will play and get $95 back. That would be kind of pointless. What it means is over millions of spins 95% of the money will be returned to the players and the casino will profit 5%.
$1 Wheel Of Fortune Slot Machine
The problem with all of the high jackpot slot machines is they are set with very low payback percentages. They are usually set in the 80-88% percentile which is terrible. Again, looking at it logically the casino has to keep more money to help pay for that large progressive payout because it sure isn’t coming out of their profit.
2. The other reason the jackpot can rise so high has to do with the odds of hitting the jackpot. The odds on some high progressive slots are as bad as 1 in 35 million. You have a better chance of hitting the regular lottery. You probably have a better chance of finding the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. The odds are so high it often takes years until someone hits the jackpot. In fact, the last time the $1 Megabucks was hit was in June of 2011 for 15 million dollars.
The Wheel-of-Fortune and Megabucks slot machines are a guilty pleasure and I must confess, even as an advantage gambler, I have fallen victim to the allure of instant riches. I don’t do it often and I never put in a lot of money, but every once in a while I’ll put $20 or $40 in and play. I’ll fantasize about what I would do with the money as I hit the spin button, but my fantasy is always ruined by losing all my credits. That’s why I like free comp plays because I can tell myself it’s not my money (in reality it is but that’s for another discussion).
We can all enjoy the fantasy of winning the jackpot on the large progressive slot machines like the Wheel of Fortune and Megabucks, but don’t let this fantasy turn into an obsession because these machines will take your money FAST!
What’s your favorite slot machine to play? Do you like Wheel of Fortune and Megabucks? Let me know your thoughts.