10 Slot Wins So Big They Set Records

Slot machines have produced some huge jackpots over the years, but none bigger than the $39.7 million won at the Excalibur in Las Vegas in 2003. The record-setting Megabucks jackpot went to a 25-year-old software engineer who had reportedly put around $100 into the machine before landing the winning spin.

That isn’t the only slot win to reach eight figures. Players have won more than $20 million at Las Vegas casinos and millions more playing online. Here are 10 of the biggest slot machine wins ever recorded, including the games that paid out and the stories behind each jackpot.

10. $20.1 Million (Jon Heywood) – Mega Moolah, Online

In 2015, British former soldier Jon Heywood won £13.2 million playing Mega Moolah online, worth just over $20 million at the time. Heywood was 26 and had previously served with the British Army.

The win came while he was playing the slot online and earned Heywood a Guinness World Record for the largest jackpot payout from an online slot machine. Guinness recorded the jackpot at €17,879,645, or $20,062,600 based on exchange rates at the time.

Mega Moolah went on to produce several other huge payouts and became one of the best-known progressive jackpot online slots.

9. $21.1 Million (Elmer Sherwin) – Megabucks, Cannery Casino

Elmer Sherwin was 92 when he won a $21.1 million Megabucks jackpot at the Cannery Casino in North Las Vegas in 2005. What made the win even more unusual was that Sherwin had already hit a Megabucks jackpot once before.

His first win came at the Mirage in 1989, just nine hours after the casino opened. Sherwin had played for about 90 minutes and put roughly $100 into the machine before winning $4.65 million. Sixteen years later, his Cannery win made him the first person to hit the Megabucks jackpot twice.

According to IGT’s account of the win, Sherwin planned to share some of the money with his family and donate to Hurricane Katrina relief. Despite winning more than $25 million between the two jackpots, he still planned to keep playing for a third.

8. $21.3 Million (Anonymous) – Megabucks, Caesars Palace

The winner was a 49-year-old business consultant from Illinois who was in Las Vegas for a trade show. While staying at Caesars Palace, he put $10 into a Megabucks machine and hit the $21.35 million jackpot on his first spin.

The win was the second-largest Megabucks jackpot ever paid out at the time, behind only the $27.58 million Palace Station jackpot from 1998. It was also another huge payout for Megabucks, which has been behind several of the biggest slot wins in Las Vegas history.

7. $22.5 Million (TrainwrecksTV) – Might of Ra, Online

TrainwrecksTV, whose real name is Tyler Niknam, is no stranger to massive bets on slots. But even by his standards, winning $22.5 million playing Might of Ra during a livestream in March 2022 was a huge result.

This win is a little different from most on our list. There was no progressive jackpot waiting to be hit. Trainwrecks was playing at extremely high stakes when the $22.5 million win landed during a regular spin, with his viewers watching the whole thing unfold live.

The $22.5 million payout was reported as the largest non-jackpot online slot win at the time. It also makes him one of the few players on this list whose reaction to winning millions was caught live on camera.

6. $22.6 Million (Johanna Heundl) – Megabucks, Bally’s Casino

Johanna Heundl was heading to breakfast at Bally’s in Las Vegas in May 2002 when she decided to make a quick stop at the slots. The 74-year-old California resident ended up winning $22.6 million playing Megabucks.

Heundl had put $177 into the game when she hit the jackpot. Her $22.6 million payout was the third-largest slot jackpot ever recorded at the time, so breakfast suddenly became a much smaller part of the morning.

The Los Angeles Times reported on Heundl’s win shortly after it happened. Her jackpot also continued a run of huge Megabucks payouts in Las Vegas, with even bigger wins still to come.

5. €18.9 Million (Anonymous) – Mega Moolah, Grand Mondial Casino

An anonymous player landed one of Mega Moolah’s biggest payouts in September 2018, winning about €18.9 million while playing at Grand Mondial Casino. The jackpot was worth roughly $22 million based on exchange rates around the time of the win.

Mega Moolah had already built a reputation for producing huge online jackpots, and this one briefly set a new record for the game. It also came just a few years after Jon Heywood’s record-setting Mega Moolah win in 2015.

The Grand Mondial payout was eventually topped by another Mega Moolah jackpot, but €18.9 million remains one of the largest online slot wins on record.

4. €17.86 Million (Anonymous) – Mega Fortune, Online

In January 2013, an anonymous 40-year-old man from Helsinki won €17.86 million playing Mega Fortune online. Based on exchange rates at the time, the jackpot was worth around $23 million.

The player was using a €0.25 stake when he landed the jackpot through Paf. The win set a new record for the largest online slot jackpot at the time, beating the previous record that had also been set on Mega Fortune.

The record lasted until 2015, when Jon Heywood won a slightly larger euro jackpot playing Mega Moolah. The difference looks much larger when both wins are converted into dollars because exchange rates had changed considerably between 2013 and 2015.

3. $27.58 Million (Anonymous) – Megabucks, Palace Station

A 67-year-old Las Vegas woman won about $27.58 million playing Megabucks at Palace Station in November 1998. She had put around $300 into the game when the jackpot hit, turning an ordinary night at the slots into a new world record.

It wasn’t even her first big slot win. The woman had previously won about $680,000 playing Wheel of Fortune, although the Megabucks jackpot was obviously in another league.

The Las Vegas Sun reported the $27.58 million payout as the largest slot jackpot ever won at the time. Her record wouldn’t last long, with Cynthia Jay taking the top spot at the Desert Inn in 2000.

2. $34.9 Million (Cynthia Jay) – Megabucks, Desert Inn

Cynthia Jay was a 37-year-old cocktail waitress in Las Vegas when she won $34,955,489 playing Megabucks at the Desert Inn in January 2000. She had already played the $21 she normally spent when the jackpot was high, but decided to give the machine another $6 before leaving.

It turned out to be a pretty good decision. Jay hit the jackpot on her final $3 play, setting a new record for the largest slot machine win at the time. According to the Las Vegas Sun, she had spent just $27 on Megabucks that night.

Jay’s $34.9 million jackpot held the record for more than three years. It was finally beaten in 2003 when a Megabucks player at the Excalibur won the $39.7 million jackpot sitting at No. 1 on this list.

1. $39.7 Million (Anonymous) – Megabucks, Excalibur

The biggest documented slot machine win remains $39,713,982.25, hit on an IGT Megabucks machine at the Excalibur Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas on March 21, 2003.

The winner was a 25-year-old software engineer from Los Angeles who asked to remain anonymous. According to IGT’s account of the win, he had played about $100 on Megabucks when the jackpot symbols lined up. The payout surpassed the previous slot record by nearly $5 million.

More than two decades later, Guinness World Records still recognizes the Excalibur jackpot as the largest slot machine win on record. It also remains a useful example of how large wide-area progressive jackpots can become when wagers from machines across multiple casinos contribute to the same prize pool.

Why Megabucks Appears So Often on This List

One name comes up a lot among the biggest slot jackpots: Megabucks. IGT launched the game in Nevada in 1986 as a wide-area progressive, linking machines at different casinos and allowing the jackpot to grow across the network.

That setup has led to some massive payouts, including the $39.7 million Excalibur jackpot that still holds the overall record. Online casinos have added another side to the story. Progressive slots like Mega Moolah and Mega Fortune have produced eight-figure wins, including several that made this list.

More regulated online casino markets have also opened up in the US, giving players in those states another way to access progressive slots. But whether the next record comes online or from a casino floor in Las Vegas, it has a huge number to chase. More than 20 years later, nobody has topped that $39.7 million Megabucks win.