Biggest Slot Wins of All Time

Slots appeal to gamblers because of the opportunity for life-changing prizes. Jackpots are usually hard to land, but they can be truly staggering when that happens.

My list of the biggest slot machine wins of all time proves it. As you’re about to see, lucky players from all over the world have won tens of millions in the blink of an eye in both land-based and online casinos.

• Winnings: $39.7 million
• Game: Megabucks
• Type: Land-based

The biggest recorded progressive jackpot win in history took place at the Excalibur Casino in Las Vegas in early 2003. Software engineer Ethan Miller was in town from LA and certainly didn’t expect to be the recipient of the biggest Vegas jackpot ever won.

Miller was playing Megabucks, perhaps the best-known jackpot slot in Vegas. He played with $100 and walked away with a cool $39.7 million. Was it written in the code of his life, or did Miller just luck out? Nobody can say, but I’m sure he’s still living the high life wherever he is today.

• Winnings: $35 million
• Game: Megabucks
• Type: Land-based

37-year-old Cynthia Jay Brennan was a cocktail waitress in Sin City when she decided to try her luck on Megabucks slot back at the turn of the millennium. At the time, she was living a modest life in a studio apartment while saving for her wedding.

Despite her tragic accident, Brennan remains one of the biggest jackpot winners of all time. Was it the Megabucks curse that led her to her accident? We’ll never know, but she can at least say she won one of the biggest slot payouts of all time.

• Winnings: $27.6 million
• Game: Megabucks
• Type: Land-based

Most of us work hard and save what we can in the hopes of enjoying our golden years in style. One lucky retiree need not have worried because there was a $27.6 million Megabucks jackpot written in her stars.

The anonymous woman played with a few hundred dollars at the Palace Station. Like so many others on our list of the biggest slots wins, she tried her luck on Megabucks and hit the big time.

This win was way back in 1998, yet it remains one of the largest Vegas jackpot wins of all time. I’m willing to bet she enjoyed her retirement a whole lot more after the win!

• Winnings: $23 million
• Game: Mega Moolah Absolootly Mad
• Type: Online

In 2021, during the height of the global lockdowns, one lucky Belgian player scooped a record jackpot on Mega Moolah Absolootley Mad. This is one of the spinoff games Microgaming introduced due to the popularity of the original.

The player collected €19.4 million, which converts to over $23 million, playing at a casino site. The player has chosen to remain anonymous. I probably would, too, if I won one of the largest online slot machine wins.

• Winnings: $22.6 million
• Game: Megabucks
• Type: Land-based

They say you never know when luck is going to shine on you, and this story certainly illustrates that. A lucky pensioner won one of the largest slot machine wins ever before breakfast when playing at Bally’s in Las Vegas.

Johanna Heundl, who was the ripe old age of 74 back in 2002, won $22.6 million on the Megabucks machine. She told the press she’d only spent $170 before hitting the jackpot.

I don’t know what I’d do with that sort of money at 74, but taking care of my family and booking a few extra cruises would certainly be on the list. This remains one of the biggest Las Vegas slot machines jackpots of all time.

• Winnings: $20 million
• Game: Mega Moolah
• Type: Online

Mega Moolah is a famous Microgaming jackpot slot known as the ‘millionaire maker’ for its payout potential. Millions of players from across the globe play it every day in the hope of winning the bonus wheel round and walking away with no more worries.

British soldier John Haywood, a veteran with tours of duty in Afghanistan, deposited $46 and won the jackpot on a single spin of Mega Moolah. Thanks to the favorable exchange rate at the time (October 2015), the £13.2 million jackpot came in at just over $20 million.

Haywood told the press he didn’t know what to do with the money, but the first order of business was to change his Fiat Punto for a yellow Bentley Continental. That’s one way to spend some of one of the biggest ever slot wins!

I’m going to be 100% straight with you; jackpots are paid out when Random Number Generators decide so, and there’s very little you can do to improve your chances. However, there are some general tips for winning jackpot slots, and you should read about them before you play.

If you want to try your luck playing some of the best progressive jackpot slots online, I recommend Wild Casino. With a $5,000 welcome bonus, fast payouts, and some of the top jackpot slots online, this US-friendly casino site is well worth checking out.