Megabucks fever boils higher

Jace Radke

Thursday, June 11, 1998 | 3:57 a.m.

Las Vegas residents are wondering whether International Game Technology's Megabucks progressive slot machines are ever going to pay off the biggest slot jackpot in history.

The last time the Megabucks jackpot hit was July 13 in Lake Tahoe, for $8.3 million. In the nearly 11 months since then, the jackpot has continued to grow and is nearing the unprecedented $17 million mark.

"That is a lot of money up there," Las Vegas resident Constance Stalling said, motioning to the Megabucks tote board at the Palace Station hotel-casino. "It's just amazing to think that someone is going to win that. What would you do if you won that much?"

That question is increasingly on Southern Nevadans' minds as the dollars continue to add up.

"It would definitely make for a nice weekend," Merle Cromwell said while standing in front of a bank of Megabucks machines at Palace Station. "I'd probably take a year off just to decide what to do with the money."

Cromwell, a Las Vegas handyman, said he thinks the most amazing thing about the jackpot is the amount of money people put in the machines.

"When you stop and consider how much money these machines bring in, the payout is a drop in the bucket to what they're taking in," Cromwell said.

That drop in the bucket has grown with the addition of IGT's Super Megabucks machines. Super Megabucks' progressive jackpot starts at the $10 million mark, while Megabucks grows from $5 million.

Despite the larger beginning jackpot, Super Megabucks, since its debut in September, has not come close to seeing the amount of business that Megabucks has generated. During that time, Super Megabucks' pot has gained slightly more than $800,000. In comparison, Megabucks has gained nearly $5 million since January.

"Super Megabucks has been climbing slower for two reasons," IGT spokesman Rick Sorensen said. "First, the Megabucks jackpot is so big and, second, Megabucks is such a well-established game. Super Megabucks is a newer game and it's still catching on."

IGT spokesman Ed Rogich said that anytime a jackpot reaches a record-breaking amount, play picks up.

Both types of Megabucks have a jackpot that grows only when the games are played. For every dollar played, the pot increases by several pennies.

Cromwell says it's the larger jackpot that is luring local residents' money to Megabucks.

"I play Megabucks a little more often then any other slot because the amount is so big," Cromwell said. "I never play more then $21 at a time, but I find myself playing that $21 more often."

In order to win the multimillion-dollar jackpot, a gambler must play the maximum $3. That means for his $21, Cromwell gets seven spins at the jackpot. If he were to line up all the Megabucks symbols on the payline, Cromwell would become the 47th person to win Megabucks in its 11-year history.

In the 46 times Megabucks has hit, it has paid out a total of $219 million. Las Vegan Suzanne Henley holds the record Megabucks payout at $12.5 million, which she won at the New York-New York hotel-casino on April 4, 1997. That amount will be dwarfed by whoever wins the current jackpot.

Retired machinist Jim Buffy figures he has as good a chance as anyone to win the jackpot and, like fellow Las Vegan Cromwell, never plays less then $3.

"Whenever I come in, I usually play $20 or $40, but I've been playing a little more because of the size of the thing," Buffy said while at the Santa Fe hotel-casino. "Today I put $40 in and got a little back."

Buffy walked away from Megabucks with $60 but said the temptation to put that money back in and go for the jackpot is strong.

"It's always a tough choice because if you win (the jackpot), you live happily ever after," Buffy said. "I'd use it to make my family happy. If any of my relatives needed something, that money would be there for them.

"I'd invest very little because it's there to spend. Hell, I'm 65. Who knows how much longer I'll be here?"

IGT does not know how much longer the jackpot will continue to grow, but it is ready to respond when there is a winner.

Being ready means having representatives available to award winners whether they are in Las Vegas, Reno, Laughlin, Tonopah or any other Megabucks location in Nevada. More than 132 casinos have Megabucks machines, and Super Megabucks has made its way into more than 20 casinos.

"We've been primed since it approached the record level in January," Sorensen said. "You kind of get a little impatient in a situation like this. We just try to keep all our bases covered and make sure we're ready when it does hit."