Jackpot climbs: Players line up as Megabucks hits $17 mil.

Tuesday, April 2, 2002 | 11:11 a.m.

The Megabucks jackpot climbed above $17 million on Monday as players stepped up to drop dollars into their favorite machines throughout Las Vegas.

The statewide progressive slot machines have turned 54 players into instant multimillionaires since the first Megabucks jackpot was hit on Feb. 1, 1987, at Harrah's Reno by Terry Williams of Los Gatos, Calif.

Most people -- like Angeline McMany, who has been married to her husband Larry for 52 years -- play for fun while chasing the big score.

"I've been after this Megabucks for three years," McMany said Monday at Palace Station. She hit a $150 payoff Monday night after investing $21 in one of the property's six Megabucks machines.

Winifred O'Gorman is a steady, repeat player at Palace Station. She hit a $22,000 jackpot in 2001, she said.

"I play all the time. This is where I hang out," said O'Gorman, whose husband Tom likes to play cards. "We have dry spells, but it picks up again. I win most of my money here."

The last Megabucks winner at Palace Station was a Las Vegas woman who won $27.6 million in November 1998, said Cederic Crear, casino marketing director.

Once the payoff climbs above $12 million, more people play Megabucks, Crear said.

For Consuelo Villueva of Glendale, Calif., nothing clinked into the metal tray Monday.

"I've never won a jackpot," she said, feeding Megabucks $3 at a time.

Las Vegas Strip casino players seemed to prefer quarter slot machines and video poker Monday afternoon, as a lone Megabucks machine stood empty at the Riviera.

"I'm not excited about that machine," said Patricia Ellis of Miami, who said she fed $60 into it without receiving one coin in return on her first visit to Las Vegas.

Ellis said she had won a $1,000 jackpot on Saturday and another $600 jackpot on Sunday. "Of course, I put it back in the machines," she said.

Where Megabucks will strike next is unpredictable, International Game Technology spokesman Ed Rogich said.

"We're historically overdue," Rogich said as he watched the jackpot climb on the IGT website.

Cocktail waitress Cynthia Jay-Brennan won the biggest Megabucks jackpot, $34.9 million, on Jan. 26, 2000, at the Desert Inn. Jay-Brennan was seriously injured and her sister killed six weeks later, when a drunken driver rear-ended her car at a red light on Boulder Highway.

Harrah's properties throughout the state have had more major winners than most other resorts, Rogich said. A total of 157 Nevada casinos have Megabucks machines, he said.

Once the big prize is won, the Megabucks jackpot starts over at $7 million.

"The play has really been picking up," Rogich said as the prize continued climbing. "It could be tomorrow, it could be in a month. You never know."