Megabucks jackpot expected to reach record level

Thursday, Feb. 27, 2003 | 11:03 a.m.

Late today there should be a new world record slot jackpot available in Nevada, officials said.

The only questions that remain are who will hit the $35 million-plus Nevada Megabucks prize, and when.

"We are projecting that, depending on the amount of play today, it will go over the record around midnight," said Rick Sorensen, spokesman for the Reno-based International Game Technology, makers of Megabucks and other slots.

The all-time record of $34.9 million has stood since Jan. 26, 2000, when then-cocktail waitress Cynthia Jay-Brennan hit the progressive statewide link of dollar slot machines at the old Desert Inn.

Six weeks later, however, Jay-Brennan was left paralyzed and her sister was killed when a drunken driver rear-ended her car at a red light on Boulder Highway.

The jackpot has been climbing rapidly since Wednesday night when it was at $34.7 million. The penny columns are a blur on the tote board. The dollar column also is unreadable but you can make out the figures in the tens column.

The slogan for Megabucks, which was launched in March 1986, is "one pull can change your life." But a person has to be extremely lucky to experience such a life change.

The odds of hitting the Megabucks big jackpot is 16.7 million-to-one, gaming experts have estimated. By comparison, the odds of being struck by lightning are only 709,260-to-one, based on the fact that about 100 people in the United States are struck by lightning each year.

There are 676 Megabucks machines in 157 casinos as of today, Sorensen said. When the jackpot hits it will be the 58th dating back to Feb. 1, 1987, when Terry Williams of California became the first Megabucks grand prize winner, hitting a machine at Harrah's Reno for $4.99 million.

"It was pretty busy at the Megabucks machines today," said David Strow, a spokesman for Harrah's. "A lot of our loyal customers do like to come out when the jackpot starts getting up there because it has hit with us several times."

Two of the first three Megabucks jackpots were hit at Harrah's Reno. Several others have hit at Harrah's properties including an $8.2 million win at Harrah's Las Vegas in November 1993 and a $4.3 million jackpot eight months later at that casino. The last time the Megabucks jackpot hit at Harrah's Las Vegas was Jan. 12, 2001, for $9.4 million.

In the early days of Megabucks, the jackpot started at $1 million and returned to that figure each time it is hit. The jackpot now starts at $7 million to prevent significant drop off after record jackpots are hit.

For instance, after Jay-Brennan hit her historic jackpot, nine days later a $7.7 million Megabucks winner at MGM Grand was recorded and 10 days after that, another Megabucks winner at the Bellagio collected $7.8 million.

Sorensen said that had those jackpots been reset to $1 million or even $3 million there might not have been as much interest in playing the machines, and thus the quick follow-up jackpots might not have been hit.

"The real interest occurs when the jackpot is at, I'd say, $15 million to $16 million," Sorensen said. "We see things really perk up after that until now when they are fully engaged."

Sometimes, however, people who cannot afford to play Megabucks gamble away their rent money on the machines, officials said.

"We certainly encourage people to gamble responsibly and budget what they feel they can afford," Sorensen said. "It should be a small amount, and if you don't hit it, let it go."

Sorensen, however, said if a person is going to play, he should play the maximum of $3 per pull. A number of new players, he said, do not realize they cannot win the big jackpot if they play only $1 or $2 at a time.

The current jackpot has been building since Johanna Heundl, a widow from Covina, Calif., hit the third-largest slot payoff ever last May 27 at Bally's. She collected $22.6 million.

The second largest payoff was $27.58 million at the Palace Station on Nov. 15, 1998.

The big jackpot is paid out in annual payments for 25 years or winners can take a lump sum that is considerably less than the jackpot.