We all know the stories about the people that have struck gold and won the jackpot playing the likes of EuroMillions, the National Lottery or some of the monster lotteries that get played in the United States of America. We accept them as fact because we see the reports in newspapers and in the media. When it comes to online casino jackpots, it can be easier to be suspicious of whether or not anyone has actually won them because it tends not to be reported on in the same way as big lottery wins do. This isn’t anything to worry about though, it’s just how the media works.
The jackpots in online casinos are just as real as those on offer with the big lotteries. The main difference is that they are played for across numerous different sites, which is down to the fact that most online casino games are now part of wider networks that allow them to played on countless different websites at the same time. Whilst they might not make the front pages, there is often good media coverage of people that have won the online casino jackpots when they amount won reaches a high enough total; you just need to keep your eye out for the stories.
Online Isn’t King
In many ways, the move to playing at online gambling sites has resulted in a shift to the way that we think about betting. You are just as likely to win the National Lottery if you buy your ticket online as you are if you buy your ticket in person, for example. The same cannot be said for casino wins, however. Whilst you’re able to bet a similar amount when betting online as you are in brick and mortar casinos, sometimes more, the prizes on offer aren’t comparable when it comes to the biggest jackpots, as shown by the record amount won on a slot machine at the time of writing.
In March of 2003, a software engineer from Los Angeles was on holiday in Las Vegas and decided to try his hand at the MegaBucks slot. That progressive slot game is only available at real-life casinos in Sin City, which many a tourist will try to win, sending the jackpot ever upwards. It had reached more than $39 million when this guy decided to play, seeing the reels land in such a way that he ended up taking home the top prize. Before the taxes that are due on gambling wins in the United States of America, he was paid $39,713,982.25, which is an outrageous amount.
You Can Still Get Big Wins Online
Just because no one has struck a jackpot of close to $40 million on an online slot machine doesn’t mean that there’s nothing to be won on them, however. The networking of online slot games has resulted in a lot of players all trying to trigger the same jackpot, which in turn leads to it growing and growing until the point that it drops and someone wins. If you want to try to win, your best bet is to concentrate on the lower prizes rather than aiming for the jackpots that reach the millions of pounds or dollars, simply because they’ll have fewer people going for them.
One of the key things to remember when it comes to online slots and record jackpots is that the goalposts are constantly being moved. There is no reason why someone might not have triggered another massive jackpot in between the writing of this piece and its publishing. That being said, looking at some of the big prizes that have been won over the years will still give us a sense of the sort of prize that not only can be won by playing online games, but have been won at one time or another. That, of course, doesn’t mean that you will ever win such a prize.
$8.82 Million
The very idea of a progressive jackpot is exciting to most casino lovers. It means that the jackpot will increase every time someone plays the game, meaning that those that are linked together by network can reach really impressive heights. It says something that the lowest jackpot on our list is less than $9 million, for example. It makes it even more impressive that that amount was won by someone playing an online casino game on their iPad, making it the largest progressive jackpot triggered on a mobile device at the time.
The player, known only as D.P., was playing Mega Moolah’s mobile game at Zodiac Casino when the jackpot was triggered. It was confirmed after the fact that he had taken part in a promotion offered by the casino that was called ’80 Chances to Become a Millionaire’. The rules of the promotion said that he needed to put down a deposit of just £1 to play, which turned into $8.82 million when the jackpot was won. Whilst not everyone who wins does so after spending such a small amount to play, it is definitely a decent return on investment when you do the sums.
Mega Moolah Pays $9.2 Million
You will soon note that there is something of a running theme when it comes to the big jackpot wins on this list. Mega Moolah is one of the names that crops up the most consistently, which helps it to be one of MicroGaming’s most popular titles. It is a highly-rewarding slot, being the envy of many slot makers around the world. Having seen the record for a jackpot on a mobile device won in August of 2016 when D.P. won $8.82 million on their iPad, it was broken again about six months later when Mega Moolah paid out $9.22 million to another mobile user.
That was at Tipico Mobile Casino, with the progressive jackpot hitting again for someone that made the choice to remain anonymous. This time, though, they didn’t manage to keep their stake as low as the ’80 Chances to Become a Millionaire player’. Instead, they wagered $7.2 per spin, which can obviously become quite pricey if you don’t end up winning. The flip side of that is that they won $9.22 million, which would have allowed them pay for more than 1.2 million more spins if they really fancied it. The likelihood is that they walked away with their winnings, of course.
Swedish Player Wins €8.57 Million
Different companies have different games that are popular with online casino players and Mega Fortune is NetEnt’s equivalent to MicroGaming’s Mega Moolah. It was the 28th of November, 2015 when a player called Alexander was playing the progressive jackpot game on the Folkeautomaten site. The player, who was just 30-years-old at the time, ended up triggering the jackpot and winning €8.57 million, which was the equivalent of about $9.57 million at the time. In news that won’t be much of a surprise to anyone that has dreamt of winning such an amount, he was initially speechless.
Once he’d re-found his voice, however, he decided to wake up his wife and inform her of his win. It was the second big win of the month from a NetEnt game, meaning that the company had given out in excess of $13 million across the space of a fortnight. As for Alexander, he confirmed that his initial plan was to pay off his mortgage and buy himself a new car, then he’d take a holiday or two before deciding to lay low. After winning more than €8 million, he can hardly be blamed for deciding to try to keep his nose out of trouble and celebrating his win.
Mega Moolah Returns with a $12 Million Payout
It is really important to note that Mega Moolah is not always (or even likely) going to pay you a huge sum of money if you play it. It can seem different when you look at this list and see how many times it appears on it, though. In April 2020, a player, who chose to remain anonymous, was playing at Jackpot City and decided to give Mega Moolah a go when they noticed that the prize on offer was $12 million. The Chief Operating Officer of MicroGaming, Andrew Clucas, said of the win, “Mega Moolah continues to be a favourite among players worldwide. So, we are excited to be adding more new progressive games to the jackpot and network throughout the year.”
The player received a payout that amounted to €10,735,716.84, taking the lump slum and disappearing off into the sunset. MicroGaming’s stable of games contained more than just Mega Moolah at the time, but it is entirely fair to say that the game that kept on making millionaires remained popular with the players of online casino games all around the world. Sadly, online gambling isn’t legal in all countries, meaning that some people never get the chance to play these slots and briefly fantasise what it would be like to win such a great sum.
Norwegian Player Wins €11.7 Million
Sometimes, we all suffer from a bout of insomnia. For most people, the natural instinct is to make a cup of cocoa or read a book. That wasn’t the case for one player in Norway, however, who chose to use their sleepless night as a good excuse to jump onto their favourite online casino and play a few spins of the Mega Fortune slot game. If they had hoped that that the regular spinning of the reels would lull them back to sleep, they were sorely mistaken. When the jackpot hit, resulting in them receiving about $13.47 million in prize money, they didn’t get back to sleep until 6am.
Needless to say they were in a state of shock after getting the win, which probably also describes how the head of the website that the person played the Mega Fortune game on was feeling when they were told that their site had made someone a multi-millionaire. Not only that but they immediately went into the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest payout at an online slot. The plan for the anonymous winner was to calm down a wee bit before deciding what they were going to do with the money that they had won in 2011.
Mega Moolah Pays Out $16.76 Million
It was the 20th of August, 2020 when one player logged onto their online casino account and planned to play a few slot games. One of the first ports of call for them was the Mega Moolah game that had paid out so much to others in the past. It ended up being a good decision for the person who remained anonymous after the win, triggering the jackpot and taking more more than $16.76 Million. Lucky Casino was the site that they played on, where the full payout ended up being €14,239,532.84, but other than that, there isn’t much that we can tell you about them.
Just before the payout was confirmed, MicroGaming announced that they had paid out more than $1.4 billion on progressive jackpots across their network. The company’s Chief Executive Officer, John Coleman, said that they had paid out more than $115 million that year alone. At around the same time, the company released a new game based around the theme of Alice in Wonderland, which was entitled Absolootly Mad Mega Moolah and promised to give people the chance to win even more money over the course of their time playing on the game at online casinos.
Cheshire Man Wins £13.2 million
At this point, the winners have been from around Europe or the United States of America. The good news is that players in the United Kingdom have won their share of money from online casinos over the years, which is evidenced by the win that Jon Heywood enjoyed back in 2015. The British soldier, who was 26-years-old at the time, was paying just 25 pence per spin on, what else, Mega Moolah. He did so at a popular online betting site and couldn’t believe his luck when the reels lined up and confirmed that he’d won $17.2 million, which was about £13.2 million.
Not only was he someone who had put his life on the line by joining the army, he was also dealing with a sick father at the time. When the win was confirmed, he said that he’d be spending a lot of the money trying to find a cure for his dad’s illness. MicroGaming’s then Chief Executive Officer, Roger Raatgever, pointed out that the win took the amount that the company had paid out to that date to nearly $6 billion to jackpot winners across all of its games. Having toured Afghanistan, he said, “I’m trying not to get carried away and I really don’t know what else I’m going to buy with the money, apart from a yellow Bentley Continental GT.”
25 Cents Wins $21 Million
When it comes to demonstrations of luck, there is perhaps nothing more obvious than when a player in Scandinavia spent the equivalent of 25 cents in order to win around $21 million. The man, who was in his 40s at the time, played the Mega Fortune game offered by NetEnt on an online casino back in 2013 and ended up being paid €17,861,800. Speaking about what happened afterwards, he said, “I laughed and cried at the same time.” Not that anyone who has ever dreamt of winning such a jackpot would ever be judgemental of that reaction.
There are several NetEnt games across numerous casinos that offer the Mega Fortune game, paying into the progressive jackpot every time the games are played. Little wonder, therefore, that the fortune grew so high prior to being triggered by our Scandinavian player. He couldn’t believe he’d triggered the jackpot and was a multi-millionaire. Choosing to stay anonymous is a decision that many players make and he was no exception, with little detail known about him other than his gender, the site he played the game on and the amount of money that went his way when he won.
$23.5 Million Won at Online Casino
On the 28th of September in 2018, a player that we know very little about logged on to their favourite website and played a MicroGaming offering in the form of Mega Moolah. Other than what they won, we know very little about them. We can’t tell you their gender, where they were based nor how old they were. All we can tell you is that they triggered the jackpot in order to win €18,915,721 million, which was the equivalent of $23.5 million and one of the largest jackpots ever won by an online casino player, setting a new Guinness World Record in the process.
You must bear in mind the fact that different jackpots having different Return To Player percentages and the vast majority of people who play Mega Moolah end up winning nothing. That is how the jackpots manage to grow so big, thanks to the lack of success of a lot of people allowing for a select few to end up winning life-changing amounts. Certainly taking home €18,915,721 million is nothing to be sniffed at, even if we don’t know who won it.
Belgium Wins Record $23.6 Million
The launch of Mega Moolah: Absolootly Mad was supposed to make things even more exciting for players of MicroGaming offerings and that was proven to be fact on the 27th of April, 2021. That was when a Belgian player logged into their online casino account and played the Alice in Wonderland-themed game. Created by Triple Edge Studios and used by MicroGaming, the name Mega Moolah: Absolootly Mad wasn’t a misleading one, soon becoming a worthy successor to the game that had paid out so many winners in the past and set the record.
Winning €19,430,723.60, which was about $23.6 million, won’t have been something that the player was disappointed by. Instead, they set the new record for the most won at an online slot and proved that the big jackpots definitely do get triggered every now and then. At the end of the day, of course, you’re actually more likely to have a lot of money in your account if you don’t play the slots at all than if you play them, but that’s the nature of gambling. It is extremely rare for anyone to win as much as €19,430,723.60, but the fact that it’s happened is impressive enough.