
We are told this is movie producer Mark Hodos from Florida, the most recent Nevada Megabucks winner of $10.3 million (Image: IGT)
There has to be something in the air in the desert at this time of year. Last 12 months in mid-December, a female playing A overseas Game Technologies’ Megabucks video slot used gaming credits earned to hit a $17.3 million jackpot at the M Casino; now a Florida man has hit a $10.3 million one at the MGM Grand throughout the same week this year. an executive producer of ‘All American Christmas Carol’ a kind of trailer trash form of the Dickens classic, it would appear winner Mark Hodos says the moolah will go back into his Hollywood manufacturing company. Although we see no mention of him regarding the film’s IMDb, but our company is naturally cynical and then we say ‘Bollywood. if this person says ‘Hollywood,”
Then way to save yourself numerous grovelling L.A. investor pitch meetings, sir if he’s legitimately a producer.
Two in a Row
Hodos’ win followed a player who hit the Megabucks this November as well, also at the MGM Grand, which is the casino that is biggest on the Las Vegas Strip. The Megabucks slot machines are typical on the same IGT Nevada pipeline, making for large payouts, with minimums of $10 million and more added as it does not get hit.
With no official state lottery per se, Megabucks is considered the equivalent, and during its 19-year history in Nevada, has brought numerous millionaires into existence. It is also the basis for several urban legends, including the one that always seems to stay within the shadows with any lottery win: the start of very misfortune.
One piece of bad luck that can’t be avoided is the government’s greedy paws within the pot. Based on a $35-million win, it’s estimated that champions is only going to get an initial check of about $1.4 million. The winner that is big has up to 3 months to determine if they desire to get the balance in annual installments, which will be paid away over 25 years, or take a lump sum which will be only 60 per cent associated with the actual win total; based on that $35 million, that will come out to ‘just’ $21 million, so obviously most Megabucks winners go for Option #1.
A Pound of Flesh to the Feds, Of Course
Don’t go shopping for a Beverly Hills estate simply yet though; since the tax that is minimum on that annual income will still be 40 percent; at the very least Nevada doesn’t have a state tax, which someone who won the California Megabucks will have to spend since well, for example. Therefore on your $35 million, that’s $13,400,000 going towards some very nice IRS christmas parties over the next 25 years.
And you’re left with $20,100,000, or a measly $804,000 net (more or less) per year for the next 25 years. Instantly it is not as life-changing as it seemed, could it be?
Regardless, people keep on playing Megabucks and dreaming large; that November MGM Grand winner hit for $12.46 million, explaining why Hodos’ subsequent win was so ‘small’.
IGT says it has paid away a lot more than $728 million in total jackpots since 1986 in Nevada, and significantly more than a billion dollars nationwide.
How Would You Enjoy Megabucks Anyway?
If reading about these victories (despite their downfalls) has gotten Megabucks fever going in you, some tips about what you will need to know: the progressive jackpot is just a dollar slot machine that requires a minimum of $3.00 to be eligible to hit the jackpot. The jackpot auto-resets to $10 million; reports are that that may soon be bumped up to $11 million after each win.
IGT the company on whose machines Megabucks runs has some 750 slot machines in about 136 casinos throughout the Silver State. IGT owns these machines, providing each casino an item of the action, based on profits per machine. Unlike numerous lotteries, this one is solitary state as well as for Nevada only, although IGT comes with other Megabucks jackpots in Ca, New Jersey and Mississippi, aswell as on a few Indian reservations. The jackpots tend to be on the smaller side because none of these states have as many casino venues as Nevada, however or as much hype.
All other machines in the system will be instantaneously notified and reset to the base jackpot again with a Random Number Generator (RNG) controlling who wins, once the jackpot is hit on one machine.
Odds of winning Megabucks vary, depending on who you ask; ranging from 1 in 17 million up to 1 in 50 million. And one bit of hype that Megabucks can’t appear to shake are those tales of woe that befall all champions, based on lore.
A few of these rumors may be based on a true story; that of 37-year-old cocktail waitress Cynthia Jay-Brennan, who hit Megabucks back in 2000 for $34. 9 million. A mere six months later, a driver that is drunk her car, leaving her sister dead and Jay-Brennan a quadriplegic. Of course, a good amount of individuals who haven’t won Megabucks have had the fate that is same no money to greatly help them, but logic never ever stopped an excellent urban legend from throwing up dust.
Others who supposedly kicked it as a result of winning Megabucks included a 25-year-old winner in 2003, although IGT- who can protect winners’ identities, unlike actual state lotteries claims the now 35-year-old is still one of the living and doing just fine.
Sheldon Adelson’s EuroVegas in Spain Goes Up in Smoke
Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson would youn’t do much calmly is walking away from his EuroVegas casino task in Madrid, Spain (Image: keepcalmomatic)
Adios, señores y señoras. There will be no EuroVegas in Madrid most likely. After prolonged battles with Spanish nationals and the us government over problems such as for example public smoking laws and even bringing a casino to the ancient country at all, Las Vegas Sands Corp.’s CEO Sheldon Adelson determined later last week to pull the plug on the near $30 billion resort and gaming complex, telling investors which he felt the casino project ended up being no further in his shareholders’ best passions.
Asian Love Affair
Adelson wants to refocus and zero in on his uber-successful Asian jobs alternatively. Sufficient reason for Sands now swooping up some 80 percent of its annual gaming profits from the Macau and Singapore sectors, who could blame him?
The EuroVegas development which have been set to encompass 12 different properties, an astounding 36,000 resort rooms and six casinos, as well as stores, restaurants, golf courses, performance venues and a major convention center is now one for the real history publications. In the long run, the cumbersome nature of bypassing existing and creating new regulations merely became way too much bother for perhaps not enough potential reward.
‘That process has been acutely thorough, and even though the government and many others been employed by diligently on this effort, we do not see a path where the criteria needed seriously to move forward with this specific large-scale development can be reached,’ noted Adelson.
Smoking Mad
One of the key problems facing Adelson was indeed strong and opposition that is vocal anti-casino groups, mostly focused around making an exception for smoking in public, which is strictly banned in Spain. Despite a government that is largely supportive saw the potential for aiding Spain’s ailing economy by creating a possible 260,000 jobs within the next 10-12 years it all began to not sound right anymore.
Even gaming analysts consented it was time for you to go on.
‘It ended up being becoming more apparent that the Spanish government could perhaps not meet all the conditions that Las Vegas Sands had requested, and we could have seen a determination to move forward without these conditions as a bad,’ stated RBC Capital Markets gaming analyst John Kempf, explaining to investors why the decision to walk away was made.
In the finish whether to keep their game face on or otherwise not, we’ll never know without a doubt Spain’s government acted themselves; the united states’s Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria told the press that Adelson had been throwing down too many needs for guarantees both legal and financial that, according to de Santamaria, ‘did not comply with Spanish law or that of the European Union. like they pushed EuroVegas out from the picture’
De Santamaria went on to say that these demands encompassed line that is critical such as tax concessions, guarantees of payment should future laws be introduced that might negatively impact the casino resort complex and lastly, a caveat that essentially no competition would be real-money-casino.club permitted to set foot in EuroVegas’ arena.
For Adelson, sufficient is enough, in which he’s simply ready to move on.
‘Right now our focus is on encouraging Asian countries, like Japan and Korea, to dramatically enhance their tourism offering through the development of integrated resorts there,’ Adelson said.
Gaming analyst Steven Wieczynski of Stifel Nicolaus Capital Markets believes Adelson is on the right course with his choices and focus.
‘Given the present early-stage efforts to introduce formalized video gaming legislation in Japan, we sense [this] announcement could have been driven by the greater feeling of certainty around a potential Japanese opportunity and management’s desire for keeping powder dry in an attempt to enhance its stature through what will likely be a fiercely competitive bidding process,’ Wieczynski stated for the end of EuroVegas and renewed Asian region concentration.
Japan happens to be concentrating on getting gambling legalized and casinos built and ready to roll with time for just what they project to become a heavy tourist influx utilizing the Summer Olympic Games slated for Tokyo in 2020.
As for exactly how it all affected Sands Corp.’s stock profile, it don’t, much. As of late a week ago, stocks closed at $76.57 on the NYSE, which represented a $0.39 jump per share.
