
We have been told this is movie producer Mark Hodos from Florida, the newest Nevada Megabucks champion of $10.3 million (Image: IGT)
Year there must be something in the air in the desert at this time of. Last 12 months in mid-December, a female playing A international Game Technologies’ Megabucks slot machine 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 during the MGM Grand throughout the week that is same year. a producer that is executive ofAll American Christmas Carol’ a type of trailer trash form of the Dickens classic, it would appear champion 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 we have been naturally cynical and if this person says ‘Hollywood,’ then we say ‘Bollywood.’
If he’s legitimately a producer, then way to save numerous grovelling L.A. investor pitch meetings, sir.
Two in a Row
Hodos’ win followed a player who hit the Megabucks this November as well, also during the MGM Grand, which may be the biggest casino in the Las Vegas Strip. The Megabucks slot machines are typical on the IGT that is same Nevada, making for very large payouts, with minimums of $10 million and more added since 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 presence. It is also the basis for several metropolitan legends, including 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 Uncle Sam’s greedy paws into the pot. Based on a $35-million win, it’s estimated that champions is only going to get an initial check of approximately $1.4 million. The winner that is big has as much as 90 days to find out if they desire to obtain the balance in yearly installments, which will be paid out over 25 years, or have a lump amount which is only 60 per cent associated with the actual win total; according to that $35 million, that could emerge to ‘just’ $21 million, so obviously most Megabucks winners get 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 minimum income tax rate on that annual income will be 40 per cent; at least Nevada does not have a state tax, which someone who won the California Megabucks would need to spend because well, for instance. So on your $35 million, that’s $13,400,000 going towards some very nice IRS Xmas parties over the next 25 years.
And you’re left with $20,100,000, or a measly $804,000 net (more or less) per for the next 25 years year. Suddenly it isn’t as life-changing as it seemed, is it?
Regardless, people keep on playing Megabucks and dreaming big; that November MGM Grand winner hit for $12.46 million, explaining why Hodos’ subsequent win was so ‘small’.
IGT says it has paid out significantly more than $728 million in total jackpots since 1986 in Nevada, and significantly more than a billion dollars nationwide.
How Would You Enjoy Megabucks Anyhow?
If reading about these wins (despite their downfalls) has gotten Megabucks fever going you need to know: the progressive jackpot is a dollar slot machine that requires a minimum of $3.00 to be eligible to hit the jackpot in you, here’s what. After each and every win, the jackpot auto-resets to $10 million; reports are that that may soon be bumped up to $11 million.
IGT the going company on whose machines Megabucks runs has some 750 slot machines in about 136 casinos throughout the Silver State. IGT owns these machines, offering each casino a bit of the action, considering profits per machine. Unlike numerous lotteries, this one is single state and for Nevada only, although IGT does have other Megabucks jackpots in Ca, New Jersey and Mississippi, aswell as on several Indian reservations. Because none among these states have actually as many casino venues as Nevada, however or since much hype the jackpots are on small part.
With a Random Number Generator (RNG) managing who wins, once the jackpot is hit on one machine, other machines within the system are going to be instantaneously notified and reset to the base jackpot again.
Odds of winning Megabucks vary, based on who you ask; ranging from 1 in 17 million up to at least one in 50 million. And one bit of hype that Megabucks can’t seem to shake are those tales of woe that befall all winners, according to lore.
A few of these rumors may be based for a true story; that of 37-year-old cocktail waitress Cynthia Jay-Brennan, who hit Megabucks back 2000 for $34. 9 million. A mere six weeks later, a driver that is drunk her car, leaving her sister dead and Jay-Brennan a quadriplegic. Of course, a great amount of people who haven’t won Megabucks have had the exact same fate and no money to simply help them, but logic never stopped good urban legend from throwing up dust.
Other people who supposedly kicked it due to winning Megabucks included a 25-year-old winner in 2003, although IGT- who can protect winners’ identities, unlike real state lotteries claims the now 35-year-old is nevertheless 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 their EuroVegas casino task in Madrid, Spain (Image: keepcalmomatic)
Adios, señores y señoras. There is no EuroVegas in Madrid most likely. After prolonged battles with Spanish nationals and the federal government over issues such as for instance public smoking laws and even bringing a casino to your ancient country at all, Las Vegas Sands Corp.’s CEO Sheldon Adelson made a decision later final week to pull the plug on the near $30 billion resort and gaming complex, telling investors that he felt the casino project was no more in his shareholders’ best passions.
Asian Love Affair
Adelson desires to refocus and zero in on his uber-successful Asian projects rather. And with Sands now swooping up some 80 percent of its annual video gaming profits from the Macau and Singapore sectors, who could blame him?
The EuroVegas development which was indeed set to encompass 12 various properties, a staggering 36,000 resort rooms and six casinos, as well as departmental stores, restaurants, golf courses, performance venues and a convention that is major is now one for the annals publications. The cumbersome nature of bypassing existing and creating new regulations simply became too much bother for not enough potential reward in the end.
‘That process has been incredibly thorough, and while the government and many others have worked diligently on this work, we do not see a path in which the criteria had a need to move forward with this particular large-scale development can be reached,’ noted Adelson.
Smoking Mad
Among the key issues 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 casino winner gratis in Spain. Despite a largely supportive government which saw the potential for aiding Spain’s ailing economy by creating a possible 260,000 jobs on the next 10-12 years all of it started to not sound right anymore.
Even gaming analysts agreed it was time and energy to move on.
‘It had been becoming more apparent that the government that is spanish maybe not meet all the conditions that Las Vegas Sands had requested, and we would have seen a choice to move forward without these conditions as a negative,’ said RBC Capital Markets gaming analyst John Kempf, explaining to investors why the decision to disappear was made.
In the finish whether to help keep their game face on or otherwise not, we’ll never know for certain Spain’s government acted themselves; the country’s Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria told the press that Adelson had been throwing out too many needs for guarantees both legal and financial that, according to de Santamaria, ‘did not comply with Spanish law or compared to the European Union. like they pushed EuroVegas from the picture’
De Santamaria went on to say that these demands encompassed critical line products such as for example tax concessions, guarantees of payment should future laws be introduced that might negatively impact the casino resort complex last but not least, a caveat that essentially no competition would be permitted to set foot in EuroVegas’ arena.
For Adelson, enough is enough, in which he’s simply prepared to move on.
‘Right now our focus is on encouraging Asian countries, like Japan and Korea, to dramatically enhance their tourism providing through the growth of integrated resorts there,’ Adelson said.
Gaming analyst Steven Wieczynski of Stifel Nicolaus Capital Markets thinks Adelson is on the path that is right his decisions and focus.
‘Given the recent early-stage efforts to introduce formalized gaming legislation in Japan, we sense [this] announcement may have been driven by the greater feeling of certainty around a potential Japanese opportunity and management’s fascination with keeping powder dry so that you can enhance its stature through what will likely be a fiercely competitive bidding process,’ Wieczynski stated associated with the end of EuroVegas and renewed region concentration that is asian.
Japan has been concentrating on getting gambling legalized and casinos built and able to move in time for just what they project to become a tourist that is heavy with the Summer Olympic Games slated for Tokyo in 2020.
As for how it all affected Sands Corp.’s stock profile, it didn’t, much. As of late week that is last stocks closed at $76.57 regarding the NYSE, which represented a $0.39 jump per share.