
We’re told this is movie producer Mark Hodos from Florida, the newest Nevada Megabucks winner 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 overseas Game Technologies’ Megabucks video slot used gaming credits earned to hit a $17.3 million jackpot at the M Casino; now a Florida guy has hit a $10.3 million one during the MGM Grand during the exact same week this year. a producer that is executive ofAll American Christmas Carol’ a type of trailer trash version 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 on the film’s IMDb, but we have been naturally cynical and then we say ‘Bollywood. if this guy 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 because well, also during the MGM Grand, which is the biggest casino in the Las Vegas Strip. The Megabucks slot machines are on the same IGT Nevada pipeline, making for very large payouts, with minimums of $10 million and more added as it doesn’t get hit.
With no state that is official 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 a lot of urban legends, including the one which always seems to stay in the shadows with any lottery win: the onset of very luck that is bad.
One piece of bad luck that can not be avoided is the government’s greedy paws in the pot. Based on a $35-million win, it’s estimated that winners will simply get a check that is initial of $1.4 million. The big champion then has as much as 3 months to find out if they need to get the balance in annual installments, which will be paid away over 25 years, or have a lump sum that will be only 60 % regarding the actual win total; based on that $35 million, that would emerge to ‘just’ $21 million, so obviously most Megabucks winners get for choice #1.
A Pound of Flesh to the Feds, Of Course
Don’t go shopping for a Beverly Hills estate simply yet though; because the tax that is minimum on that annual income will be 40 %; at the very least Nevada doesn’t have a state income tax, which someone who won the California Megabucks would need to spend because 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 following 25 years. Abruptly it’s not 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.
Exactly How Can You Play Megabucks Anyhow?
If reading about these victories (despite their downfalls) has gotten Megabucks fever going in you, here’s what you will need to know: the modern jackpot is a dollar slot machine that requires a the least $3.00 become qualified 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 a bit of the action, centered on profits per device. This one is single state and for Nevada only, although IGT does have other Megabucks jackpots in California, New Jersey and Mississippi, as well as on several Indian reservations unlike many lotteries. 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.
With a Random Number Generator (RNG) controlling who wins, once the jackpot is hit on one machine, other devices in the system are going to be instantaneously notified and reset towards the base jackpot again.
Odds of winning Megabucks vary, according to who you ask; which range 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 winners, in accordance with lore.
A number of these rumors may be based on a true story; that of 37-year-old cocktail waitress Cynthia Jay-Brennan, who hit Megabucks back 2000 for $34 winner mobile casino. 9 million. A mere six months later, a driver that is drunk her car, leaving her sister dead and Jay-Brennan a quadriplegic. Needless to say, a lot of those that haven’t won Megabucks have had the exact same fate and no money to greatly help them, but logic never ever stopped a 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 among the living and doing fine.
Sheldon Adelson’s EuroVegas in Spain Goes Up in Smoke
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 federal government over dilemmas such as for instance public smoking laws and even bringing a casino to the ancient country at all, Las Vegas Sands Corp.’s CEO Sheldon Adelson made the decision later final week to pull the plug regarding the near $30 billion resort and gaming complex, telling investors which he felt the casino project ended up being not in his shareholders’ best interests.
Asian Love Affair
Adelson desires to refocus and zero in on his uber-successful projects that are asian. Along with Sands now swooping up some 80 percent of its annual gaming revenues from the Macau and Singapore sectors, who could blame him?
The EuroVegas development which have been set to encompass 12 various properties, an astounding 36,000 hotel rooms and six casinos, as well as department stores, restaurants, golf courses, performance venues and a convention that is major is now one for the annals publications. In the end, the cumbersome nature of bypassing existing and creating new laws just became an excessive amount of bother for not enough potential reward.
‘That process has been exceptionally thorough, and even though the government and many other people have worked diligently on this effort, we usually do not see a path in which the criteria had a need to move forward using this development that is large-scale be reached,’ noted Adelson.
Smoking Mad
One of many key problems facing Adelson had been 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 prospective for aiding Spain’s ailing economy by creating a possible 260,000 jobs throughout the next 10-12 years it all started initially to not seem sensible anymore.
Even gaming analysts consented it was time and energy to go on.
‘It ended up being becoming more apparent that the government that is spanish maybe not meet all the conditions that Las Vegas Sands had requested, so we would have seen a choice to proceed 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 end whether to keep their game face on or perhaps not, we are going to never ever know for sure Spain’s government acted themselves; the country’s Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria told the press that Adelson had been throwing away too numerous needs for guarantees both legal and financial that, according to de Santamaria, ‘did not comply with Spanish legislation or that of the European Union. like they pushed EuroVegas out from the picture’
De Santamaria went on to express that these demands encompassed line that is critical such as for instance tax concessions, guarantees of compensation should future laws be introduced that might negatively impact the casino resort complex and finally, a caveat that really no competition would be permitted to set foot in EuroVegas’ arena.
For Adelson, sufficient is enough, and 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 thinks Adelson is on the path that is right his decisions 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 sense of certainty around a potential Japanese opportunity and management’s fascination with keeping powder dry in order to enhance its stature through what is going to be a fiercely competitive bidding process,’ Wieczynski said of this end of EuroVegas and renewed region concentration that is asian.
Japan happens to be focusing on getting gambling legalized and casinos built and able to roll with time for just what they project to be a tourist that is heavy aided by the Summer Olympic Games slated for Tokyo in 2020.
As for exactly how it all affected Sands Corp.’s stock profile, it did not, much. As of late week that is last shares closed at $76.57 on the NYSE, which represented a $0.39 jump per share.