Someone in Arizona won the biggest lottery jackpot of this year: $410 million ($316.8 million in cash) on September 15. He spent $2 on a Mega Millions ticket, matched all numbers (including the “Megaball”). This is the second massive lottery win of the year, with a lucky player from Florida winning $396.9 million ($274.6 million in cash) this January. Against all odds, we might say: the chance of any player to win the Mega Millions jackpot is one in 302.5 million, and the chance of winning the Powerball jackpot is one in 292.2 million.
Winning big is a dream for many of us. Despite their attractive jackpots, lotteries don’t seem to be giving us the best chance to do so - so what should we play for better odds of becoming millionaires?
Slot machines
Slot machines were invented more than a century ago, and they spent their “career” constantly evolving and growing their fan base. They have become a staple of the gambling industry - there are hundreds, perhaps thousands of them in each major casino resort across the world, and further thousands can be played online. And at times, they can be pretty generous.
Slot machines are pretty tight when it comes to payouts - after all, it’s their goal to make profits for their operators. But they come with some very attractive jackpots.
In real life
In land-based casinos in the US, the most “generous” slot machine is Megabucks, built by the multinational casino equipment provider IGT. The slot machine has broken its own records several times, currently standing at $39.7 million paid out to a 25-year-old software engineer playing at the Excalibur Hotel-Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.
What are the odds to hit the jackpot at the Megabucks slot machine? According to slot machine expert John Robison (who holds a master's degree in computer science from the prestigious Stevens Institute of Technology), the odds of hitting the Megabucks jackpot are about 1 in 50 million. A much better chance than winning a lottery.
Online
Most online casino players are of the casual kind: they play with small amounts and for shorter times than their real-life counterparts. That shouldn’t be a surprise, though - instead of buffets and free drinks served by attractive servers, they get whatever they can find at home.
This doesn’t mean people don’t win big at online casinos. “Smaller” payouts, like the recent €7.78 million win at the River Belle Casino are relatively frequent - they happen several times a year. But the amounts paid out by online slots also reach eight digits quite often.
The record for the biggest jackpot paid out by an online slot machine currently stands at €18.9 million (a bit over $22 million), won by an online casino player in September 2018. And the most recent massive win happened this August: a Swedish player who preferred to remain anonymous pocketed a win worth €14.6 million (a bit over $17 million). Both of them were paid out by the most generous online jackpot network, Microgaming’s Mega Moolah. Since its inception, the jackpot has paid out more than €1 billion, earning the title of the most generous progressive jackpot network on the internet. And the odds of winning millions while playing one of the participating slot machines is about the same as winning big at a Vegas casino: around 1 in 50 million.
While these wins are far from being as big and spectacular than those offered by lotteries, the odds of them turning you into a (multi)millionaire are way better. And they are much more fun to play!
