The Craziest Casino Wins in History

Stories about insane wins at the casino are as old as the industry itself. The 20th century is littered with such tales. From hardcore gamblers to opportunists that were just simply in the right place at the right time, we’ve seen it all.

Here is a look at some of the craziest casino wins in history.

The Biggest - $39.7 Million

What better place to start than the biggest win on record. Back in 2003 a 25-year-old engineer was ambling around the Excalibur Casino in Las Vegas waiting for a basketball game to start. 

With a few hours to go before the game began, he thought he would kill a few minutes down in the slot machine area. Those of you who play at popular online casinos will understand how he felt. 

After Dumping around $100, all of a sudden lights began to flash and music started playing. Then the ‘Jackpot’ sign lit up across the machine he was playing.

A monstrous $39,713 982.25 had built up over months, possibly even years, and the young man had collected the lot after playing on a whim to kill time.

Rather than collect the entire sum, he arranged with the management to pay him $1.5 million for the next 25 years.

The Billionaire - $20-40 Million

Kerry Packer is an Australian billionaire with a passion for gambling. With a $6.5 billion fortune he obviously didn’t fear losing a decent chunk. One night, though, he did quite the opposite and ran up an incredible sum.

Playing blackjack and baccarat at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas, Packer went on such a heater that he was estimated to have won between $20-40 million. He was so surprised, and happy, that he reportedly tipped his servers $1 million.

It wasn’t a great deal compared to his net worth, but for a thrill seeking gambling it’s what playing is all about.

It wasn’t all roses for Packer, however, because later that year he returned from a trip to London $28 million lighter after running worse than he could have imagined.

Lightning Strikes Twice - $27 Million+

It’s not often you see the same person win a huge sum more than once, but it has happened.

One night in the Palace Station, Las Vegas, a woman of pensionable age won $680,000 on the Wheel of Fortune. Nothing extraordinary in itself, but the woman decided she had a taste for winning and was determined to keep trying for more.

This is a story we have heard many times from those heading to the poorhouse, but in this case the plan worked out.

This woman proceeded to spend most of her time in the casino until one day she hit the jackpot on the Megabucks Slots and collected a cool $27 million+. Lightning really can strike twice.

Elmer Sherwin - $25 Million+

The story above isn’t the only one we’ve heard about where two significant wins are collected by the same punter. Elmer Sherwin was a WW2 veteran who enjoyed passing the time with the occasional flutter.

At the age of 76 he decided to visit the Mirage Casino for the opening night. Only 10 hours after opening their doors for business, Sherwin won the Megabucks Jackpot for $4.6 million.

The story doesn’t end there, though.

Sixteen years later, Sherwin visited the Cannery Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas for another of his time passing afternoons out. That day he defied odds of 10 million to 1 to win a second Megabucks Jackpot, this time picking up $21 million.

Sadly due to his age he didn’t get time to spend much of his fortune, passing away two years later at the age of 93.

Online Jackpots - $7.5 Million

It’s not just the casinos of Las Vegas that have huge jackpot stories. Check out any online casino Canada, and you will find a tale of an anonymous man from Vancouver who walked away with $7.5 million. 

The man was looking to satisfy his urge to play casino slots online for real money and happened upon the Mega Moolah game.

The progressive jackpot came up and he picked up what was then a record jackpot for online slots.