
We’re 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 one thing in the air within the desert at the moment of the year. Last 12 months in mid-December, a female playing A international 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 at the MGM Grand through the exact same week this year. a producer that is executive ofAll American Christmas Carol’ a kind of trailer trash version of the Dickens classic, it would appear winner Mark Hodos says the moolah will go back in his Hollywood production company. Although we see no mention of him in the film’s IMDb, but our company is naturally cynical and if this person states ‘Hollywood,’ then we say ‘Bollywood.’
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 since well, also at the MGM Grand, which is the biggest casino regarding the Las Vegas Strip. The Megabucks slot machines are on the IGT that is same Nevada, making for huge payouts, with minimums of $10 million and more added since it does not get hit.
With no official state lottery per se, Megabucks is the equivalent, and during its 19-year history in Nevada, has brought numerous millionaires into presence. It’s also the basis for a lot of urban legends, including the one that always seems to sit in the shadows with any lottery win: the onset of very misfortune.
One piece of bad luck that cannot be avoided is Uncle Sam’s greedy paws within the pot. Based on a $35-million win, it’s estimated that winners will only get an initial check of approximately $1.4 million. The winner that is big has up to 3 months to determine if they desire to obtain the balance in annual installments, that will be paid out over 25 years, or take a lump sum which is only 60 per cent of the actual win total; according to that $35 million, that would emerge to ‘just’ $21 million, so obviously most Megabucks winners go for choice #1.
A Pound of Flesh to the Feds, Of Course
Don’t go shopping for a Beverly Hills estate just yet though; because the tax that is minimum on that annual income will be 40 percent; at the least Nevada doesn’t always have a state income tax, which someone who won the California Megabucks would need to pay because well, for instance. So on your $35 million, that is $13,400,000 going towards some very IRS that is nice Xmas 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. Unexpectedly it isn’t as life-changing as it seemed, could it be?
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 more than $728 million in total jackpots since 1986 in Nevada, and significantly more than a billion dollars nationwide.
Exactly How Would You Enjoy Megabucks Anyhow?
If reading about these victories (despite their downfalls) has gotten Megabucks fever going in you, here is what you will need to know: the progressive jackpot is a dollar slot machine that needs a minimum of $3.00 to be eligible to hit the jackpot. After each win, the jackpot auto-resets to $10 million; reports are that that may soon be bumped as much as $11 million.
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, offering each casino an item of the action, predicated on profits per device. Unlike many lotteries, this one is single state as well as for Nevada only, although IGT has other Megabucks jackpots in Ca, New Jersey and Mississippi, aswell as on several Indian reservations. Because none of these states have actually as many casino venues as Nevada, however or as much hype the jackpots are generally on small part.
With a Random Number Generator (RNG) managing who wins, once the jackpot is hit on one machine, all the machines within the system will likely 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 champions, in accordance with lore.
A number of these rumors may be based on a real story; that of 37-year-old cocktail waitress Cynthia Jay-Brennan, who hit Megabucks back 2000 for $34. 9 million. A mere six days later, a drunk driver hit her car, leaving her sister dead and Jay-Brennan a quadriplegic. Needless to say, a good amount of individuals who haven’t won Megabucks have had the same fate and no money to simply help them, but logic never ever stopped an excellent urban legend from kicking up dust.
Others who supposedly kicked it due to winning Megabucks included a 25-year-old champion 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
Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson would youn’t do much calmly is walking away from their EuroVegas casino project in Madrid, Spain (Image: keepcalmomatic)
Adios, señores y señoras. There is no EuroVegas in Madrid in the end. After prolonged battles with Spanish nationals and the us government over problems such as public smoking laws and even bringing a casino to your country that is ancient all, Las Vegas Sands Corp.’s CEO Sheldon Adelson made the 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’ most useful passions.
Asian Love Affair
Adelson wants 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 was set to encompass 12 different properties, a staggering 36,000 resort rooms and six casinos, as well as shopping centers, restaurants, golf courses, performance venues and a major convention center is now one for the history books. In the end, the cumbersome nature of bypassing existing and creating new regulations merely became an excessive amount of bother for perhaps not enough potential reward.
‘That process has been acutely thorough, and while the government and many other people have worked diligently on this work, we don’t see a path where the criteria needed to move ahead using this development that is large-scale 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 potential 260,000 jobs throughout the next 10-12 years all of it started initially to not make sense anymore.
Even gaming analysts consented it was time and energy to go on.
‘It had been becoming more apparent that the Spanish government could maybe not meet all the conditions that Las Vegas Sands had requested, and we would have viewed a decision to proceed without these conditions casino winner gratis as a bad,’ stated RBC Capital Markets gaming analyst John Kempf, explaining to investors why the decision to leave was made.
In the conclusion whether to keep their game face on or perhaps not, we’ll never know for sure Spain’s federal government acted like they forced EuroVegas out from the picture by themselves; the nation’s Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria told the press that Adelson was indeed throwing out too many requests for guarantees both appropriate and financial that, according to de Santamaria, ‘did not comply with Spanish law or that of the European Union.’
De Santamaria went on to state that these demands encompassed line that is critical such as tax concessions, guarantees of compensation should future laws be introduced that might negatively impact the casino resort complex and lastly, a caveat that essentially no competition would be permitted to set base in EuroVegas’ arena.
For Adelson, enough is enough, and he’s just ready 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 believes Adelson is on the path that is right his choices 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 desire for keeping powder dry in an attempt to enhance its stature through what is going to be a fiercely competitive bidding process,’ Wieczynski said for the end of EuroVegas and renewed Asian region concentration.
Japan was focusing on getting gambling legalized and casinos built and ready to move in time for what they project to become a heavy tourist influx using 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 a week ago, shares closed at $76.57 in the NYSE, which represented a $0.39 jump per share.