
Our company is told this is movie producer Mark Hodos from Florida, the latest Nevada Megabucks champion of $10.3 million (Image: IGT)
There must be one thing in the air within the desert at the moment of the year. Last year in mid-December, a woman 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 during the week that is same year. a producer that is executive ofAll American Christmas Carol’ a sort of trailer trash form 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 regarding the film’s IMDb, but our company is naturally cynical and if this guy claims ‘Hollywood,’ then we say ‘Bollywood.’
If he’s legitimately a producer, then way to save yourself numerous grovelling L.A. investor pitch meetings, sir.
Two in a Row
Hodos’ win followed a player who hit the Megabucks this November because well, also at the MGM Grand, which may be the biggest casino on the Las Vegas Strip. The Megabucks slot machines are all on the IGT that is same Nevada, making for large payouts, with minimums of $10 million and more added because it doesn’t get hit.
With no state that is official 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 several metropolitan legends, including the one that always seems to stay 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 about $1.4 million. The winner that is big has as much as ninety days to winner casino bonus codes 2015 determine if they desire to have the balance in yearly installments, that will be paid out over 25 years, or take a lump amount which is only 60 per cent associated with the actual win total; according to that $35 million, that would 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 just yet though; since the minimum income tax rate on that annual income will remain 40 percent; at the very least Nevada doesn’t have a state income tax, which someone whom won the California Megabucks would need to pay as well, for example. Therefore on your $35 million, that’s $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 year for the following 25 years. Suddenly it isn’t as life-changing as it seemed, can it be?
Regardless, people keep on playing Megabucks and dreaming large; 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 more than a billion dollars nationwide.
Exactly How Would You Play Megabucks Anyway?
If reading about these wins (despite their downfalls) has gotten Megabucks fever going in you, here is what you need to know: the modern jackpot is just a dollar slot machine that takes a minimum of $3.00 become 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, providing each casino a bit of the action, based on profits per machine. Unlike many lotteries, this one is solitary state as well as for Nevada only, although IGT has other Megabucks jackpots in Ca, New Jersey and Mississippi, aswell as on a few Indian reservations. Because none of the states have actually as many casino venues as Nevada, however or because much hype the jackpots tend to be on the smaller side.
With a Random Number Generator (RNG) controlling who wins, once the jackpot is hit on one machine, all 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; including 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 champions, according to lore.
Some 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 weeks later, a drunk driver hit her car, leaving her sister dead and Jay-Brennan a quadriplegic. Of course, a lot of those who haven’t won Megabucks have had the exact same fate and no money to greatly help them, but logic never stopped good urban legend from kicking up dust.
Others who supposedly kicked it because of winning Megabucks included a winner that is 25-year-old 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
Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson who doesn’t do much calmly is walking away from their EuroVegas casino project in Madrid, Spain (Image: keepcalmomatic)
Adios, señores y señoras. There are no EuroVegas in Madrid in the end. After prolonged battles with Spanish nationals and the us government over dilemmas such as for instance public smoking laws and even bringing a casino to the country that is ancient all, Las Vegas Sands Corp.’s CEO Sheldon Adelson made a decision later last week to pull the plug on the near $30 billion resort and gaming complex, telling investors which he felt the casino project was not any longer in his shareholders’ most readily useful 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 gaming revenues from the Macau and Singapore sectors, who could blame him?
The EuroVegas development which was set to encompass 12 various properties, a staggering 36,000 hotel rooms and six casinos, as well as shopping malls, restaurants, golf courses, performance venues and a major convention center is now one for the history books. 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 excessively thorough, and even though the government and many other people been employed by diligently on this effort, we usually do not see a path where the criteria needed seriously to move ahead with this particular development that is large-scale be reached,’ noted Adelson.
Smoking Mad
One of many key issues facing Adelson was in fact strong and vocal opposition from 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 over the next 10-12 years all of it started 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 Spanish government could maybe not meet all the conditions that Las Vegas Sands had requested, and now we would have seen a choice to go forward without these conditions as an adverse,’ stated RBC Capital Markets gaming analyst John Kempf, explaining to investors why the decision to leave was made.
In the finish whether to help keep their game face on or not, we are going to never know for certain Spain’s government acted themselves; the united states’s Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria told the press that Adelson had been throwing down too numerous 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 out of the picture’
De Santamaria went on to state that these needs encompassed line that is critical such as for example tax concessions, guarantees of compensation should future laws be introduced that might negatively impact the casino resort complex last but not least, a caveat that really no competition would be allowed to set foot in EuroVegas’ arena.
For Adelson, enough 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 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 current early-stage efforts to introduce formalized gaming legislation in Japan, we sense [this] announcement could have been driven by the greater feeling of certainty around a potential Japanese opportunity and management’s fascination with keeping powder dry in an effort to enhance its stature through what is going to be a fiercely competitive bidding process,’ Wieczynski said regarding the end of EuroVegas and renewed Asian region concentration.
Japan happens to be focusing on getting gambling legalized and casinos built and ready to roll in time for what they project to be a tourist that is heavy with the Summer Olympic Games slated for Tokyo in 2020.
As for just how it all affected Sands Corp.’s stock profile, it don’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.
