This innovative slot machine provides a unique twist on what you expect from a video slot, and boasts an impressive RTP of 97.8%. #5 Starmania (NextGen) – 97.87% RTP With colourful star symbols set against a pretty outer space background and a spacey, ethereal soundtrack, this NextGen slot is a real treat for the senses.
We’re feeling a little duped at the moment. Thanks a lot, Lion’s Share.
Anyone familiar with the lore surrounding the famed Lion’s Share slot machine, formerly at MGM Grand, is aware of these “facts”:
1) The Lion’s Share slot machine was a hold-over from an earlier time in Las Vegas, and there was just one Lion’s Share left on the casino floor for years. 2) The machine’s biggest jackpot had never hit during its decades of operation. 3) The winner of the progressive jackpot would get to keep the machine. 4) Gaming regulations mandated that the machine not be removed from the casino floor until the progressive jackpot hit.
All pay-outs on the Lion’s Share slot were done by hand, providing even more allure.
Those things made the Lion’s Share machine legendary, at least to Las Vegas enthusiasts, and irresistible. Surprisingly, though, not all those things are true.
Come to find out, the bit about the Lion’s Share machine having to pay off before the machine could be taken off the casino floor was, as they say in the casino industry, unmitigated hooey. Bunk. Hogwash. Malarkey. And several other words people actually still use.
If you delve into the gaming regulations (and trust us, it’s lively reading), you discover a jackpot on a slot machine can be transferred by the casino to another machine at any time. Sad trombone.
This pretty much crushes one of the aspects of Lion’s Share that made it such a draw, and the subject of worldwide news when the jackpot finally hit for $2.4 million on Aug. 22, 2014.
We Photoshopped this photo. See, the truth doesn’t hurt as much if you know about it up front.
Yep, the specific gaming regulations involved here are in the Operation of Gaming Establishments, section 5.110, “In-House Progressive Payoff Schedules.”
The regulations talk about the logistics of how a progressive jackpot can be transferred to a different machine. No, it doesn’t have to be the same kind.
There are some requirements, of course, including that the jackpot has to go to another machine where the new machine “does not require that more money be played on a single play to win the payoff schedule than the game or slot machine from which the incremental amount is distributed.” Which is a fancy way of saying you can’t move a jackpot from a $1 coin machine with a two coin max bet to a $5 machine with a three coin max bet, because players would have to spend more to get the jackpot than they would have on the original machine.
The bottom line is that a key part of the mythology around the Lion’s Share slot machine was just that, myth. Endless news stories were written before and after the jackpot hit, and as far as we can tell, nobody thought to ask if the jackpot had to hit on that specific machine. It just made a better story if we thought it did. (This Las Vegas blog fell for it, hook, line and ATM withdrawal.)
This was the jackpot the last time we played. Missed it by THAT much.
As the popularity of the Lion’s Share machine spread, MGM Grand did nothing to dispel the myth because the machine made a metric ass-ton more money because of the mystique surrounding it. MGM Grand isn’t in the myth-dispelling business, it’s in the money business. And business at the Lion’s Share machine was good, for a very long time.
The mistaken belief the Lion’s Share jackpot had to hit on that machine created a sense of urgency (it’s known as the “gambler’s fallacy”), and a windfall for MGM Grand. An MGM casino executive estimated the Lion’s Share machine was played five times more than the average slot machine on MGM Grand’s casino floor.
As with so many things in Las Vegas, not everything is as it seems at first glance. Remember, “caveat aleator,” or let the gambler beware.
It may not be the biggest jackpot in Las Vegas history, but it’s certainly the most-anticipated.
A slot machine that has entered the lore of Las Vegas, the Lion’s Share slot machine at MGM Grand, has hit for $2.4 million. Which you’d have known already had you taken the time to read this blog post’s headline. Please pay attention.
The jackpot was won on August 22, 2014 by a visitor from New Hampshire, Walter Misco, here with his wife, Linda. Both of whom this Las Vegas blog deeply resents for having won our jackpot, thank you very much.
We totally Photoshopped this photo. Hey, we can’t be everywhere.
Mgm Slot Machine That Hasn T Hit Man
The exact jackpot was $2,400,301 and seventy-something cents. We trust the Miscos will get to keep the lion’s share of that amount, although Uncle Sam will be getting a nice chunk of it, too.
The Lion’s Share jackpot has become the stuff of legend because the slot machine in question is the sole remaining machine of its kind at MGM Grand. Back in the ’90s, 50 custom Lion’s Share machines were rolled out. Forty-nine were eventually removed because they weren’t particularly popular, but that all changed when it got down to one Lion’s Share slot left.
The remaining Lion’s Share machine took so long to pay out it’s biggest jackpot (other, smaller jackpots were won along the way), the casino had to grab parts from other, retired machines just to keep it functioning.
A casino executive estimated the Lion’s Share machine was played five times more than the average slot machine on MGM Grand’s casino floor.
One urban legend about the Lion’s Share machine claimed the winner of the progressive jackpot would also get to keep the machine. (MGM Grand has since tried to dispel that notion, but it’s still a possibility.)
Whatever happens to the last Lion’s Share machine, hearing the jackpot was hit is bittersweet for lovers of Las Vegas.
Mgm Slot Machine That Hasn T Hit Yesterday
While we’re happy for the couple who won (or at least pretending to be), and for MGM Grand because this machine was a royal pain the ass to maintain (including having to hand pay every time someone cashed out, no matter the amount), the drama and mystique around this legendary machine will be greatly missed.