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1. Megabucks Awards A Multi-million Dollar Christmas Present
2. Megabucks Winners Las Vegas 2016 Results
3. Las Vegas Megabucks Payment Plan

By Ed Komenda
THE TAXMAN COMETH

23, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - International Game Technology PLC ('IGT') (NYSE: IGT) delivered a colossal $10,777,271 jackpot to a lucky player on the Megabucks ® Wynn Wheel at Wynn Las. Location of Megabucks Slot Machines in Las Vegas. This map was created by a user. Learn how to create your own. Dec 16, 2013 As a purported movie producer takes down a $10.3 million Megabucks jackpot in Las Vegas, we take a look at winners, taxes, and urban legends to go with. The World's Online Gaming Authority Since 1995.

Imagine: You just hit a $33 million jackpot on Megabucks. If you’re lucky, you’ll see half of that after taxes. It’s a cruel world, but Uncle Sam wants his cut. How you choose to receive your payout helps determine exactly how much you’ll cash in. Here’s how it works:

• Jackpot taxes

If you win $1-$1,199: You cash out and go. The IRS doesn’t care about jackpots less than $1,200.

If you win $1,200 – $4,999: Now you’ve entered the tax threshold. You must fill out a W-2G form to report your winnings to the feds, but casinos aren’t obliged to take out withholdings. It will be up to you to pay the taxes later. However, if a winner fails to provide a Social Security number, the casino will then take out 28 percent for the IRS.

If you win $5,000 or more: The IRS will consider your winnings part of your income, which could bump you up to a higher tax bracket. If you hit it really big, expect to pay up to 40 percent in income taxes. For that $33 million Megabucks jackpot, that would be more than $13 million.

• Payment options

Most slot companies give winners two ways to receive their money. The choice you make could have important tax implications.

Lifetime payout: This is a set annual payout for a certain number of years. For IGT, maker of Megabucks, it’s 25 years. On a $33 million jackpot, that means an annual payout of about $1.3 million and an annual tax bill of $525,000. That’s just more than $13.1 million in taxes over the span of the payout.

Lump Sum: Winners have 60 to 90 days to decide whether they want a lump sum or lifetime payment. If you opt for a lump sum, you’ll have to deal with a hefty interest rate. That’ll leave you with 60 percent of your jackpot. But don’t forget: you still have to pay the government. From the remaining $19 million, the IRS will demand another 40 percent, leaving you with about $12 million.

E.J. Coyle’s phone woke him up at 3 a.m. Christmas Eve. It was his boss at Bally Technologies. Someone had just hit a $1.3 million jackpot on a Millionaire Sevens slot at the Four Queens.

Coyle is a jackpot SWAT man, of sorts.

A Bally business analyst by day, he’s the company’s first responder when it comes to big wins. He is one of a four-man team that responds to million-dollar-plus jackpots players hit in Southern Nevada.

Megabucks Awards A Multi-million Dollar Christmas Present

Because it’s impossible to know when the next big win will register, Coyle keeps his phone volume set to loud. He doesn’t mind wake-up calls.

Megabucks Winners Las Vegas 2016 Results

“I get excited every time,” Coyle said. “I’m delivering money to people in amounts they never dreamed of. That’s really exciting.”

But his job isn’t as simple as delivering a check.

Step 1. When a player hits a jackpot worth more than $1 million, casino bosses call a Bally control center where technicians monitor the company’s slot machines on computers. A technician confirms where the jackpot hit and calls Coyle or another responder.

Step 2. Coyle typically heads to Bally headquarters on Bermuda Road before heading to a casino. He has to pick up an oversized check for the winner. Bally designs them with logos from specific games: Michael Jackson, NASCAR, Betty Boop. If he’s lucky, Coyle already has the check in his car. He keeps an armful handy, just in case.

Step 3. At the casino, Coyle has to find the winner. It’s usually pretty easy, since crowds tend to form around winning machines.

Step 4. A technician verifies the jackpot and confirms that it was valid. Casinos won’t pay on a machine that malfunctioned.

Step 5. Coyle presents the check to the winner. He interviews them about why they’re in Las Vegas and how they plan to spend their winnings. Most want to remain anonymous and collect their money without a big show.

Step 6. The paperwork. Winners have to provide Coyle with a valid Social Security number to collect their winnings and a bank account number so the cash can be wired. Winners can choose to take a lump sum payment or monthly payouts, typically spread over 20 years.

Step 7. Within 24 hours of hitting a jackpot, all winners automatically receive one-twentieth of their money wired to their bank account. That’s so they have plenty of cash on hand to continue to gamble.

Step 8. Once all the paperwork is filed, staff in Bally’s finance department process it and wire the money to the winner. Sometimes, a representative delivers a real check. As for the giant commemorative checks? Most winners don’t keep them. They are too much of a hassle to transport.

Win big at Keno! >>> Read More

4/14/97 - If you were in town over this past weekend trying to win the latest record Megabucks Jackpot, rest assured, someone has! Somewhat after most weekend tourists had headed home discouraged, Suzanne Henley, a 46 year old local woman hit the 45th Megabucks jackpot for a total of $12,510,549.90 not counting a $2,606.98 'secondary' jackpot which she won at the same time. At least it was not the usual '$5, played while they were waiting' affair we've seen in the past. Ms. Henley had played over $100 on the machine before it hit at 1:45 am Monday morning at the New York New York Hotel and Casino. This win comes after another woman reportedly hit the winning Megabucks combination on a machine last week at The Orleans when the accumulating jackpot was around $11 million, but with only a single coin (instead of the three required for 'the big one') thus winning only a much smaller jackpot.

Las Vegas Megabucks Payment Plan

1/28/96 Just after setting a new record back in mid-October, Megabucks, the state-wide, progressive, slot, jackpot which had not been hit since being reset to $5 million after the last winner, gave up another record jackpot of $11,968,359.20. According to International Gaming Technology who runs the game, the jackpot was 'statistically overdue'!

Mr. & Mrs. John Tippin (ages 50 and 49) of Honolulu, Hawaii, hit the record jackpot around 3:30pm Saturday afternoon, January 27, 1996, at the Las Vegas Hilton. John hit the jackpot after plunking only $9 into the machine and was ready to leave the machine when he lined up the required four Megabucks symbols on the bottom line. Reportedly the previous player had just lost around $200 in the machine before walking away.

The previous record of $10,918,881 was set on the night of October 18, 1995 at the Gold Coast Casino in Las Vegas. The last jackpot prior to that was won at the Gold Coast as well. The last winner was a 29 year old University of Nevada - Las Vegas college student whose name was never released. Unlike other casino progressives, the Megabucks jackpot is paid in equal annual installments over a period of 25 years.

Mr Tippin, a labor relations specialist for the U.S. Postal Service in Honolulu, received the first of 25 annual payments from IGT in the amount of $479,000. He's not sure yet whether he'll be retiring.

Last Updated: January 28, 1996