The Largest Jackpots Ever Won

Jackpots can make you an instant millionaire. It is the ultimate prize any player can win and wish for. The word jackpot originates from the old version of poker named “Jacks or Better” where the winning hand required a pair of Jacks. The prize was the pot of money that accumulated throughout the game (a pot full of Jacks). As the game started to gain popularity, people began referring to the top prizes in other games as a “jackpot” as well. Apart from casino jackpots, lotto jackpots are one of the biggest gambling prizes around. But which jackpots have been the largest ever? Let’s take a look at some of the biggest wins in history.

Lottery Jackpot Records

The lottery is one of the oldest and most popular forms of gambling in the world. At its most basic level, a lottery is simply a game in which players purchase tickets, each of which includes some combination of numbers. The lottery operator then draws random numbers and anyone who has purchased a ticket with the selected numbers wins the jackpot prize. While lotteries have been around for centuries, surprisingly large jackpots are a relatively new development.

El Gordo, the Spanish Christmas lottery, is regarded as the world’s largest. Every year on December 22nd, Spaniards eagerly await the televised drawing of El Gordo (“the fat one”). In 2012, a record €720 million jackpot was won by ticket holders in Spain, who split the prize evenly among all winners. The El Gordo lottery is held every December and is revered as one of the most popular events in the country.

While Spain’s El Gordo may be the largest lottery in terms of total prize money, the USA is also a serious contender. Powerball and Mega Millions are the US’s biggest lotteries and are known for their massive jackpots.

The U.S. Powerball holds the record for the largest ever lottery jackpot in history at almost $1.6 billion, which was split between three lucky winners in January 2016. Mega Millions is another popular lottery that offers massive jackpots. In 2012, Mega Millions saw its biggest win of all time when a single ticket holder from Maryland won $656 million.

Since large prize polls generally require a large number of players, reaching those numbers might not be possible for smaller countries. However, this does not mean you still can’t win big. For example, in Croatia, a small European country, people can participate in EuroJackpot. This doesn’t limit them to local games and opens up the possibility to win serious money. For example, in 2021, the winner from France took 221 million euros.

Casino Jackpot Records

While many lottery players dream of hitting life-changing jackpots, casino players can also strike it big. Casino game developers regularly release new and innovative games that are designed to attract more players to the gaming floor. There are several ways you can hit jackpot in a casino. There are even multiple types of jackpots, such as local jackpots or progressive jackpots. Slot machines and Blackjack are among the most popular casino games, so naturally, most jackpots are won there.

The largest known progressive slot machine jackpot was hit on a Megabucks machine at the Excalibur Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The winner, an anonymous 25-year-old man from Los Angeles, won a record $39.7 million jackpot after playing for only five minutes.

Another huge progressive jackpot was hit on the popular Mega Moolah slot game in 2015. A lucky player from the UK struck it lucky and won a £13.2 million jackpot, making it the largest ever payout from an online slot game. While these two jackpots are the biggest on record, there have been many other large casinos wins over the years. In 2014, a man from Finland hit a €17.8 million jackpot on the Mega Fortune slot game, while another player won €11.7 million on the same game the following year.

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