Megabucks is owned by IGT and is very popular for creating several millionaires within its two decades of life. Because of great PR hype, it keeps spurring hysteria each time an enormous jackpot proportion is reached. It also refers to a machine that can generate tons of legends and gossip through its winners. But if you take a deeper look into Megabucks, you will come to find that its progressive slots are just bad news altogether.

Where to Play

Megabucks' true home is Nevada, so its most well-known casinos exist on the Las Vegas Strip. Unlike lotteries in multiple states, this game doesn't actually cross the lines of the states. IGT runs the jackpots of Megabucks in California, Mississippi and New Jersey, but they do not encompass too many places and the jackpots are generally smaller altogether. Every state that has Megabucks comes with a separate system for jackpots with separate winners and meters. If a state wins a jackpot, the progressive pot of another state will not be affected.

Your Chances of Winning

Every Megabucks machine comes with an RNG, which picks its own results. These results will then be reported to the main station. After the jackpot gets reached on a machine, the main station will send out messages to various other machines, so that the meters can be reset.

Statistics involving the real odds of getting the jackpot of Megabucks are still sketchy, though. Several say the odds lie at one in fifty million, while still others say that it is a little lower: one in seventeen million. It can be understood why Megabucks betting sometimes reaches crazy proportions and has different people visiting the state to try their hand at winning millions.

However, does anyone actually win? Let's look at a win of $35-million. In the beginning, for that money, winners will get a $1.4-million check. After that, they have up to 90 days to think about if they want to get the rest in installments every year for 25 years or a total of only 60% from the total. So, for wins of $35-million, this would result in a total of $21-million, taxes excluded. In general, the majority of winners opt for the installment plan.

Regardless of which option is chosen, though, the winner will still need to take the IRS payable taxes into consideration, which require almost 40%. Then, the taxes of the state have to be considered, too. After everything, the overall prize will definitely dwindle - a lot.