Page 11 - April 2003 • Southern California Gaming Guide

Another
Bally game,
Millionaire 777sTM, has created two Southern California millionaires in the last year—one at Valley View Casino and just recently a big winner at Barona Valley Ranch Resort and Casino. Based on the popular Blazing 7s game, Millionaire 777s takes that game to a higher level. This incredible progressive delivers the million-dollar jackpot (usually more than a million, since the progressive accrues) within its exciting bonus game, visible in a “bonus ladder” display as part of the “topper” of the 8-foot machine. Millionaire 777s is a three-coin, three-reel spinning slot with the trigger for the bonus round being three “777” symbols. Eachfreespinplacestheplayerhigherupthebonusladder. The ladder starts at $20 and increments a possible nine times (if you’re lucky), to $40, $60, $80, $100, $250, $1,000, $10,000, and nally the “Win Progressive” to make you a million dollar winner! The re-spins continue until a non-winning combination lands, setting off a
“collect” light. Players love this game as the anticipation of the bonus ladder
moving up is thrilling and fun!
It All Started with Mega- bucksTM
Now for a little history. Life-changing jackpots, previously the province of state lotteries, came
to casino oors in the form MegabucksTM. Created by Inter- national Game Technology (IGT) with technology origi- nallydevisedfortheNebraska state video lottery, Mega- bucks was installed at rst in Nevada in 1986 to become the rst of many MegaJackpotsTM wide-area progressives.
Megabucks is a $1 reel- spinning (and also video in some states) slot machine on a system of multiple connected slot machines in different casinos linked to a central computer. The idea was that a portion of each player’s bet on each machine, at each casino would accrue
and grow into the top jackpot prize. Back in the ’80’s, the top prize grew to unprecedented amounts; rst millions, then tens
of millions. Megabucks made slot-payoff history when Terry Williams of Los Gatos, California hit the rst Megabucks MegaJackpots for almost $5 million in 1987 in Reno. (See “Instant Millionaires” on page 15.) Megabucks just set a new record for slot jackpots on March 21, when a Los Angeles engineer won $39,713,982 at the Excalibur Casino in
Las Vegas. This Nevada Megabucks jackpot had reached a Guiness Book of Records all-time high.
There are Megabucks systems all over the country, including a separate system linking Native American casinos throughout
California. The California
Megabucks is a 3-coin, 3-line, $1 reel-spinner game that starts at $3,000,000 and is now at a whopping $6.1
million plus and has never been won! Megabucks slot machines include the Double Diamond,
Red, White and Blue, and Five Times Pay popular games.
This very rst wide-area progressive became the spawning ground for an
amazing group of inventive IGT MegaJackpots that include TV game shows, celebrity icon and product games including Wheel of
Fortune®, Elvis®, Jeopardy®, Diamond Cinema®, Harley Davidson®, Quartermania®, Regis’ Cash ClubTM, The Addams FamilyTM, Elvira®
Mistress of the DarkTM, The 1,000,000 PyramidTM, and the new Magic 8-BallTM
and Lifestyles of the Rich and FamousTM.ThenewLucyslots
are also MegaJackpots.
To date, Native American
MegaJackpots systems have hit 969 times and created 139 millionaires in fteen states. A total of 174 primary jackpots were awarded in the year 2002
for$106,837,179.
All of the IGT MegaJackpots
are paid in annual installments upon veri cation, except for those in the “Instant Winner” series
that include Regis Cash Club, Elvis, The
1,000,000 Pyramid, Magic 8-Ball, Jeopardy, Sale of the Century Video Slots, Quartermania, Elvira, The Addams Family and nickel and quarter Wheel of Fortune Video Slots. The MegaJackpots Instant WinnerTM games are paid in their
entirety upon veri cation. Nationwide, MegaJackpots have produced hundreds of millionaires, and have awarded more than $3 billion in major
jackpots. MegaJackpots have also produced million-dollar jackpots on the same day on numerous
occasions. Here are some popular MegaJackpots and their $1 million-plus jackpots.
Wheel of Fortune® Slots and Video Slots
The most frequent millionaire-producing progressive— and the most popular slot of all time, is Wheel of Fortune. Patterned after the popular game show, Wheel is a both a reel-spinning and a video slot. The reel-spinners come in a variety of game formats (Five Times Pay, Double Diamond, Red, White, and Blue) in the standard 3-reel 3-coin format. The machines are topped with the trademark “Wheel” and with a free spin symbol that delivers a bonus payoff of anywhere from 25 coins to 1,000 coins when it lands on the payline.
The amount of bonus received is determined when the wheel starts spinning after being prompted to press a button. Just before the wheel starts spinning the machine’s sound effects trigger a simulated studio audience shouting “Wheel...of...Fortune!” and the fun starts. Not only are the player’s eyes trans xed on the spinning wheel, but so are neighboring players who often congregate around the machine when they hear the“audience”shout.Theexcitementassociatedwiththe game, the lights and the sound effects, plus the prospect of not only the bonus spin, but also the top MegaJackpots award of usually hundreds of thousands dollars, and often over a million makes this one of the most popular slots of all time! The video slot version has animated bonus rounds and delivers lots of thrills and fun as players yearn for the “Wheel” symbols on the 15th payout line to give them the top prize. Wheel of Fortune reel-spinners are
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April 2003 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE Page 11