A North Carolina woman landed a jackpot of nearly $600,000 in Las Vegas after making a last-minute decision to play on a Whitney Houston-themed slot machine on the final day of her visit to Sin City.
The lady, named as Camy M, had been visiting Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas for the first time, and was preparing to leave for the airport.
Before saying goodbye to Nevada, she decided to take one last spin around the casino floor.
Landing on a Whitney Houston slot near the Serrano Visit Café, Camy placed a $5 bet on the penny-denomination machine and scooped a life-changing $599,015 jackpot.
The Whitney Houston slot is developed by International Game Technology (IGT) who also produced the popular million dollar progressive slots game Megabucks.
A statement from Palms Casino resort read: “The Whitney Houston™ slot machine is known for its vibrant graphics, iconic music, and thrilling gameplay — but it’s also linked to a rare International Wide Area Progressive, making it one of the most exciting games on the floor at Palms.
“Jackpots like this highlight the winning possibilities for Club Serrano members and casual players alike at Palms Casino Resort, where legendary moments happen every day.”
Las Vegas is known as the gaming capital of the world and has naturally witnessed some of the biggest jackpots in gambling history, while online casinos have also made a lucky few customers overnight millionaires.
Biggest Slot Machine Wins In History
There have already been a couple of million-dollar payouts on slots in 2025, both coming at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas resort.
In May, one guest landed $2,462,616 from a $50 bet on a Frankenstein slot made by Light & Wonder, while another placed $500 on a high-limit Dragon Link progressive slot and banked a $1,313,000 payout.
But even these jackpots appear small compared to some of the biggest slot machine wins in history.
In November 1998, Palace Station Resort in Las Vegas reported that a 67-year-old retired flight attendant had won $27.5 million, securing the biggest jackpot prize on a Megabucks machine at the time.
That was eclipsed in January 2000, when a former Vegas cocktail waitress by the name of Cynthia Jay-Brennan, 37, was another multi-million Megabucks winner.
Her modest $3 spins at the Desert Inn, Las Vegas produced a new record Megabucks payout of $35 million.
King of the slots, for the time being at least, is Josh Ford, who was 25 when he visited the Excalibur Hotel and Casino on the Vegas Strip in March 2003.
Ford also tried his hand on IGT’s Megabucks machine and had wagered around £100 when the winning symbols all landed together to produce an eye-water $39,713,982.50 jackpot.
Biggest Online Slots Winners
That $39.7 million remains the biggest slot machine win of all time as at August 2025 but it isn’t always necessary to be sat in Vegas to become a slot millionaire.
The rise of mobile casino apps has brought with it some extremely fortunate winners.
In 2023 a player in Finland scooped around $23.6 million jackpot while playing the Mega Fortune slot at PAF.com.
Some similar wins have been landed on Mega Moolah games.
An anonymous Belgian player on Napoleon Sports & Casino cashed in with around $22 million in 2021 after playing Microgaming title Absolute Mad Mega Moolah.
That had beaten the previous highest Mega Moolah payout which was made to 26-year-old British soldier Jon Heywood , who scooped around $20 million in October 2015, playing 25-pence stakes on Betway, one of the UK’s leading sports betting and gaming operators.
Jim Munro is a betting industry and gambling expert who has been a national newspaper journalist for over 30 years, predominantly at The Sunday Times and The Sun, where he wrote a weekly soccer betting column. Jim also worked on the launch of Virgin Bet with Gamesys and was subsequently head of editorial at LiveScore, the sports media and betting group.
