For most people, a trip to the casino is a form of entertainment where the dream of a life-changing win is part of the thrill. While most wins are modest, every now and casino then, someone defies the odds in spectacular fashion, walking away with a fortune that becomes the stuff of legend. These are the stories of ordinary people and high rollers who experienced a once-in-a-lifetime win.

The Megabucks Jackpot: A Software Engineer's $39.7 Million Win

The stuff of dreams became reality for one man at the Excalibur casino. A 25-year-old software engineer from Los Angeles decided to play the famous Megabucks slot machine while waiting for a basketball game to start. His relatively small investment of $100 resulted in the ultimate prize. The total prize was a staggering $39.7 million, a sum so large that the casino agreed to pay it out in 25 annual installments of about $1.5 million. The winner chose to remain anonymous, and his story remains the ultimate testament to the incredible, albeit minuscule, chance of hitting it big on a slot machine.

The Blackjack King

Not all legendary wins come from pure luck. Between 2010 and 2011, a man named Don Johnson went on an unprecedented winning streak, taking three Atlantic City casinos for a combined total of over $15 million playing blackjack.

He didn't use card counting to achieve this feat. As a known high roller, casino he was able to negotiate extremely favorable playing conditions for himself. He secured a 20% discount on his losses, a very high maximum bet, and other rule changes that significantly reduced the house edge. This combination of perfect play and negotiated advantages gave him a small but crucial edge over the house. After his epic winning streak, casinos became much more cautious about the deals they offered high rollers.

Winning the Jackpot... Again

The odds of winning a major lottery-style jackpot are astronomical, but winning it twice seems impossible. Yet, that is precisely the story of Elmer Sherwin, a veteran of the Second World War. In 1989, at the age of 76, he won a $4.6 million Megabucks jackpot at The Mirage in Las Vegas, just 10 hours after the casino opened. He didn't stop playing, hoping for a second miracle. Incredibly, casino 16 years later, in 2005, at the age of 92, he did it again. He won a staggering $21.1 million jackpot on another Megabucks machine at the Cannery Casino. He was incredibly generous with his second windfall, casino, atuttavita.com, donating a large portion to charity.