Sands China launches Asia’s biggest slot jackpot across its three Macau venues
“If you are going to hit a mega slot jackpot, then Macau is the best place in the world to do it,” says Geoff Andres, Senior Vice-President and General Manager at Sands Casino Hotel.
Sands China Ltd introduced Asia’s biggest slot jackpot to Macau on 30th December, with the launch of a new series of MegaBucks® slot machines at a ribbon-cutting ceremony at The Venetian® Macao. A total of 140 new machines will be in operation at the three properties operated by Sands China: The Venetian Macao, Sands® Macao and The Plaza™ Macao casinos. “And when Sands Cotai Central opens [slated for mid-April this year], the games there will be linked together also,” adds Mr Andres.
Speaking to Inside Asian Gaming on the sidelines of the MegaBucks launch, Mr Andres commented: “The base jackpot is HK$50 million, which is huge. And since all the games are linked progressive, that jackpot will grow even larger very fast. You see how fast that meter is going up. And when the jackpot hits here [in Macau] it’s all paid out at once,” whereas in the United States it is paid out in annual installments, usually over twenty-five years. “So it really is a life-changing jackpot; the fact that when it hits here you get it all paid at one time,” says Mr Andres. Furthermore, unlike in the US, where players can end up giving up to 40% of their jackpot winnings to the taxman, there is no tax liability on slot jackpot winnings in Macau.
Life-changing launch
International Game Technology (IGT) launched MegaBucks in Nevada in 1986, and since then, Megabucks has spread to other US states and produced dozens of major winners with jackpots ranging from just over US$1 million (when one million dollars was the system’s base jackpot—the current base is US$10 million) to the world record slot jackpot of more than US$39 million, won in March 2003 at the Excalibur Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. In the US, MegaBucks does not cross state lines, and each state that offers the game has a separate jackpot system with separate meters and winners. Each MegaBucks machine has its own RNG (random number generator) and chooses its own outcomes. These outcomes are reported to a central station, and when the jackpot is hit on one machine, the central station sends out a message to the other machines to reset their meters.
In Nevada, MegaBucks slot machines offer jackpots that accrue over several hundred machines located across multiple properties. MegaBucks in Macau is the only wide-area jackpot operating between multiple casino sites in the city—though importantly, they are sites run by the same operator, Sands China, whereas the sites in Nevada are run by a multitude of different operators. Another key difference is the MegaBucks machines in Nevada are owned and operated on a participation basis by IGT, whereas in Macau slot manufacturers have thus far not been able to operate their machines on a participation basis, and Sands China purchased the MegaBucks machines outright from IGT. Of course, installing MegaBucks across Sands China’s venues “took a lot of work and many months of partnership between us and IGT,”according to Mr Andres.
It is unlikely that two or more ofMacau’s six casino operators will cooperate any time in the foreseeable future to offer a joint wide area jackpot. There is scope, however, for any of the other operators to link up two or more of their own properties to offer life-changing jackpots in response to Sands China’s MegaBucks initiative. As for competition to the MegaBucks product, Aristocrat has a market-tested wide-area jackpot game called Millioni$er, which is also run on a participation basis across Nevada.
Featured games
One of the featured MegaBucks base games at Venetian Macao is Wild Sapphires™, with the charismatic virtual character Bill Cash guiding players through the game’s features, which include the ability to play three games at once, 13 progressive awards and a top jackpot prize starting at HK$50 million. And the unique Step Up feature allows players to move game multipliers from games one and two up to the main MegaGame. As an added encouragement to players, the top half of the machine features pictures of real-life previous MegaBucks jackpot winners.
The other new games are Reel Gold™, Triple Ruby Riches™, and Emerald Sevens™, all of which also feature a minimum HK$50 million top jackpot. All the new slot machines come in both video screen and three-reel models. Maximum bets for all four new games are set at HK$30 per spin.
