By Annestina Anthony
One lucky Florida scratchcard player has scooped an incredible $1 million prize after spending just $20. While most consumers will spend some part of their life daydreaming about what they would spend their winnings on if they got lucky on the lottery, but 59-year-old Charles Dennison's dreams became a reality when he defied odds of 1-in-3,008,565 to scoop one of 15 $1 million prizes.
These kinds of odds are insurmountable for most consumers, but gambling expert Vlad Grindu has discovered that some online casinos have higher payout rates than others, making them a much better option for bettors.
Online casinos offering the highest payouts can be accessed by Floridians, despite regulations prohibiting online casino operations in the state. These regulations do not allow gambling businesses to set up operations in the state, but they do not prohibit consumers from accessing offshore alternatives.
Using these sites might seem risky at first glance to many, but the best options are licensed in other jurisdictions and offer consumers the same protections as licensed US betting sites.
Many online casinos offer progressive slots gaming, and these have also been known to pay huge amounts to lucky customers. This is especially true at the best Bitcoin slots sites, as many crypto-based sites allow players to stake higher amounts, withdraw more at once, and offer bigger welcome bonuses, making them all-round well-suited to high rollers. Indeed, progressive slot machines see jackpots rise the more they are played, with a percentage of stakes going towards the jackpot.
If nobody wins the jackpot for a long time, it can grow to tens of millions and the largest win came in December of last year when an anonymous gamer won $42 million playing WowPot! Wheel of Wishes.
This was not the first time that a gambler had won an astronomical amount from slot machines. With relatively small stakes, consumers have the opportunity to win big and the Megabucks game has seen a whole host of winners scooping tens of millions, with a jackpot of $39,713,982.25 being won from the Las Vegas Excalibur casino in 2003.
Another Megabucks jackpot that exceeded $30 million was won in January 2000 by cocktail waitress Cynthia Jay-Brennan, and another five players scooped jackpots playing the Megabucks that exceeded $20 million.
While Mr Dennison's win isn't quite at these levels, it is still a massive return on a $20 stake. The Gold Rush Legacy lottery scratch cards were launched in April, and as well as the 14 remaining $1 million prizes up for grabs, there are also three $10 million jackpots available.
Dennison had the option to receive his winnings in yearly installments but opted to receive a lump-sum payment of $640,000 after tax.
The Winn-Dixie store in Jacksonville that sold the lucky scratch card also received a $2,000 bonus, and many other stores in Florida will be hoping they have a lucky customer so they can cash in too.
There are 88 other scratch-off games available in Florida and 29, including Gold Rush Legacy, offer prizes of over $1 million. There are only 2 scratch card games that offer a higher jackpot than the $10 million prize of Gold Rush Legacy, these are the Florida 300X the Cash which costs $30 and has a top prize of $15 million, and 500X the Cash which offers a top prize of $25 million for $50.
