Linda and Walter Misco, left, of New Hampshire posing with John O’Donnell after winning $2.4 million.
By NORM CLARKE
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Walter Misco said it pays to listen to your wife.
It paid off huge, in fact, about 11 p.m. Friday when he won $2.4 million on the MGM Grand’s Lion’s Share progressive slot machine, a legend for its stinginess.
Misco and his wife, Linda, both 66, were in town this weekend for a slot machine tournament at the MGM Grand. During their stay, he told her he recalled reading an article about the legendary Lion’s Share progressive machine which had reached cult status.
His wife asked, “what’s the big attraction?’ I told her it hadn’t hit in years. She said, ‘well you need to play that and win.’ I was just doing what I was told.”
So Misco inserted a $100 bill and started playing the $3 maximum. After five minutes he had $127 on the counter when he lined up the three emblems and hit the jackpot of his life.
The machine had not given a jackpot in 15 years, according to MGM Grand spokeswoman Mary Hynes.
It was the casino’s oldest reel machine and single most popular of the 1,900 slot machines on the floor.
Misco said he wanted to play earlier in the evening but saw a line of five people in line. When they returned to the MGM Grand from the Criss Angel show at Luxor, he returned to the machine and found no line.
His reaction when the siren light went off? “Disbelief. I wasn’t absolutely convinced I had won. Call it divine intervention, or whatever,” he said. They have been coming to Las Vegas for 25 years.
When John O’Donnell, a bartender at the nearby Crush restaurant, rushed to the scene, he said people were giving the slot machine the rock star treatment.
“A lot of people were taking pictures with it,” said O’Donnell, whose photo with the Miscos appeared on ABC’s World News Saturday. The story was first reported on my Twitter site about 12:30 a.m. and later confirmed by the MGM Grand.
O’Donnell said Misco was surprisingly understated about the big win. “He said, ‘Oh well Uncle Sam is going to take half of it.”
The Miscos, who raise Arabian horses on their farm near outside Manchester, called their daughter at 3 a.m. with the news.
“She was a little unnerved when my wife called because calls at 3 a.m. are usually not good news. I ruined her day because she didn’t go back to sleep.”
LION’S SHARE HISTORICAL TIMELINE
Early 1990s — Fifty “Lion’s Share” slot machines custom-made and branded for MGM are introduced on the floor of MGM Grand Las Vegas.
Mid- to late-1990s — Due to a lack of popularity, all but one “Lion’s Share” machine is removed from the casino floor.
Oct. 26, 2012 — Facebook launches a “Lion’s Share Progressive Slot Machine” page.
Feb. 6, 2014 — Wall Street Journal publishes an article about the long-dormant machine that is subsequently reported by local, national and international media.
Aug. 22, 2014 — A lucky couple win the $2.4 million “Lion’s Share” jackpot
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