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\n\tLinda and Walter Misco, left, of New Hampshire posing with John O’Donnell after winning $2.4 million.<\/p>\n
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\n\tLinda and Walter Misco, left, of New Hampshire posing with John O’Donnell after winning $2.4 million.<\/p>\n
\tBy NORM CLARKE
\n\tLAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
\n\tWalter Misco said it pays to listen to your wife.<\/p>\n
\tIt paid off huge, in fact, about 11 p.m. Friday when he won $2.4 million on the MGM Grand\u2019s Lion\u2019s Share progressive slot machine, a legend for its stinginess.<\/p>\n
\tMisco 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\u2019s Share progressive machine which had reached cult status.<\/p>\n
\tHis wife asked, \u201cwhat\u2019s the big attraction?\u2019 I told her it hadn\u2019t hit in years. She said, \u2018well you need to play that and win.\u2019 I was just doing what I was told.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tSo 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.<\/p>\n
\tThe machine had not given a jackpot in 15 years, according to MGM Grand spokeswoman Mary Hynes.<\/p>\n
\tIt was the casino\u2019s oldest reel machine and single most popular of the 1,900 slot machines on the floor.<\/p>\n
\tMisco 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.<\/p>\n
\tHis reaction when the siren light went off? \u201cDisbelief. I wasn\u2019t absolutely convinced I had won. Call it divine intervention, or whatever,\u201d he said. They have been coming to Las Vegas for 25 years.<\/p>\n
\tWhen John O\u2019Donnell, a bartender at the nearby Crush restaurant, rushed to the scene, he said people were giving the slot machine the rock star treatment.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cA lot of people were taking pictures with it,\u201d said O\u2019Donnell, whose photo with the Miscos appeared on ABC\u2019s World News Saturday. The story was first reported on my Twitter site about 12:30 a.m. and later confirmed by the MGM Grand.<\/p>\n
\tO\u2019Donnell said Misco was surprisingly understated about the big win. \u201cHe said, \u2018Oh well Uncle Sam is going to take half of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe Miscos, who raise Arabian horses on their farm near outside Manchester, called their daughter at 3 a.m. with the news.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cShe 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\u2019t go back to sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tLION\u2019S SHARE HISTORICAL TIMELINE<\/p>\n
\tEarly 1990s \u2014 Fifty \u201cLion\u2019s Share\u201d slot machines custom-made and branded for MGM are introduced on the floor of MGM Grand Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
\tMid- to late-1990s \u2014 Due to a lack of popularity, all but one \u201cLion\u2019s Share\u201d machine is removed from the casino floor.<\/p>\n
\tOct. 26, 2012 \u2014 Facebook launches a \u201cLion\u2019s Share Progressive Slot Machine\u201d page.<\/p>\n
\tFeb. 6, 2014 \u2014 Wall Street Journal publishes an article about the long-dormant machine that is subsequently reported by local, national and international media.<\/p>\n
\tAug. 22, 2014 \u2014 A lucky couple win the $2.4 million \u201cLion\u2019s Share\u201d jackpot<\/p>\n
No replies were posted for this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7896\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}