Elmer Sherwin Biography

According to the Megabuck’s website, the probability of
winning their jackpot is less than one in ten million. Elmer
Sherwin could easily be considered the luckiest man around then,
as he managed to win their jackpot not once, but twice.

Sherwin was the only person in the history of Megabucks to
accomplish that feat. His two jackpot wins were nearly sixteen
years apart, in which that time he won a combined total of over
$25 million dollars.

The Win of a Lifetime

Sherwin had always enjoyed gambling and loved the rush he
received from playing at the casinos. He started gambling as
soon as he was old enough to set foot in a casino, but he never
won a substantial amount of money until he was nearly
seventy-six years old.

Sherwin and his wife were traveling around the country in
their mobile home when they decided to make a stop in Las Vegas
to visit family. During their time there, Sherwin would take
one-hundred dollars a week to try his luck out at the local
casinos. Sherwin and his wife made a point to attend the
grand opening of the Mirage Hotel and Casino, where his
one-hundred dollar budget quickly disappeared to nothing.
Determined to win, he asked his wife to give him twenty more
dollars so he could try the Megabucks machine just one more
time.

The Megabucks machine, made by International Game Technology,
is a dollar slot machine with an accumulating jackpot that
requires a $3 bet to hit the top prize. The jackpot resets at $7
million after a jackpot is won and begins to build again until
someone lines up the Megabucks symbols on the machine again.

His chances of winning were slim, but Sherwin managed to beat
the odds by winning the $4.6 million dollar jackpot. Sherwin
always had a passion for traveling and after he won, he used his
winnings to travel to the world to visit all the places he
always wanted to visit, but could never afford to. Sherwin
carried a picture of his first win in his pocket so that he
could tell his story to everyone he came in contact with.

Ever since he won, Sherwin had a desire to win again, but not
for the reasons one may expect. “I wasn’t after the money. I was
after the prestige of hitting it twice. Cause I knew no one has
done it. Lotteries and things, yeah…but not the megabucks,” said
Sherwin.

The Win of a Lifetime 2.0

On September 16th, 2005 Sherwin decided to try his luck at
the Megabucks slot machine at the Cannery Casino & Hotel of Las
Vegas for what seems like the millionth time. Over the years,
Sherwin has always enjoyed playing the Megabucks slots because
he usually won at least some of the smaller prize amounts. This
day was different though, this day he would walk away winning
the jackpot and over twenty-one million dollars in prize money.

Immediately following his second Megabucks grand prize,
Sherwin sat there modestly behind the machine with only a small
smile on his face. Crowds surrounded him, causing him to flee to
a nearby restaurant until his jackpot win could be confirmed a
brief five hours after.

Sherwin donated a good portion of his winnings to the
Hurricane Katrina relief efforts and continue to share with his
family, including his son and daughter-in-law in Las Vegas. The
lucky winner just could not resist surprising his family with
the win. He planned to let them hear of his jackpot on the news
because he longed to see the surprise on their faces.

In an interview after his second victory, Sherwin exclaimed,
“I’m gonna try for a third win on Megabucks, but I may try the
Wheel of Fortune slot too.” Sherwin’s dream was unable to come
to fruition before he passed away on March 23rd, 2007 at age 93.