Winning at slots - It ain't hard

You see it all the time - in Vegas, Reno, even online. Pull the slot handle for a chance at a million bucks or some other super sum. It's not hard, it's not impossible, winning at slots is always a possibility when you live by my motto of "nothing tried, nothing done". Below I've outlined the stories of some giant slot jackpot winners. How they did it. When they did it. Who was with them when they made the big pull. Maybe you might be lucky enough to make this page one of these days, but in the mean time, read on and see if you can pick up a tip or two about the real ways to go about winning at slots.

July 2001 - A Mississauga woman living in a cramped two-bedroom apartment with her husband and four children became an instant millionaire playing the slot machine at Casino Niagra over the weekend. Maryam Talini, 37, was down $900 from playing blackjack before winning $1,309301.20. Her children will benefit from the luck. "I want to take them to Disneyland because they have never been there before," Ms.Talini said. After an unsuccessful night at the blackjack table, Mrs. Talini went to a bank machine to take out another $100. She put in $20 in a slot machine and three spins later she was a winner. It was the first time Maryam had played the machine. Ms. Talini said she will decide in the near future if she will keep her job as a driving instructor. She becomes the second person this month to win a million dollars at the casino. Two weeks ago, Pamela Fowler, 37, of Grimsby won Ontario's biggest slot jackpot ever - $1,329,994.25.

Summer 2001 - Jocelyne B. of Canada cashed in for over $150,000.00 on GoldenPalace.Com's Big Strike Progressive Slots.

November 2001 - In the span of just 26 hours, there were three separate winners at three separate locations on the popular Betty Boop-themed progressive slots from Alliance Gaming Corporation's Bally Gaming and Systems business unit. The slots, featuring the renowned Roaring 20s cartoon flapper, paid out $810,292.62 in payouts, marking the 71st, 72nd and 73rd times the jackpot has been hit on the wide-area progressive Betty Boop-themed game. So far, Betty Boop slots have produced a total of $18,977,800 in top awards paid instantly to winning players. The first of the lucky three to hit the jackpot was Cynthia Schwarzenbach of Schuylkill Haven, Pa. She hit the first jackpot of $111,035.71 on Saturday afternoon at Bally's Wild Wild West Casino in Atlantic City, N.J., on a quarter 'Roaring 20s' game. The following afternoon, less than 24 hours later, a lucky player from Massachusetts hit the second jackpot of $593,964.49 on a quarter 'Roaring 20s' at Foxwoods Resort Casino. Then, just over an hour later, Mary Ellen Driscoll of Philadelphia hit the third jackpot of $105,292.47 on another of the 'Roaring 20s' games at Harrah's Atlantic City.

November 2001 - Frederick Okal of Fremont, California became a millionaire and the National Champion of Slots after of three rounds of furious action at the seventh annual Harrah's millionaire maker. After three 15 minute rounds, Okal, a 50-year-old operations and grounds supervisor, claimed the grand prize with a total of 46,991 points. He was just 1,420 ahead of the nearest competitor in one of the closest competitions to date.