USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
Slot machines at the Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada
People who fly to Las Vegas don’t have to wait very long to start gambling, as its primary airport is littered with slot machines where you can try your luck. One man decided to do exactly that during a recent trip, and he ended up walking away with more than $3 million than he had when he landed.
Las Vegas offers visitors plenty of options when it comes to entertainment, but the city is primarily known for being a gambling mecca where the shows, restaurants, and cultural attractions it boasts all serve to lure in visitors in the hopes they’ll be unable to resist the urge to hit the tables or post up in front of a slot machine.
If you’ve never experienced Sin City for yourself, it can be hard to prepare yourself for just how ubiquitous gambling is on The Strip and beyond. There are plenty of dive bars that give you the option to play video poker while you’re perched atop a stool, and it’s not rare to encounter a slot machine when you wander into a gas station or a grocery store.
Most people who travel to Las Vegas take flights that go through Harry Reid International Airport, which has featured slots in its terminals since the first ones were installed in 1968. There are currently close to 1,500 of those machines at the hub, including the one where a traveler walked away with a very sizable jackpot.
A man on a layover in Las Vegas won $3.3 million on a slot machine at the airport
The slot machines at Harry Reid are responsible for generating close to $40 million in revenue each year (the airport keeps 86.5% of the profits).
They are also more profitable than the ones you’ll find at most casinos; those establishments have an incentive to keep people playing by boosting the minimum “return to player” payout above the state-mandated 75%, but there’s no real reason to do that at an airport filled with transient gamblers who have somewhere else to be.
You can still land a massive payday if you’re lucky, and that was the case with a traveler identified only as “Anthony,” who recently placed a $10 bet on a Wheel of Fortune machine in Terminal C in between flights and ended up winning a jackpot worth $3,307,158.11.
Now that’s one way to spend a layover. 🎰✈️ Congratulations to Anthony, who won over $3.3 million in the C Gates at @LASairport!
Anthony won this massive jackpot playing Wheel of Fortune Gold Spin Triple Red Hot 7s Slots on a $10 bet. Please help us celebrate the winner and… pic.twitter.com/pa7rk1JCNL
— IGT (@IGTNews) June 30, 2026
Must be nice.