Casino Rewards turns 20 years in 2020

For a select few players it is the pinnacle of their slots gaming, for the majority of others, it remains the elusive dream that we hope one day to experience for real. Landing the Mega Moolah top progressive jackpot prize, the Mega Jackpot, is potentially the greatest experience you could ever have when playing an online slot.

Over the years, Casino Rewards member casinos have seen a number of their customers play the game on their sites and land a shot with the Jackpot Bonus Wheel and then spun that wheel to land in the elusive single sector to claim that amazing, which at the time of writing is nearing 5.5 million! In celebration Microgaming have released a special game for Casino Rewards players only, it's called the Casino Rewards 20th Year Celebration Progressive Jackpot Slot.

Since the game first began there have been a total of 19 confirmed winners of the Mega Moolah progressive jackpot top prize on the Casino Rewards Network, with wins ranging in value from just over a million, to the highest ever numerical win on the famous network, which was a win of over 20 million in Canadian Dollars back in January 2019.

Furthermore, we are still awaiting details of a couple of the more recent winners of the Mega Moolah jackpot prize from May 2020, which could mean another one or possibly two players have been added to this fortunate group.

So where does the story for the Casino Rewards network and Mega Moolah winners actually begin? Well for that we have to go back a fair few years, 12 to be exact, to come across the very first person to land their win on the famous casino network.

Klaus K becomes the Casino Rewards first big winner!

Back in April of 2008, the Mega Moolah slot has been around a little while and had only paid out a small jackpot win in South African Rand, which is one of the weaker of the currencies that was available at the time and which didn't amount to more than a million in most other currencies. It is safe to say that the slot world was waiting for the first big money winner on this exciting and still relatively new slot.

Well on the 22^nd April 2008, that is precisely what happened to one lucky player, known as Klaus K, when he logged into the Blackjack Ballroom Casino, which was then part of the Casino Rewards network.

He set the bet amount on the Mega Moolah slot at 0.50c in US Dollars and began to play before hitting spin and seeing the Jackpot Wheel Bonus appear on screen. Klaus wasn't fazed, he knew that this happened a lot and that often it was just the Mini or Minor jackpots that were won.

This time though, something incredible happened, the Mega Jackpot sector landed on the pointer Klaus had become an instant millionaire, although at first he didn't quite believe it!

"When I saw 5,556,753 flash on my screen, I thought it was a US phone number. It couldn't be a jackpot, I must be mistaken! So I just got up from my table, went outside to clear my head and then came back in again for another look and noticed five and a half million dollars sitting in my Blackjack Ballroom Casino account."

Klaus could finally start to believe his good fortune as the Casino Rewards Network first ever winner when his phone started ringing, it was the casino contacting him to confirm the win and Klaus's place in the history books. The high Flying Finn had become the Casino Rewards Network first big money Mega Moolah progressive jackpot winner.

Quiet period for Casino Rewards winners

The years between 2008 and 2017 proved to be a somewhat quiet period for winners on the Casino Rewards Network, however those that did land a win at this time, usually won a very decent amount of money.

Across this nine year period, we saw four further Mega Moolah jackpot winners, a Captain Cooks Casino winner in October 2011 for over $5.2 million, a Golden Tiger Casino winner in November 2013 for more than $3.3 million and a Quatro Casino winner in June 2014 who landed a prize of over $3.9 million.

However, a new record for Casino Rewards Network winners was set in August 2016 at the popular Zodiac Casino. That is because this fifth winner of the Casino Rewards Network Mega Moolah jackpot prize took home a prize of over $8.9 million. A staggering amount of money and one which heralded a period of incredible wins for players on the network, starting in January 2017.

The crazy period of wins from 2017 on wards

It seems incredible to think that 14 of the winners that have landed their prize on the Casino Rewards Network of the Mega Moolah progressive jackpot top prize, have done so from 2017 on wards and some of those wins have been absolutely huge. All prizes are stated in their comparative US Dollar value for ease of comparison, rather than the currency in which each jackpot was won.

• 2017

2017 was the year that the Casino Rewards Network exploded into life in terms of Mega Moolah winners, recording four throughout the year, almost as many as in the previous nine years. It started in January 2017 with a win of over $6.4 million at Captain Cook's Casino and then two months later in March 2017, the network saw a second winner, this time at Zodiac Casino for just over $7.1 million.

There was then a gap until the end of the year until November 2017 when the smallest Casino Rewards network prize of just over $1.1 million was won at Grand Mondial Casino and the same casino was responsible for the winner in December 2017 who landed a prize of over $5 million.

• 2018

After four great winners in 2017, we saw another four winners in 2018 and we didn't have long to wait for the first win, as it came in January 2018 at Zodiac Casino for over $2.9 million. A couple of months later a second jackpot was claimed in March 2018, this time for over $5.4 million, while a month later, another jackpot, this time of over $5.6 million was claimed.

However, that all paled into insignificance by September 2018 when the jackpot had claimed to an incredible $22 million plus and one lucky player landed their prize of over $22 million during that month, the largest single cash prize of any currency awarded on the Casino Rewards Network.

• 2019

If 2017 and 2018 were fantastic years for Casino Rewards Network players, then 2019 was off the charts in terms of success as an incredible six jackpots, half of all the jackpots awarded in that year, came from the network alone.

It began in January at Zodiac Casino when one player landed an incredible jackpot prize of $15.1 million+ which was the second largest numeric prize awarded to any Casino Rewards player. This was followed in March by another massive win of almost $13 million, making it the third double-digit jackpot win in a row, this time the lucky winner playing at Luxury Casino.

Barely had the paint dried on writing out that cheque, when Microgaming were paying out another as the jackpot was won once again in March 2019, this time at Captain Cooks Casino for a prize of over $2.4 million.

Lightning would also strike twice in September 2019, when a player at Yukon Gold Casino landed a prize of over $3.5 million, followed by a Grand Mondial Casino winner a short time later for a similar amount of $3.3 million. Finally, a month later in October 2019, another Grand Mondial Casino player landed a prize of $3.9 million to make 2019 the most successful year for Mega Jackpot winners in Casino Rewards history.

Mega Vault Millionaire - Exclusively at Casino Rewards

It is worth remembering that the Casino Rewards Network is the only network of its kind to have an exclusive agreement with Microgaming to offer one particular Mega Moolah linked slot, the Mega Vault Millionaire game. You can only play this slot at affiliated Casino Rewards Network casinos, nowhere else, and as such, this has made the network even more popular with progressive jackpot hunters seeking their own moment of Mega Moolah glory.

With 19 winners already confirmed, the hunt is on for he next big winner from the Casino Rewards Network on the Mega Moolah slot, what will the story be of the next player to win big on the network? We can't wait to find out!