Mega Moolah Jackpot hits 13 million!

Overnight the Mega Moolah jackpot has crept ever on wards and has now crashed through the £13 million mark. It is the second time this year that we have seen the jackpot reach this amount and it is worth remembering that we have already seen one lucky winner land a prize of over 13 million this year.

That came on the 8^th May 2020, when one lucky player, playing using New Zealand Dollars landed a prize of $13.6 million. This win itself came just a month or so after we had a Canadian Dollar win of $16.4 million on the 5^th April 2020.

13 - Unlucky Number?

Despite this big win back in May, many people still feel that 13 is an unlucky number for them for a wide variety of reasons, many of them stemming back to the belief that Judas Iscariot was the 13^th Disciple of Jesus to sit at the table during the Last Supper.

So much so that the number 13 in western culture has become synonymous with misfortune. Friday the 13^th is reckoned to be one of the unluckiest days of the year (and has even had a horror film series named after it) and this is because on Friday 13^th October 1307 King Philip IV of France ordered the arrest of the Knights Templar, which saw most of the knights captured, tortured and killed.

There are plenty of other examples throughout history where 13 is also considered to be an unlucky number.

When Benedictine Monks were in charge of calendars, they based their calendar on the fact that most years saw 12 full moons. However, over a third of years in any given century have 13 full moons in a calendar year, which posed all kinds of problems for the monks and as such, the upset this caused to the calendar and planning meant that monks quickly became to regard 13 as an unlucky number.

It seems strange that a belief that a number can be unlucky, especially one that has its roots in the dim and distant past, can still echo around society today but that is very much the case. Restaurants will often not set tables for 13 people, aeroplane seat plans and hotels will often omit room number 13, while tall buildings will not have a 13^th floor, often having a floor 12 and 12a instead (or similar).

There is even an official word for the fear of the number 13, triskaidekaphobia.

It does tend to sound like the gods of fate are decreeing that 13 is not the luckiest of numbers for the Mega Moolah jackpot to hit, but there are plenty of more positive examples where the number 13 is viewed as a luckier number than others too.

13 - Lucky Number?

Now we all know that the Mega Moolah jackpot winner on May 8^th 2020 will count 13 as a lucky number, considering they won 13.6 million on that date, but there are plenty of other examples where the number 13 is considered to be very lucky.

One such example of this is in China where the fact that the word for the number 13 sounds like words for "assured growth" and "definitely vibrant" means that many people view the number as a lucky one.

There are examples too in western culture of the number 13 being considered lucky. In pre-WW1 France, the number was used as a good luck symbol on postcards and charms (though some will feel what happened to France during both World Wars probably means that whatever luck the number held then, had ran out by 1914.

In New York in the United States, Colgate University considers 13 to be a very lucky number. The college was founded by 13 men with 13 dollars, 13 prayers and 13 articles. It's address is 13 Oak Drive in Hamilton, New York.

Indeed, in the American seal, the number 13 is important because that was the number of British colonies from which the United States of America was formed. The famous seal, which features the Bald Eagle holds an olive branch with 13 olive leaves, there are 13 stars on the insignia at the top of the eagles' head and in its other claw, the eagle holds 13 arrows.

In modern times, the famous Apollo 13 flights is viewed by many as a success story despite the crew not landing on the moon due to a problem with their space capsule. Despite this, the support team worked tirelessly to eke out their supplies and successfully return them to Earth.

What about Mega Moolah?

The other thing to note is that there is no evidence that the number 13 is particularly unlucky for Mega Moolah jackpot winners. We have had two winners land a prize of 13 million to 14 million, the winner in May and also the most famous winner of the jackpot prize ever. Jon Heywood who won £13.2 million and set a new Guinness World Record, when he landed his famous prize on the 6^th October 2015.

We have also seen a jackpot claimed on the 13^th of a month (a prize of 2.3 million US Dollars which was won on the 13^th February 2014 and if you prefer to use the 24-hour clock we have had three jackpot winners claiming their prize between 13.00 and 14.00. Indeed, if you take the year 2013, it produced four winners, which only 2012 could match out of the years before then.

So it appears for Mega Moolah progressive jackpot fans at least, there is nothing to fear from the number 13 and in fact, the number can be viewed to be the one that was a proven record-breaker for Mega Moolah players with Mr Heywood's massive win back in 2015.

Now all we need is for someone to land their prize at 13 seconds past 13:13 on the 13^th August, on their 13^th spin on the Mega Moolah slot and maybe we can dispel the rumour that 13 is an unlucky number once and for all!