The Hottest Hands in Vegas are Playing at Terminal 1 of the Airport - The Messenger
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The Hottest Hands in Vegas are Playing at Terminal 1 of the Airport

Texas woman's recent $600K jackpot comes after another traveler won $1.3 million earlier this year

Brittany from Texas posing with her lucky slot machine this month at LAS.Harry Reid International Airport

You don’t need to hit the Strip to win big in Vegas. You don’t even need to leave the airport.

A Texas woman became the second person this summer to win a six- or seven-figure jackpot playing the slot machines that populate Terminal 1 at Harry Reid International Airport.

The tourist, identified only as Brittany, recently won $643,435 playing a Wheel of Fortune slot near Gate A, receiving a hearty congratulations from the airport to go with her winnings.

Brittany’s haul came three months after another passenger won an astounding $1.3 million in June playing a different Wheel of Fortune slot in the same terminal. That winner has still not been publicly identified, though the airport confirmed the jackpot on its Facebook page, writing: "That’s one way to end a vacation — as a MILLIONAIRE!"

The hot streak goes back to 2022. In March of last year, a California man raked in nearly $330,000 playing — you guessed it — a Wheel of Fortune machine near the B gates in the same terminal.  

The 1,400-plus slot machines that beckon gamblers across Harry Reid’s two terminals are a big business unto themselves.

Michael Gaughan’s Airport Slot Concession, the company that contracts with the airport to run the slots, announced last year that the machines generated more than $1 billion in revenue over their 36-year lifetime. Harry Reid receives about $35 million a year directly from the slots, according to the company.

That windfall allows the airport to keep costs down for the airlines that service Las Vegas, savings that they can then pass along to fliers (at least in theory). 

“Non-aviation revenue is beneficial in that it helps to lessen our costs for air carriers," Scott Kichline, Harry Reid International Airport’s Assistant Director for Business Commercial/Development, said in a release announcing the milestone last October.

"As a discretionary travel market, we’re very diligent in keeping our costs to the airlines both stable and as low as we can reasonably maintain."

Kichline added that the slots act as an “amenity” for passengers that “sets the tone” for their trip to Sin City.

Harry Reid is one of just two airports in the U.S. that offers slot machines. The other is Reno-Tahoe, also in Nevada.

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