Las Vegas

Mirage Forced to Pay Out $1.6M in Progressive Slot Jackpots Ahead of Closure

Posted on: July 9, 2024, 09:21h.

Last updated on: July 9, 2024, 01:08h.

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Corey Levitan Corey Levitan joined Casino.org in 2022 after a long career covering Las Vegas. He currently covers entertainment, dining and gaming news in Las Vegas...
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It’s not a mirage. Starting Tuesday afternoon, The Mirage on the Las Vegas Strip will give away nearly $1.6 million in guaranteed prizes.

The Mirage will give back progressive money until July 16, the day before it closes its doors forever. (Image: The Mirage)

It’s not a goodwill gesture, either, but a regulatory requirement. Most casinos that close in Nevada are required to return their progressive jackpot revenue to the gamblers who collectively lost it in the first place.

The six-day promotion, called The Mirage Progressive Final Cash Giveaway, runs from 3 p.m.-7 p.m. through Saturday, July 13, then resumes for a final day on July 16.

The 20,000-gallon salwwater aquarium behind the Mirage front desk has already been drained and dismantled. Its 450 tropical fish have been rehoused at the Mandalay Bay Shark Reef. (Image: Twitter/X/@LvPitboss)

About $1.2 of the $1.6 million comes from progressive slots. The scheduled payout on them is a guaranteed $200K each day on July 9, 10, and 11, then $250K on July 12 and 13, and $100K on July 16.

The other guaranteed $400K comes from progressive table games. That will be given away by drawings held at 8 p.m. on July 12 and 13.

Players can enter those by playing any qualifying table game — Face-Up Pai Gow, Ultimate Texas Hold ’em, Three Card Poker, Let It Ride, blackjack, or baccarat — with a Unity by Hard Rock rewards card between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. on those days.

Not the First

The Riviera held a similar promotion before closing in May 2015, but the Tropicana wasn’t required to return its remaining jackpots when it closed in April. That’s because the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NCGB) regulations vary depending on the ownership circumstances of each casino.

The Mirage, which opened on Nov. 22, 1989, will cease operating on July 17, 2024. Then it will close for a three-year transformation into the second Hard Rock Las Vegas. (The first was reopened as Virgin Hotels Las Vegas in 2021.)

Anyone looking to cash in Mirage casino chips after the closure has 120 days to do so. Chips can be redeemed at Treasure Island after July 17, according to the hotel casino. Slot vouchers can be mailed in.

Corey Levitan joined Casino.org in 2022 after a long career covering Las Vegas. He currently covers entertainment, dining and gaming news in Las Vegas.

Corey spent six years covering the Vegas Strip for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, where he also wrote the most popular humor column in the city’s history. (For “Fear and Loafing,” he tried out 176 Vegas jobs, including poker player, blackjack dealer and Follie Bergere dancer.)

Corey has won more than 100 local, state and national awards for his journalism, which has also appeared in Rolling Stone, New York Magazine and the New York Post.

Corey is a New York native whose hobbies include playing guitar, trying to be a better husband, and arguing with strangers on Facebook.

Contact Corey at corey@casino.org.

Conversation (9 comments)

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Rico July 11, 2024

Eddie, they are announcing random machine numbers. Whoever is sitting at that machine wins that promotion. It has nothing… ZERO to do with the machine… Eddie, they are announcing random machine numbers. Whoever is sitting at that machine wins that promotion. It has nothing… ZERO to do with the machine itself paying out the promotion. DUH!

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Tay July 10, 2024

So the people who don’t get a pay out, where does that money go?

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Mary Grace McWilliams July 10, 2024

Sounds like you are the one being paranoid, otherwise you would not take any of these comments so personally. Comment sections are for people to… Sounds like you are the one being paranoid, otherwise you would not take any of these comments so personally. Comment sections are for people to express their opinions and in my “opinion” you should allow them to do so. Remember, we are in America where the Freedom of Speech is part of our human rights. I copied this from Wikipedia: Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. Not that I am trying to insult your intelligence or anything like that, I copied that as a simple reminder.

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Christopher July 10, 2024

They're giving the money away via drawings, Eddie. It'd be highly illegal to set up a non promotional public machine to have a guaranteed payout… They're giving the money away via drawings, Eddie. It'd be highly illegal to set up a non promotional public machine to have a guaranteed payout time. I know the article did a poor job of communicating this, but 1.2 million is available for people who play slots/video poker and keno. The other 400k is for folks playing table games.

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AJ July 10, 2024

Stop being such a wimp, Eddie. There is a perfectly logical reason for how these are going to be paid out. Stop acting paranoid.

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Eric July 10, 2024

@Eddie Slot machines are absolutely controlled, but within legal limits. The Return to Player (RTP) percentage is adjustable. Slot machines do rely on random number… @Eddie Slot machines are absolutely controlled, but within legal limits. The Return to Player (RTP) percentage is adjustable. Slot machines do rely on random number generators (RNG), as do any pieces of software that require random numbers, and these ensure that each spin is unique and not influenced by the last one. Do note that "random" to a computer is essentially something that cannot be reasonably predicted. True random does not exist in computers. It's all algorithms with one or more "seeds" that are entered into the RNG (such as clock data), and then the RNG spits out a random number. With good RNG, it's practically impossible to predict without having the source code of the RNG so that you can do the math yourself.

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Vance Faulkner July 9, 2024

I always said the random generator claim was bullshit. They can't say they are random when they claim they have a guaranteed percentage payout requirement.… I always said the random generator claim was bullshit. They can't say they are random when they claim they have a guaranteed percentage payout requirement. Liars.

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Eddie July 9, 2024

We are always told that slot machines are random and not controlled , then you see an article like this that says payouts are being… We are always told that slot machines are random and not controlled , then you see an article like this that says payouts are being scheduled which means slot machines are not as random as we are being told.

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Aaron Rupert July 9, 2024

Is there any way to get into this on line

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