With the pull of a handle, Sherwin’s life changed, in ways he might not have appreciated at the time (at a news conference the following day, he declared his biggest ambition was to take his motor home to his favorite Arizona campground). Sherwin went back to his Megabucks machine and lined up four Wild 7s, winning a neat $4,652,177.29, a then record-setting slot jackpot.
So he asked his ex-wife Florence for help. The 76-year-old retiree - who had left Cleveland for Las Vegas five years earlier - had played through $80 on the slot machines and wasn’t quite ready to call it a night. When the Mirage opened in 1989 - a collage of the best ideas in resort tourism - it transformed the Strip, the gaming business, and Las VegasĮlmer Sherwin, as usual, didn’t have enough money on him.
