Posted on: December 30, 2025, 12:32h.
Last updated on: December 29, 2025, 01:18h.
- Gamblers are winning big this holiday season
- From Powerball to slots, several life-changing payouts have occurred
No present was bigger this holiday season than the lucky lottery player in Arkansas who won the $1.817 billion Powerball jackpot on Christmas Eve. But across the country, there have been many other sizeable wins inside casinos.
The 2025 holidays are ongoing, with the countdown to New Year’s Eve only hours away. Casino gamblers from coast to coast have won big prizes since the holidays began last week.
With casinos running holiday promotions and an abundance of free slot play being given away, more hits are coming now through New Year’s. Here’s a rundown of the big wins this holiday season so far.
Slots Players Hit Big
On Dec. 23, a slots player at the Prairie Band Casino & Resort in Kansas playing one of the tribal property’s 1,090 slot machines claimed a jackpot worth $537,211 on just a $1 bet. The lucky gambler, who wished to remain anonymous, was playing a Gold Standard Jackpots terminal. Only a day earlier, a Fortune Frenzy slot at Prairie Band won $10,716 on just an 88-cent wager.
At another tribal casino, the Thunder Valley Casino Resort in California, a slots gambler playing a Samurai Secrets machine hit a $118,428 jackpot on just a one-dollar bet. The major win occurred on Christmas Day, Dec. 25.
Christmas was a wonderful time to see another guest experience a moment like this,” said Dawn Clayton, the casino’s general manager. “These wins are what make the holidays here feel especially exciting.”
On Christmas Eve, a player gambling on Dollar Storm Emperor’s Treasure won a $105,390 jackpot at Thunder Valley. Also on Dec. 24, a gambler at the French Lick Casino in Indiana playing a Blazing 7s Triple Double won an $11,221 payout on just a $0.25 bet. Staying in Indiana, a slots player at the Horseshoe Hammond, gambling on Dragon Cash, won the grand jackpot of $130,666.79.
In Las Vegas, a guest visiting from Louisiana gambling on Christmas Eve at the Fontainebleau on the Strip won a $186,468 prize on an $8.50 bet. The machine that hit was a Double Firestorm Bison terminal.
The biggest casino jackpot this holiday season so far was won at Resorts World on the Las Vegas Strip. Resorts World Las Vegas reports that a guest playing a Double Super Times Pay Poker machine hit three royal flushes on a $105 bet that paid $1.2 million.
It was the second time this month that the video poker machine’s jackpot hit. The odds of hitting three royal flushes are about 1 in 9.6 million.
Gambling Taxes
Unless Congress acts, a tax change included in President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill will cost gamblers dearly come 2026 and beyond. A tax provision of the Republicans’ bill is that beginning next year, gambling deductions against winnings will be capped at 90%.
For decades, a gambler filing an itemized federal tax return could deduct up to 100% of their losses against their winnings. Nevada’s congressional delegation is rushing to amend the OBBB to restore the gambling deduction to 100%.
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