When it comes to the world of online video slots there's a lot to choose from and the sheer amount of different ways to win can be outright dizzying. The primary feature of all jackpot slots is the jackpot itself, that one-off, big time, life changing win! But not all jackpot slots are created equal.
That means that a number of different slot machines will be connected in a way that pools the overall jackpot to make one huge progressive jackpot that can be won by playing any of the different, linked machines. So, the more people who play a progressive slot machine, the higher the total jackpot at any given time until there's a winner. This post features 10 of the most interesting facts I could find about progressive slot machines. 1 – Megabucks Is the Biggest Slot Machine Jackpot. Megabucks is IGT's most famous progressive slot machine. It's a state-wide game run in Nevada, and it's the main reason the state doesn't have an actual lottery. So a simple yet effective rule is to always bet the maximum when playing flat-top slot machines. Flat-top slots have a lower house edge than progressive slots and you will win more often (in other words, have a higher hit frequency) since a smaller portion of total payback comes from the jackpot (in flat-tops, this is often around 2% but in a progressive jackpot like Megabucks it's around 10%).
So, let's take a closer look at the article below at the two main types of online slots jackpots, fixed and progressive jackpot slot machines. Or just simply choose a jackpot slot and try your luck!
A progressive slot machine pays out more each time that a player spins, but does not win the jackpot. For example, if a machine has a $1,000.50 progressive meter, and you play one losing spin, the jackpot would then rise to $1,000.51, or another close figure. Progressive slots are slot machines for which the jackpot continues to grow. The jackpot is progressive, growing with each bet gamblers make. The final jackpot, which is only determined when someone wins, is taken from a percentage of all the bets played on a group of machines or a single slot machine.
What is a progressive jackpot slot?
The concept is pretty simple really. Progressive jackpot slots set aside a small percentage of each coin played to add to the overall jackpot. That means that with every game played the jackpot increases until someone has won the jackpot, making progressive slot machines capable of reaching exceptionally high jackpot amounts as long as there is no jackpot winner.
This means that the more times you take a spin on the same progressive jackpot slot, the higher the total prize. Better yet, as progressive jackpot slots work best online, where multiple players can be playing on the same slot at the same time, jackpot amounts can quickly climb into the stratosphere as long as there is no winner. At the same time, most progressive jackpot slots, in an attempt to offer the highest possible jackpots, are often linked together. That means that a number of different slot machines will be connected in a way that pools the overall jackpot to make one huge progressive jackpot that can be won by playing any of the different, linked machines.
So, the more people who play a progressive slot machine, the higher the total jackpot at any given time until there's a winner. It's not uncommon for progressive jackpot slots to quickly climb into the millions of dollars as more players step in across a network of linked progressive slot machines in search of hitting a life changing win.
How do progressive jackpot slots differ from fixed jackpot slots?
Progressive jackpot slots differ from fixed jackpot slots in two important ways. The first is obviously that the jackpot continues to rise as more players insert coins. Conversely, fixed jackpot slots offer an unchanging fixed amount for the grand prize.
The second major difference is that progressive jackpot slots are likely to pay out less often and in lower amounts than fixed jackpot slots. The reason is simple. Progressive slots must put aside a small percentage of each coin played to add to the ever-growing progressive jackpot. This means that there is less money available to pay out smaller wins, resulting in online slots machines that will pay out slightly less frequently and usually in smaller amounts for minor wins than their fixed jackpot relatives.
So progressive jackpot slots always present an upside and a downside. The downside is that progressive slots will, as a rule, have slightly worse odds than fixed jackpot slots, paying out smaller amounts less frequently than their fixed jackpot brothers.
The upside, however, is significant as the grand prize jackpot amount, especially if you're playing on a popular, networked progressive slot that hasn't registered a jackpot in some time, can be simply astronomical. Slots enthusiasts who are in search of the big win and all the new life possibilities that come with it are usually willing to forego the smaller, more frequent payouts to be found with fixed jackpot slots in favor of the chance and thrills involved in truly striking it rich with the single click of a mouse.
More conservative slots players, who enjoy the excitement of more frequent wins and the validation of luck that comes with them, will tend to steer toward fixed jackpot slot machines and slot machines with bonus rounds.
At the end of the day it really comes down to what you're after, the thrills and excitement of smaller but more frequent wins of a fixed jackpot slot machine, as well as the potential to hit the fixed jackpot, or the less frequent but phenomenally more substantial sums that come with hitting it big on a progressive slots machine.
Tips for playing progressive slots
1. Always play max coins
The logic here is simple, most slot machines, whether they are fixed jackpot slots or progressive jackpot slots will require that you bet max if you are to pick up the best prizes. Always betting max means that you'll always be in the position to reap the greatest possible rewards from any win, no matter how large or small.
The fact is, and any true slots aficionado will tell you this, there is nothing more frustrating in the world that landing a big win only to learn that the actual payout is somewhat trivial compared to the potential win, all because you didn't play max coins.
2. Always play all paylines
Most modern video 5-reel slots today offer players the option to select from a number of different paylines. Depending on the slot, this can range from as little as 5 to over 1024 different ways to win. Isle of capri pompano poker room. Playing all paylines ensures, especially when you're playing a progressive jackpot slot, that when you do get lucky and the jackpot symbols appear on the screen you maintain the highest possible chance of winning said amazing jackpot no matter where the winning symbols appear, as long as they are on one of the machine's paylines.
3. Look for progressive slot machines with the highest possible existing jackpot
While statistically your odds of striking said jackpot remain the same, as all today's online slot machines use random number generators that make each spin a statistically unique event – in other words completely independent from any of the countless spins that have come before – you want to maximize your payout in the event you do hit the jackpot.
That means it's always best to play the progressive slot machine with the highest jackpot at the time you start to play. Lack of success or luck, by you or other players, will only make said jackpot that much higher, so when lady luck does show you're truly in the money and it's time to take that trip around the world or buy that sports car or new house you always wanted. Jack casino buffet hours cincinnati menu.
4. Take advantage of casino bonuses
One of the things that separate the best online casinos where you can play slots for real money. from their brick and mortar counterparts in places like Las Vegas, Reno, Atlantic City, Macau or your local Indian reservation is that online casinos offer bonuses to get you in the door and keep you playing. It's always a good idea to shop around for the best online casino bonuses available before you jump into a heated slots session.
Online casino bonuses extend not only your bankroll and playtime but your fun. A note of caution though, always read the fine print in the terms and conditions of any individual casino bonus to make sure the bonus can be used to play progressive slots (this varies greatly by casino and bonus)!
5. Finally, remember to pace yourself
Playing progressive slots is more like running a marathon than a quick sprint. As the jackpot steadily increases with each non-jackpot winning spin, it's in your best interest to play at a reasonable pace and not rush things. After all, thanks to the possibility of multiple players playing the same online progressive slot and the same time, that magic jackpot is just going to keep rising, making your potential big win taste that much sweeter in the end. Some things, they say, are definitely worth waiting for!
Top 5 biggest progressive slots wins of all time
As we've said throughout this article, the unique and exciting thing about progressive slots is their ability to rack up amazingly large jackpots and eventually pay out stupendous wins. And when we say stupendous, we mean out in the stratosphere, change your life forever type wins. The top five all time biggest progressive slots wins between 2011 and 2017 have, oddly enough, been hit on the same, immensely popular, two online progressive slots machines, Mega Fortune Mega and Mega Moolah Mega, as follows:
- Mega Fortune Mega – January 20, 2013 – $20,749,756.00
- Mega Moolah Mega – October 6, 2015 – $ 17,508,125.68
- Mega Fortune Mega – September 23, 2011 – $ 13,633,583.00
- Mega Moolah Mega – November 5, 2016 – $11,633, 898.00
- Mega Moolah Mega – August 28, 2016 – $11,609,942.00
Now that's some serious cash folks, and why progressive slots are really the way to go if you're looking for that one, eternally life changing spin to rocket you into the millionaires' club in the blink of an eye.
The 3 most popular progressive slots
The most played progressive online slots come from completely different places on the online slot spectrum. Perhaps the world's favorite online progressive slot is Mega Moolah. With Mega Moolah chalking up 3 of the top five all time progressive slots wins, paying out a total of $40,751,965.68 between 2015 and 2016 alone, it's easy to see why players love to take a spin on Mega Moolah in hopes of walking away with a mind blowing mountain of cash. The slot itself is a fairly traditional 5-reel, 25 payline slot machine offering up an animal theme featuring winning lions, giraffes, zebras, ibis and water buffalo among classic 10, jack, queen, king and ace card symbols.
Mega Moolah's wild is the King of the Jungle, the lion symbol, and works in place of any other symbol except scatters. The lion wild adds a 2x prize multiplier to any wins. Bonus rounds, triggered by the monkey scatter symbols, dole out a 3x prize multiplier and 15 free spins.
At the end of the day, however, it's the Mega Moolah progressive jackpot that's the true King of the Jungle. The progressive jackpot actually comes in four different tiers win a minimum prize of GBP 10, GBP 100, GBP 1,000 and GBP 1 million for each tier respectively. According to available statistics, the progressive jackpot on this immensely popular slot is triggered once every 12 weeks on average, making it the single most popular progressive jackpot slot in the world.
Coming in number two is Gladiator, based on the blockbuster movie directed by Ridley Scott and starring Russel Crowe. Brilliantly animated, with bonus round scenes from the movie, Gladiator is a 5-reel, 25 payline slot that even includes two bonus features that pay out up to 5,000 times your original bet.
Again, while Gladiator has fantastic bonus rounds, prize multipliers as well as wilds and scatters, it's real charm is in its progressive jackpot. Its minimum starts at $58,000 and regularly goes well over $1 million.
The third most popular progressive jackpot slot in the world today is the Arabian Nights slot. Based on the epic story One Thousand and One Arabian Nights, this machine is a classic 5-reel, 10 payline slot with great bonus rounds, free spins and prize multipliers. The progressive jackpot, however, has been known to hit some pretty amazing heights with the largest win ever at $10,029,641.29 and average jackpot wins of $1,922,576.94.
Progressive slots (and video poker games) offer jackpots that increase every time someone makes a bet up until someone wins. At that point, the progressive jackpot resets to its starting value and starts accumulating again.
The amount that the jackpot rises is based on a tiny percentage of your action on the machine. Most progressive slot machines are now pooled with other machines so that the jackpot goes up fast, although some games are still standalone progressives.
The best way to think about progressive slots is that they're the slot machine equivalent of a lottery game. The odds of winning are long, but the prizes are huge. In most lotteries, the size of the prize increases from drawing to drawing until someone wins the lottery.
You'll know you're playing a progressive jackpot game because it will feature a prominent jackpot meter showing the size of the jackpot. This is also sometimes called a 'jackpot ticker,' because it ticks upward as players on the network lose bets into the machines on that network.
This post features 10 of the most interesting facts I could find about progressive slot machines.
1 – Megabucks Is the Biggest Slot Machine Jackpot
Megabucks is IGT's most famous progressive slot machine. It's a state-wide game run in Nevada, and it's the main reason the state doesn't have an actual lottery. Who needs a lottery when you can just play the Megabucks slot machine?
Megabucks isn't new either, the games have been available now for a couple of decades. Several people have won millions of dollars over the history of the game.
To play Megabucks, you must wager $3. It's a dollar machine with a three-coin maximum bet. If you don't place the maximum bet, you're not eligible for the jackpot.
In Nevada, at least 750 different slot machines in over 125 different casinos pool those tiny contributions to grow that $10 million jackpot faster than you'd think is possible.
The odds of winning Megabucks is similar to that of winning the lottery, 50 million to 1. And like the lottery, winners get paid in the form of an annuity that pays annual installments over the next 25 years.
Legal gambling age in puerto rico. If you go with the cash option, you can settle for 60% of the prize amount as just plain cash. It's hard to deny that Megabucks is the most interesting progressive jackpot game in the United States.
2 – Megabucks Has a Curse Associated With It
Some gamblers believe that if you win Megabucks, you have a greater than usual probability of dying young.
This legend of the 'Megabucks curse' stems from the death of Cynthia Jay-Brennan, a cocktail waitress who won $35 million Megabucks only to be paralyzed in a car wreck. Jay-Brennan's sister died in the wreck, which was caused by a drunk driver.
Most of the other tales of woe related to Megabucks are nothing more than urban legends, though.
It's the opinion of this blogger that the wreck was just 'one of those things,' and Cynthia Jay-Brennan has my sympathy.
3 – Progressive Jackpots Can Put the Odds in the Players' Favor
Any game with a progressive jackpot can offer a player a positive expectation bet if the jackpot is large enough.
The trouble with slot machines is that no one knows exactly what the payback percentage for the game is, so it's impossible to determine what the size of the jackpot would have to be.
But in other games with progressive jackpots, like video poker, you can compute the break-even point for the game and only play after the jackpot has exceeded that point.
The optimal strategy for playing such a game changes based on the size of that jackpot, too.
What Does A Progressive Slot Machine Look Like Now
4 – Some Progressive Games Get Attached by Advantage Player Teams
An advantage player is a gambler who only gambles when he has an edge over the casino. The classic example of an advantage gambler is a card counter in blackjack.
But we already discussed how a gambler could have an advantage at a progressive slot machine game.
They play as a team until someone on the team wins the progressive jackpot, and the team then splits the profits. Some casinos don't mind this type of advantage play much, because even though the players have an edge, the jackpot comes mostly from players' contributions to the game over time.
Other casinos have policies forbidding team play and will back off or bar such players.
5 – Slot Machines With Progressive Jackpots Have Worse Odds
What Does A Progressive Slot Machine Look Like To Be
A progressive slot machine pays out more each time that a player spins, but does not win the jackpot. For example, if a machine has a $1,000.50 progressive meter, and you play one losing spin, the jackpot would then rise to $1,000.51, or another close figure. Progressive slots are slot machines for which the jackpot continues to grow. The jackpot is progressive, growing with each bet gamblers make. The final jackpot, which is only determined when someone wins, is taken from a percentage of all the bets played on a group of machines or a single slot machine.
What is a progressive jackpot slot?
The concept is pretty simple really. Progressive jackpot slots set aside a small percentage of each coin played to add to the overall jackpot. That means that with every game played the jackpot increases until someone has won the jackpot, making progressive slot machines capable of reaching exceptionally high jackpot amounts as long as there is no jackpot winner.
This means that the more times you take a spin on the same progressive jackpot slot, the higher the total prize. Better yet, as progressive jackpot slots work best online, where multiple players can be playing on the same slot at the same time, jackpot amounts can quickly climb into the stratosphere as long as there is no winner. At the same time, most progressive jackpot slots, in an attempt to offer the highest possible jackpots, are often linked together. That means that a number of different slot machines will be connected in a way that pools the overall jackpot to make one huge progressive jackpot that can be won by playing any of the different, linked machines.
So, the more people who play a progressive slot machine, the higher the total jackpot at any given time until there's a winner. It's not uncommon for progressive jackpot slots to quickly climb into the millions of dollars as more players step in across a network of linked progressive slot machines in search of hitting a life changing win.
How do progressive jackpot slots differ from fixed jackpot slots?
Progressive jackpot slots differ from fixed jackpot slots in two important ways. The first is obviously that the jackpot continues to rise as more players insert coins. Conversely, fixed jackpot slots offer an unchanging fixed amount for the grand prize.
The second major difference is that progressive jackpot slots are likely to pay out less often and in lower amounts than fixed jackpot slots. The reason is simple. Progressive slots must put aside a small percentage of each coin played to add to the ever-growing progressive jackpot. This means that there is less money available to pay out smaller wins, resulting in online slots machines that will pay out slightly less frequently and usually in smaller amounts for minor wins than their fixed jackpot relatives.
So progressive jackpot slots always present an upside and a downside. The downside is that progressive slots will, as a rule, have slightly worse odds than fixed jackpot slots, paying out smaller amounts less frequently than their fixed jackpot brothers.
The upside, however, is significant as the grand prize jackpot amount, especially if you're playing on a popular, networked progressive slot that hasn't registered a jackpot in some time, can be simply astronomical. Slots enthusiasts who are in search of the big win and all the new life possibilities that come with it are usually willing to forego the smaller, more frequent payouts to be found with fixed jackpot slots in favor of the chance and thrills involved in truly striking it rich with the single click of a mouse.
More conservative slots players, who enjoy the excitement of more frequent wins and the validation of luck that comes with them, will tend to steer toward fixed jackpot slot machines and slot machines with bonus rounds.
At the end of the day it really comes down to what you're after, the thrills and excitement of smaller but more frequent wins of a fixed jackpot slot machine, as well as the potential to hit the fixed jackpot, or the less frequent but phenomenally more substantial sums that come with hitting it big on a progressive slots machine.
Tips for playing progressive slots
1. Always play max coins
The logic here is simple, most slot machines, whether they are fixed jackpot slots or progressive jackpot slots will require that you bet max if you are to pick up the best prizes. Always betting max means that you'll always be in the position to reap the greatest possible rewards from any win, no matter how large or small.
The fact is, and any true slots aficionado will tell you this, there is nothing more frustrating in the world that landing a big win only to learn that the actual payout is somewhat trivial compared to the potential win, all because you didn't play max coins.
2. Always play all paylines
Most modern video 5-reel slots today offer players the option to select from a number of different paylines. Depending on the slot, this can range from as little as 5 to over 1024 different ways to win. Isle of capri pompano poker room. Playing all paylines ensures, especially when you're playing a progressive jackpot slot, that when you do get lucky and the jackpot symbols appear on the screen you maintain the highest possible chance of winning said amazing jackpot no matter where the winning symbols appear, as long as they are on one of the machine's paylines.
3. Look for progressive slot machines with the highest possible existing jackpot
While statistically your odds of striking said jackpot remain the same, as all today's online slot machines use random number generators that make each spin a statistically unique event – in other words completely independent from any of the countless spins that have come before – you want to maximize your payout in the event you do hit the jackpot.
That means it's always best to play the progressive slot machine with the highest jackpot at the time you start to play. Lack of success or luck, by you or other players, will only make said jackpot that much higher, so when lady luck does show you're truly in the money and it's time to take that trip around the world or buy that sports car or new house you always wanted. Jack casino buffet hours cincinnati menu.
4. Take advantage of casino bonuses
One of the things that separate the best online casinos where you can play slots for real money. from their brick and mortar counterparts in places like Las Vegas, Reno, Atlantic City, Macau or your local Indian reservation is that online casinos offer bonuses to get you in the door and keep you playing. It's always a good idea to shop around for the best online casino bonuses available before you jump into a heated slots session.
Online casino bonuses extend not only your bankroll and playtime but your fun. A note of caution though, always read the fine print in the terms and conditions of any individual casino bonus to make sure the bonus can be used to play progressive slots (this varies greatly by casino and bonus)!
5. Finally, remember to pace yourself
Playing progressive slots is more like running a marathon than a quick sprint. As the jackpot steadily increases with each non-jackpot winning spin, it's in your best interest to play at a reasonable pace and not rush things. After all, thanks to the possibility of multiple players playing the same online progressive slot and the same time, that magic jackpot is just going to keep rising, making your potential big win taste that much sweeter in the end. Some things, they say, are definitely worth waiting for!
Top 5 biggest progressive slots wins of all time
As we've said throughout this article, the unique and exciting thing about progressive slots is their ability to rack up amazingly large jackpots and eventually pay out stupendous wins. And when we say stupendous, we mean out in the stratosphere, change your life forever type wins. The top five all time biggest progressive slots wins between 2011 and 2017 have, oddly enough, been hit on the same, immensely popular, two online progressive slots machines, Mega Fortune Mega and Mega Moolah Mega, as follows:
- Mega Fortune Mega – January 20, 2013 – $20,749,756.00
- Mega Moolah Mega – October 6, 2015 – $ 17,508,125.68
- Mega Fortune Mega – September 23, 2011 – $ 13,633,583.00
- Mega Moolah Mega – November 5, 2016 – $11,633, 898.00
- Mega Moolah Mega – August 28, 2016 – $11,609,942.00
Now that's some serious cash folks, and why progressive slots are really the way to go if you're looking for that one, eternally life changing spin to rocket you into the millionaires' club in the blink of an eye.
The 3 most popular progressive slots
The most played progressive online slots come from completely different places on the online slot spectrum. Perhaps the world's favorite online progressive slot is Mega Moolah. With Mega Moolah chalking up 3 of the top five all time progressive slots wins, paying out a total of $40,751,965.68 between 2015 and 2016 alone, it's easy to see why players love to take a spin on Mega Moolah in hopes of walking away with a mind blowing mountain of cash. The slot itself is a fairly traditional 5-reel, 25 payline slot machine offering up an animal theme featuring winning lions, giraffes, zebras, ibis and water buffalo among classic 10, jack, queen, king and ace card symbols.
Mega Moolah's wild is the King of the Jungle, the lion symbol, and works in place of any other symbol except scatters. The lion wild adds a 2x prize multiplier to any wins. Bonus rounds, triggered by the monkey scatter symbols, dole out a 3x prize multiplier and 15 free spins.
At the end of the day, however, it's the Mega Moolah progressive jackpot that's the true King of the Jungle. The progressive jackpot actually comes in four different tiers win a minimum prize of GBP 10, GBP 100, GBP 1,000 and GBP 1 million for each tier respectively. According to available statistics, the progressive jackpot on this immensely popular slot is triggered once every 12 weeks on average, making it the single most popular progressive jackpot slot in the world.
Coming in number two is Gladiator, based on the blockbuster movie directed by Ridley Scott and starring Russel Crowe. Brilliantly animated, with bonus round scenes from the movie, Gladiator is a 5-reel, 25 payline slot that even includes two bonus features that pay out up to 5,000 times your original bet.
Again, while Gladiator has fantastic bonus rounds, prize multipliers as well as wilds and scatters, it's real charm is in its progressive jackpot. Its minimum starts at $58,000 and regularly goes well over $1 million.
The third most popular progressive jackpot slot in the world today is the Arabian Nights slot. Based on the epic story One Thousand and One Arabian Nights, this machine is a classic 5-reel, 10 payline slot with great bonus rounds, free spins and prize multipliers. The progressive jackpot, however, has been known to hit some pretty amazing heights with the largest win ever at $10,029,641.29 and average jackpot wins of $1,922,576.94.
Progressive slots (and video poker games) offer jackpots that increase every time someone makes a bet up until someone wins. At that point, the progressive jackpot resets to its starting value and starts accumulating again.
The amount that the jackpot rises is based on a tiny percentage of your action on the machine. Most progressive slot machines are now pooled with other machines so that the jackpot goes up fast, although some games are still standalone progressives.
The best way to think about progressive slots is that they're the slot machine equivalent of a lottery game. The odds of winning are long, but the prizes are huge. In most lotteries, the size of the prize increases from drawing to drawing until someone wins the lottery.
You'll know you're playing a progressive jackpot game because it will feature a prominent jackpot meter showing the size of the jackpot. This is also sometimes called a 'jackpot ticker,' because it ticks upward as players on the network lose bets into the machines on that network.
This post features 10 of the most interesting facts I could find about progressive slot machines.
1 – Megabucks Is the Biggest Slot Machine Jackpot
Megabucks is IGT's most famous progressive slot machine. It's a state-wide game run in Nevada, and it's the main reason the state doesn't have an actual lottery. Who needs a lottery when you can just play the Megabucks slot machine?
Megabucks isn't new either, the games have been available now for a couple of decades. Several people have won millions of dollars over the history of the game.
To play Megabucks, you must wager $3. It's a dollar machine with a three-coin maximum bet. If you don't place the maximum bet, you're not eligible for the jackpot.
In Nevada, at least 750 different slot machines in over 125 different casinos pool those tiny contributions to grow that $10 million jackpot faster than you'd think is possible.
The odds of winning Megabucks is similar to that of winning the lottery, 50 million to 1. And like the lottery, winners get paid in the form of an annuity that pays annual installments over the next 25 years.
Legal gambling age in puerto rico. If you go with the cash option, you can settle for 60% of the prize amount as just plain cash. It's hard to deny that Megabucks is the most interesting progressive jackpot game in the United States.
2 – Megabucks Has a Curse Associated With It
Some gamblers believe that if you win Megabucks, you have a greater than usual probability of dying young.
This legend of the 'Megabucks curse' stems from the death of Cynthia Jay-Brennan, a cocktail waitress who won $35 million Megabucks only to be paralyzed in a car wreck. Jay-Brennan's sister died in the wreck, which was caused by a drunk driver.
Most of the other tales of woe related to Megabucks are nothing more than urban legends, though.
It's the opinion of this blogger that the wreck was just 'one of those things,' and Cynthia Jay-Brennan has my sympathy.
3 – Progressive Jackpots Can Put the Odds in the Players' Favor
Any game with a progressive jackpot can offer a player a positive expectation bet if the jackpot is large enough.
The trouble with slot machines is that no one knows exactly what the payback percentage for the game is, so it's impossible to determine what the size of the jackpot would have to be.
But in other games with progressive jackpots, like video poker, you can compute the break-even point for the game and only play after the jackpot has exceeded that point.
The optimal strategy for playing such a game changes based on the size of that jackpot, too.
What Does A Progressive Slot Machine Look Like Now
4 – Some Progressive Games Get Attached by Advantage Player Teams
An advantage player is a gambler who only gambles when he has an edge over the casino. The classic example of an advantage gambler is a card counter in blackjack.
But we already discussed how a gambler could have an advantage at a progressive slot machine game.
They play as a team until someone on the team wins the progressive jackpot, and the team then splits the profits. Some casinos don't mind this type of advantage play much, because even though the players have an edge, the jackpot comes mostly from players' contributions to the game over time.
Other casinos have policies forbidding team play and will back off or bar such players.
5 – Slot Machines With Progressive Jackpots Have Worse Odds
What Does A Progressive Slot Machine Look Like To Be
You measure the casino's advantage with a slot machine by looking at the payback percentage, or return to player percentage, for the game. This is the flip side of the house edge.
The payback percentage estimates an average amount that will be returned to the player in winnings over the long run based on the odds of winning and the prize amounts. The house edge estimates how much the player will lose on each bet.
The higher the payback percentage is, the better the game is for the player. For example, a slot machine game with a 98% payback percentage is better than a slot machine game with an 88% payback percentage.
Generally, there are two factors that ensure the progressive jackpot games have a lower payback percentage.
- The first is simple to understand. A percentage of each bet is diverted toward increasing the size of the jackpot. That amount comes directly from the payback percentage of the game.
- The second is only slightly harder to understand. A large percentage of the game's payback percentage is based on the payout from the jackpot. If a game has a 95% payback percentage, 5% of that might be made up of the jackpot.
But with a game where you only have a 1 in 50 million or even 1 in 10 million chance of seeing that jackpot, the payback percentage before that jackpot gets hit will necessarily be lower than that 95%.
The more economical choice for slot players is always the flat-top slot machine, not the progressive slot machine.
6 – Mega Moolah Is Probably the Best Progressive Jackpot Online
Mega Moolah is an online-only progressive slot machine game with five reels and 25 paylines. The game's symbols and sound effects have an African theme, with elephants and zebras.
In the decade since Microgaming launched Mega Moolah, no other online slot machine game has produced as many millionaires.
The prizes for Mega Moolah have ranged from $5 million to $13 million. That $13 million was the biggest online jackpot win in history, too.
7 – You Usually Can't Win the Progressive Jackpot Unless You Play Max Coins
Most slot machines have a denomination and a maximum number of coins you can wager. Most of the time, you can bet less than the minimum without any kind of adverse effects.
But progressive slots, like video poker games, are an exception.
If you don't bet the maximum number of coins, you're usually ineligible to win the progressive jackpot.
This doesn't make much of a practical difference, since the probability of winning a progressive jackpot is practically zero anyway. Once the probability of an event gets small enough, it might as well be zero.
8 – Some Online Casinos ONLY Offer Progressive Jackpots
One online casino, Slotland, offers a minimal number of games, but they all share the same progressive jackpot. You can't play there from the United States, but it's probably just as well. The casino has some misleading practices, especially in terms of how their video poker and blackjack games work.
When a casino offers a video blackjack or video poker game, they're implying that those games follow the same probabilities you'd see if they were using a deck of playing cards.
If you're okay with that, it might be okay to play there, but the most interesting thing about that casino is that all the games tie into the one big jackpot.
9 – A Standalone Progressive Offers Better Odds
You'll find three different kinds of progressive slot machines:
- Standalone progressives
- Local area progressives
- Wide area progressives
A standalone progressive slot machine is one where the jackpot can only be won on that machine. But playing on that machine counts toward raising the jackpot. The size of the jackpot on a standalone game is almost always smaller than the jackpot on other kinds of machines.
A local area progressive network is a network of machines in the same casino, usually all within a short distance of each other. These jackpots are bigger than what you'd see on a standalone progressive, but not as big as you'll see with a wide area progressive jackpot.
A wide area progressive jackpot is similar to what you see with Megabucks. Multiple machines in multiple locations feed the jackpot. This game has the biggest prizes.
The best odds for the player can be found at the standalone progressive slots, because the jackpot is smaller. In fact, the lower the jackpot, the better the odds are in general with a slot machine game.
10 – You Can Win the Progressive Even With Your Slots Club Card Inserted
There's a popular myth/urban legend that you can't win the top jackpot on a slot machine if you're playing with the slots club card inserted. This isn't true.
The random number generator running these machines isn't aware of whether you're playing with your slots club card inserted or not. It's impossible for it to have such an effect on your gaming experience.
What Does A Progressive Slot Machine Look Like
Conclusion
Progressive slot machines can be a lot of fun as long as you know what you're getting yourself into. Generally, I recommend avoiding them for games with lower jackpots, but certain players prefer to play for big, life-changing prizes.
What Does A Progressive Slot Machine Look Like As A
If that's your cup of tea, be my guest. What kinds of facts about progressive slots do you know that I haven't covered here? Leave a comment and let me know.