Everything you need to know about progressive jackpot slots
The allure of gambling isn’t in the flashy icons, smoke-filled rooms, or all-you-can-eat buffets. No, it’s in the jackpot: the mythical, life-changing sum of money that you could win at any time. If you’re chasing that $10 million payout, you’re probably playing a game that utilizes a progressive jackpot. But what is this, and how does it differ from a regular jackpot? It’s simple – it is a jackpot that grows over time, unlike regular jackpots which remain at a fixed value forever.
The idea behind a progressive jackpot game is pretty simple, as it opens the door to allowing players to win a truly life-changing sum of money. The type of money that dreams are made of. This does, however, mean that odds of winning on a progressive slot spin are much higher than on a standard slot. But, to be honest, that’s all part of the fun and why many like to give these games a try – everyone loves an underdog, right?
Progressive jackpot slots are a mainstay at any casino, digital or online. Progressive jackpots are the ones that make the news, and every casino loves the publicity that comes with winning one. Forget poker, blackjack, keno, and all the other distractions. If you want to win, progressive jackpots are the way to go, as they have the power to make you a seven-figure winner in an instant!
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How do progressive jackpot slots work?
Progressive jackpot slots are the alternative to classic flat-line jackpots. These are jackpots that grow over time as players gamble at the machines. Many casinos will link these machines together so that they share jackpot information with each other, effectively allowing a single jackpot to be shared across an entire network. This can cause jackpots to grow to absolutely MASSIVE proportions. We’re not talking about just five-figure or six-figure wins here either, as most progressive jackpots are able to reach at least the low seven-figure range before they payout.
Progressive jackpots will continue to balloon in size until somebody lands them, not unlike a lottery. Progressive jackpots seldom have any kind of cap, which means that they can grow to be millions of dollars in size. As you can imagine, the competition for this jackpot is fierce, meaning that you shouldn’t hesitate to play when the stakes are high! These jackpots are governed by a Random Number Generator (RNG), meaning that the odds of striking it rich remain the same for everybody, and are always fair to each player.
The biggest progressive jackpot wins in casino history
It is not an exaggeration to say that winning a progressive jackpot will completely transform your life. It is very overwhelming for some people when they suddenly go from poor or middle income to rich in the blink of an eye. Unlike more traditional avenues to wealth, they’ve had no time to acclimate or adjust to their new life. For the following five people this scenario was their reality, and all of their lives completely changed after winning that huge sum of money.
Ready to find out about the five biggest progressive jackpot wins of all-time? Let’s dive straight in at number five, with a winner that won just shy of $10 million!
No. 5 – $9.2 million – Mega Moolah Slot
Mega Moolah is one of the most popular slot games out there, mostly due to its penchant for paying out some serious jackpots. This game’s reputation is so well-established that it is even called the Millionaire Maker! This reputation proved to be well-earned for one lucky man, who managed to win over $9 million after placing $7.20 on a spin. We think this is a pretty good return on their investment.
If you think that this win is big, strap in, as the progressive jackpot payouts only get bigger from here.
No. 4 – $9.57 million – Mega Fortune Slot
This famous NetEnt title is popular due to its propensity to dish out big jackpots from time to time. For the Swedish gambler Alexander, this could not have been any truer. On November 28th 2015, he promptly won the game’s ultimate jackpot of $9.57 million, allowing him to pay off his mortgage and surprise his wife with some lovely gifts. And of course, Mega Fortune got some serious publicity out of it as well.
No. 3 – €11,736,375 – Mega Fortune Slot
This shows just how much Mega Fortune really lives up to its name. This fortune was won by an extremely fortunate man from Norway in 2011, who decided to play a few games of slots on a whim one night. Thinking he was going to get a brief respite from his restlessness, he instead came into a life-changing sum of money, which at the time was the largest jackpot ever won from an online slots game. He was even awarded the Guinness World Record for it!
No. 2 – £13.2 million – Mega Moolah Slot
Notice a theme with these names? This slot once again lived up to its informal moniker when Jonathan Heywood struck virtual gold on October 6th, 2015. He was playing conservatively at 25 pence per spin and was not expecting to win much. Imagine his surprise when he walked out 13.2 million pounds richer! Jonathan did not let the sudden fortune go to his head, because he mentioned that he would use some of his riches to help care for his ailing father. Unlike some jackpot winners, this story had a happy ending for all involved.
It’s almost time for the number one entry in our countdown, drumroll please…
No. 1 – €17,861,800 – Mega Fortune Slot
This is proof that online casinos offer the same kinds of life-changing jackpots that real-world casinos do. This anonymous man from Finland was not seeking to make big bucks. He was only spending 25 cents per spin on Mega Fortune, hoping to kill some time. Unexpectedly, his small investment suddenly exploded into a nearly €18 million fortune, changing the 40-something-year-old man’s life forever. His reaction? He didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry.
Well, there you have it, five record-breaking winners and five times that progressive jackpot slots have stolen the headlines. Now you understand that huge jackpots are there to be won, it’s time to get serious and start trying these games on for size yourself.
How do you increase your chances of winning a progressive jackpot?
We know how much you want to win that big prize. It’s enticing to think about all the ways in which your life will change if you strike it rich. But you’ve gotta do your research before you play, and that means developing a winning strategy. Progressive slots have low odds of success, and everything you do to make them more in your favor helps.
There is no way to predict exactly when the jackpot is going to hit – that’s part of the allure of playing. Trust me, if somebody could do that then they’d be banned from ever stepping foot in a casino again. Instead, what you can do is arm yourself with the knowledge to make the smartest plays. If you follow these tips, you’ll help stretch your funds further, and hopefully your luck as well.
Top Tip No. 1 – Stick by the biggest progressive jackpot games
Okay, so we want to emphasize that the odds of winning don’t actually go up over time. But what IS true is that if you do win, you’re going to win so much more than if you played a progressive slot with a smaller top prize. This is also why you want to look for slots that are wide-area; these slots pool the jackpot across many different casinos, vastly increasing the size of the jackpot. If you’re not sure what to play, find the one with the biggest prize and stick to it.
Top Tip No. 2 – Always do your homework and know your slot
This is a gimme, or at least it should be. There are a plethora of well-written guides that will give you statistical breakdowns of thousands of well-known slot games. These guides will expand upon individual titles with a torrent of numbers that you didn’t even know existed. These are all designed to give you the edge when it comes to selecting the right game for you.
Slots games are a dime a dozen these days and choosing the one that maximizes your odds of success should be your ultimate priority. A particularly important metric to look at is the house edge for the slot. This tells you how much money the casino makes off of you in the long run, and it heavily factors into the odds of winning the big jackpot. Make sure your guide tells you exactly what this figure is, so you can make the best decision.
Top Tip No. 3 – Grab as many online casino bonuses as you can
These are basically free money, or at least get as close as possible to it. Casinos love to reward loyal patrons with goodies and freebies that incentivize playing with them, and they cost nothing to you. If your casino has a rewards or VIP program, take advantage of it. These include things like no deposit bonuses, free spins, tickets, or even real-life prizes like cruises and tickets. Before you sign up anywhere, do your research and find out how a casino is going to try and keep your business.
Now, these bonuses aren’t going to make you rich, but what you do with them can. It’s all about getting the maximum life out of these offers. Just watch out for wagering requirements, withdrawal requirements, and other sneaky terms and conditions as you use them, as you don’t want to be caught out should you win big.
Top Tip No. 4 – Keep a casino’s cashout limits in mind at all times
This is a really sneaky trick that some casinos will try to pull on unsuspecting gamblers. Imagine this: you’ve struck the big one. Your life has changed in an instant, and as the initial shock gradually wears off you begin to wonder what your life will look like without worrying about money anymore. Sounds like a dream come true, right?
Except for some casinos, it isn’t, because they limit how much you can cash out per month. Rather than get lump sums, you instead only receive a portion of your prize each month. Sure, it’s not the worst possible outcome. But you don’t want to get piecemeal sums – that’s not exciting at all. Make sure your casino doesn’t have withdrawal limits before you play.
Top Tip No. 5 – Know when to call it a day and walk away
Let us make it clear so nobody has any misconceptions, it isn’t easy or common to land a win on a progressive jackpot. In fact, it’s the rarest of the rare, so don’t ever expect to win when you spin the reels of a game like this – the odds are super high. We always say to people, split your gambling budget into different parts, with the smallest part being for progressive slots.
The truth is that slots are the long slot, the Hail Mary pass, or the go big or go home part of the online slots experience. Should you play progressive slots? Absolutely, but you should certainly limit what you spend and know when to call it a day when the reels aren’t spinning your way.
Progressive Jackpot FAQ
Okay, so we’ve looked at the biggest wins and given you some top tips on how you can start smashing the biggest progressive slots around. But we know that you still have plenty of pressing questions when it comes to progressive slot games. Don’t worry, we’re never going to leave you out in the cold, so here’s are ultimate progressive slots FAQ, so you can know exactly what’s what next time you spin the reels.
Progressive Jackpots didn’t really start to become a thing until casino machines could begin communicating with each other. When the first RNG generators came out in the 1980s, casinos began to experiment with the format. It’s safe to say that this experiment was a huge success.
Soon after online casinos broke into the mainstream, progressive jackpots followed suit. It’s safe to say that since their arrival, they’ve far surpassed what is found at land-based casinos, delivering bigger action and more importantly bigger prizes.
There are three primary kinds that you should worry about – a wide-area progressive jackpot, a stand-alone progressive jackpot, and an in-house progressive jackpot.
A wide-area progressive jackpot is the one you really want to look for. These are polled across games from lots of different casinos and accordingly offer the biggest jackpots. A stand-alone Progressive jackpot is one that does NOT link to other games. The size of the jackpot is solely determined within the game itself. And lastly, an in-house progressive jackpot pools together information from all the similar games within a single casino. They don’t include outside casinos, and so are not as large as wide-area progressive jackpots.
That might be a lot of information to process, but rest assured that no matter the type of progressive jackpot slot you choose to play, a bumper payday is guaranteed should you win.
One of these things is not like the other, as the old saying goes. A non-progressive jackpot is one in which the prize never changes from one spin to the next. Progressive jackpots are spread across lots of casinos, while non-progressive ones are not. These usually offer better odds of winning, but the prizes are much smaller.
As of 2013, the biggest win ever from an online progressive slots jackpot was €17,861,800 by a man in Finland. It’s safe to say that this huge payout is going to take some beating, so we certainly see this super-impressive record win standing for many more years yet.
Simple – you don’t, and don’t believe anyone that says otherwise. There is no special sign that a progressive slot is due a payout, as these games just don’t work that way That’s what makes the prospect of hitting the jackpot so exciting. In spite of what some players might think, the odds of hitting the jackpot don’t go up as the winning total goes up. What is true is that more people play as it hits increasingly huge totals, which is why you never see billion-dollar jackpots emerge.
There isn’t a direct answer to this question, because it will depend on how much you’re willing to pony up, as there are hundreds of progressive jackpot slots out there. You’ve got to spend money to make money as they say, and progressive jackpots are designed to reward those who spend more money on each spin. If you really want to get the most out of your funds, stick to slots that have lower overall prizes but higher denominations. They won’t make you rich, but your odds of winning will go up.
Right here of course, but you know that already. All jokes aside, the beauty of progressive jackpot slots is that they are networked across a bunch of online casinos, so you’ll be able to jump in and enjoy them here, there, and everywhere. Make no mistake, you won’t have to look far to find the biggest progressive slots that’ll help you put big bucks in your back pocket.
No. Money management has absolutely no bearing on what your odds of success will look like. What it is designed to do is ensure that you can hold onto the money you do win while limiting your losses during an unlucky streak. Plus, money management helps your funds last longer, which means more spins and more chances to win.
Casinos also offer ways to go about this. Players are typically offered deposit limits so as to keep track of how much they are actually spending. It sucks to lose, but it’s worse to walk away with nothing.
Feel the Power of a Progressive Jackpot slots!
We’ll never knock the fun that can be had spinning the reels of standard slot games. Some say you can beat the feel of rocking the reels of a classic 3-reel game, and who are we to argue? These non-progressive jackpot games are all well and good, but the truth is that progressive jackpot slots have them beat on the fun front. More features mean more fun as far as we’re concerned, and progressive slots are packed with them, that’s before you even start looking at the eye-watering prizes up for grabs.
The money you can win on a progressive jackpot isn’t like anything you’ll find on any other slot, let alone another casino game. In fact, the rest of the casino floor might as well pack up and go home, as they can’t match the action in our opinion. As you can see from the above, progressive slots can make you a millionaire or multi-millionaire in an instant – talk about life-changing. There is no doubt about it if you want to start winning the serious big bucks, you need to start playing the biggest progressive jackpot slot games around sooner rather than later.
