Progressive Jackpot Slots

Jackpots might not be the only reason that millions of people love playing slots – though they are certainly a significant factor. The amount you can win in a jackpot payout, both at live casinos and online, has been growing significantly in recent years. You’ll find million dollar+ payouts almost everywhere, and pools which are several times this amount are being regularly won.

This article covers the topic of progressive jackpot slots in depth. First of all below, the concept is introduced by explaining about the different types of progressive available to play. After that some examples of online progressive jackpots can be found, covering several of the main casino software manufacturers. The costs and benefits of choosing a game with a big payout, compared to a lower variance game is the subject of the last section of this page.

How Progressive Jackpot Slots Work

The core idea of progressive jackpots is that they keep going up and up until someone wins the prize. Once you start looking into the subject, you’ll soon realize that the area is a little more complex than just a single big pool attached to one slot game.

Jackpots can be for individual slot games, they can be shared between similar (or identical) slots at the same casino – or they can be linked between different casinos hosting the same game. Some of the biggest prizes fall into this last category. The link creates a ‘virtuous circle’, having several casinos involves makes the prize pool grow faster, and the bigger prize pool attracts a lot more players to give the game a try.

There is often more than one progressive jackpot attached to a slot game. Some games have up to 6, though 4 is more common. These vary in size, and give you the opportunity to get a welcome boost to your bankroll which is not life-changing money.

Progressive Jackpot Slots at Different Slots Manufacturers

All of the largest slots software makers now feature linked prize pools at casinos which feature their games. Here are some of the bets known jackpot slots you can enjoy online. You’ll find many of these at the www.Guts.com as well as Lucky Red Casino which is a good option for US players.

MicroGaming are well known for their Mega Moolah Slot game. This has a progressive jackpot which regularly hits the $1 million+ mark, and has paid out more than $3 million in the past. This is a simple game which features wild animals. You can win the big prize, which is linked between MicroGaming Casinos, via a spinning reel feature round.

PlayTech have several slots with progressive jackpots. The best known of these are their Marvel range, which feature characters from the comics and movies. All of these games share a jackpot, which is regularly in the high 6-figure range. Again, the prize pool is shared between many casinos which use the PlayTech software.

NetEnt have their own range of linked jackpots. The bling-inspired Mega Riches is the biggest of these, and has paid out multi-million jackpots on several occasions in the past.

IGT are best known for their brick and mortar slot games. They pioneered the first linked jackpots in Las Vegas in the 1980s, and produce live slot games which pay out prizes in excess of $10 million. IGT games are now available online too.

Realtime Gaming have a unique twist on their progressive jackpots. Instead of paying out when certain symbols line up, or as part of a feature – these drop totally at random. You can find junk symbols covering your reels, and end up winning a 7-figure jackpot.

Many of the smaller software houses also produce games with progressive jackpots, and many of those listed above have smaller prizes linked to individual machines.

Pros and Cons of Progressive Jackpot Slots

I am sure that the positives of playing progressive jackpot games do not need too much in the way of explanation. Even if you are not lucky enough to win life-changing money, the chance that this might happen does add some excitement and interest to your slots session.

The negatives are that part of your coins is being taken away every time you spin. This makes the big-prize slots higher variance on average than the games without these. Over a very long period of time, the payback percentages might be identical for a jackpot and non-jackpot game. Since the biggest prizes are won by one person, and very irregularly, the experience of most players is that their payback percentage is lower.

As long as you are aware of the math, there is no reason that this should put you off of playing games with jackpots attached. For me, that part of the coin taken to increase the progressive pool is a small price to pay for dreaming about what I would do with the million once it comes my way.