Progressive Jackpot Slots – Guide

Progressive Jackpot Slots

If you’re looking to win that life-changing amount of money – you have a number of options at your disposal. For example, you could play the Mega Millions lottery game, albeit, your chances of winning are virtually non-existent.

You might also consider heading over to a land-based casino in Las Vegas, but do you really want to take the grueling trip? Instead, why not consider playing progressive slots from within the comfort of your own home?

In doing so, you’ll have access to dozens of online progressive games that not only offer multi-million dollar payouts, but they also come jam-packed with exciting in-game specials, bonuses, and feature rounds. As such, you’ll be entertained throughout the end-to-end slot experience.

If this sounds like something that you’d like to explore further, be sure to read our comprehensive Progressive Slot Machine Guide. Within it, we’ll give you a full breakdown of what a progressive slot is, how they work, whether they are fair, and what you need to look out for when choosing the best machine.

What are progressive slots online?

In its most basic form, progressive slots are simply online slot machines that offer huge jackpots. By huge, we mean jackpot prizes that often surpass a million dollars. At the time of writing, one of the largest progressive jackpot slot wins came via hugely-popular title Mega Moolah. The win – which amounts to the US dollar-equivalent of £13.2 million, was won on a single spin of just $0.25. Sound too good to be true?

Absolutely not.

If you’re wondering how a single online casino could afford to pay out such a significant amount of money, the simple answer to this is that they don’t. On the contrary, the jackpot is based on a progressive scale that sees hundreds of casinos pool player stakes together, subsequently ensuring that the jackpot grows to huge heights in a short period of time. Don’t worry, we’ll explain the fundamentals of the progressive network system in the next section.

It is also important to note that progressive jackpots will keep on increasing until the jackpot is won. This operates in a similar way to a rollover lottery game that eventually sees the lucky winner(s) take all! However, unlike a conventional lottery game – which will see multiple players share the prize pool if more than one ticket holds the all-important winnings numbers, only one person can win the jackpot on a progressive jackpot game.

How are progressive jackpots paid?

As we briefly note in the above section, a single progressive slot game will typically be held across hundreds, if not thousands of individual casino sites. The mechanism that allows casinos to merge player stakes into a centralized pool is the ‘progressive jackpot network’. In layman terms, the underlying software provider behind the slot game in question will act as an intermediary between all of the casinos that chooses to host the game.

This means that every time a player spins the reels, a percentage of the stake will go into the central pot. This process will continue to repeat itself indefinitely until somebody eventually nets the progressive jackpot. Once the jackpot is won, then the progressive network will reset to zero. At the time of writing, the largest progressive jackpot networks are run by NetEnt, Microgaming, and Playtech – who collectively, pay out millions of dollars in prizes each and every week.

Progressive slot machines tips: Choosing the best machines

With heaps of progressive slots now in the market, how do you know which machine to go with? While you might be tempted to go with the slot title that carries the largest payout, this might not be the most effective strategy.

Instead, we would suggest making some considerations on the following metrics.

• RTP:

  The RTP (Return to Player) is the long-term statistical house-edge that slot machine games have over you. For example, if the RTP was fixed at 97%, this means that over the course of time, the slot machine would retain 3% of all player stakes.

  Essentially, the higher the RTP percentage rate, the more chance you have of walking away a winner in the long-run. With that being said, you should attempt to ascertain what the RTP of your chosen progressive slot game is prior to playing it.

• Win-Frequency Rate:

  In a similar nature to the RTP, the win-frequency rate will determine how frequently your chosen progressive casino slots title awards you a win. In other words, the lower the ratio, the less frequent that you will land a winning combination – and vice versa.

  As such, you should choose a progressive slot game with an above-average win-frequency rate.

• Average Jackpot Payout

  This particular tip will give you the best chance possible of timing when you decide to start chasing a particular jackpot. You can do this by assessing the size of the progressive jackpot payout that the slot in question pays on average, and compare this against the current size of the jackpot.

  The overarching concept is that if the slot game is currently paying a jackpot prize higher than its long-term average, this would indicate that the machine is potentially due to payout. For example, if the slot historically pays $2.4 million on average, but the current jackpot is at $3.1 million, then we would argue that the jackpot is due to payout at any given time.

Minimum Spin Stakes

The final metric that you need to look out for before choosing a progressive slots title is that of the minimum stake size. More specifically, some progressive slot machines require you to bet at a certain level in order to be eligible for the jackpot. For example, although the base game might come with a minimum spin size of $0.50, you might need to wager $2 per spin to stand a chance of winning the progressive jackpot.

Be careful with this, as we would strongly advise you to focus on smaller spin sizes if you are chasing that life-changing win. Don’t forget, the $17 million+ jackpot won on Mega Moolah was done so at a stake of $0.25 per spin, so there’s no need to be pressured into gambling higher amounts!

Progressive jackpots on your mobile phone

As the very best progressive slot games are backed by leading software providers such as Microgaming, Playtech, and NetEnt, you can be all-but-certain that your favorite title will be available on mobile and tablet devices. Due to the rapid pace that the online casino space has grown at in recent years, there is no longer a requirement to download or install any apps on your phone.

On the contrary, you simply need to access the website of your preferred gambling site via your standard mobile web browser. Crucially, the underlying developer will always optimize their games for smaller screen sizes, subsequently ensuring that the end-to-end progressive slot experience remains enjoyable at all times! 

Bonuses and promotions for progressive slot games

On the one hand, online casinos will always offer new players a welcome package of some sort as a means to entice them to their platform. As you might well know, this will usually come in the form of a matched deposit bonus, or free slot machine spins. This is great, as you literally have hundreds and hundreds of bonuses at your disposal.

However, in the vast majority of cases, you won’t be able to use your bonus funds on a progressive slot game. The reason for this is that you need to remember that the casino is not responsible for the machine’s jackpot prize. On the contrary, this is facilitated by the game’s respective software developer. As such, you likely won’t be able to use your bonus on a progressive slot game. Nevertheless, you can instead use the funds on a non-progressive slot title, such as 3D slots, classic slots, or movie-themed slots!

Are progressive slot games fair?

As we have noted throughout our guide, progressive slot games are backed by established software providers such as NetEnt and Microgaming. Not only have these software developers been servicing the online gambling space since the industry’s inception in the mid-1990s, but they are also in possession of key regulatory licenses. This includes the UK’s Gambling Commission and the Malta Gaming Authority, among others.

The aforementioned license issuers will regularly audit the underlying gaming data held by the respective progressive slot machine, which acts as an additional precautionary measure for safety.

Crucially, these software providers must also get their slot games certified by a regulated Testing House before they can launch them into the online gambling scene. The Testing House will want to ensure beyond doubt that the progressive slot game is 100% true and fair before they give it the all-clear.

How to choose the best online slots sites

Still searching for the best progressive slot sites to facilitate that life-changing win? Fortunately for you, there are thousands of online casinos that offer progressive jackpots. On the flip-side, this makes it difficult to know which gambling site to go with.

This is why we have compiled heaps of online casino reviews on the very best progressive slot platforms. Each review contains a full breakdown of everything that you need to know about the casino, such as payments, withdrawals, customer support, and user-friendliness. As such, we would strongly advise you to read through our reviews prior to joining a new casino site!