Progressive slots are slot machines that offer jackpots that are bigger than the norm. The slot machines are connected by a network across many casinos, with the result that many players feed the available winnings pot.
Some of these online slots, such as the Mega Moolah slot and the Mega Jackpots Slots, have progressive jackpots that start at £1,000,000- these amounts can be life changing and it is often easier to group these kind of machines in with lotteries due to the big payouts. But remember, for every huge win, there has been many players feeding the jackpot.
Every slot fan has probably dreamed of hitting The Big Fat One- the odds of hitting the jackpot are low of course, but does this mean that you should play these machines or avoid them?
Let´s run through the basics:
Progressive slots machines are a network of many slots linked together over the Internet. A slice of all the money that is played across multiple machines and multiple casinos is taken to build up a big jackpot- so the pay off grows as more and more players play the machine, until someone gets lucky. Often you will see activity become more frenzied towards the end of the run as players assume that the jackpot is overdue.
Generally the house edge is higher on these machines- that´s the pay off- you take more risk for winning a big sum.
Whereas in land-based casinos, you can get progressive jackpots on individual machines and within one casino (as well as across multiple casinos), when you are playing online, the progressive jackpot is linked among casinos that use the same software platform to run their games.
Let´s take Betway casino and Spin Palace casino as an example. These are 2 different casinos run by 2 dfferent companies, but they both use Microgaming software to power their games. They have a progressive slot machine called the Mega Moolah progressive in their range of games.
The jackpot here is linked across both casinos (and in fact many other casinos that use the same casino games platform). If someone wins £4,000,000 at Spin Palace, all the casinos in the network contribute towards the cost of paying the winnings out- they share the risk, in other words (kind of like insurance). It´s worth their while, because they know that these huge jackpots are a real draw into their casinos.
Personally speaking, we play progressive slots from time to time, but we don´t make it the be all and end all of our game play. If we have some fat in our bankroll, we might invest some on a progressive- because you never know. But we don´t play these machine 100% of the time. It’s more of a lottery type bet.
