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All you need to know about progressive slots
Slot machines are one of the most popular casino games of all time. They’re what greets you upon entering a casino lobby, whether it’s brick and mortar or online. Gamers live for the thrill of the spin and the excitement that comes with the chance of winning thousands more than their bet.
Plus, slot machines don’t require a high level of knowledge or skill for you to play them. You just place a bet and push the spin button, hoping the reels will be in your favour. This makes slot machines accessible to all kinds of punters, from beginners to professionals alike. It evens the playing field since everyone has the same chances of winning.
For professional gamers, however, online slots are often overlooked because they don’t pay off bigger bucks in comparison to table games. And that’s why progressive jackpot slots are the answer. they give slot players a chance to become instant millionaires with multi-tiered jackpots. Learn everything you need to know about progressive slots here, from their mechanics to their gameplay.
What is a Progressive Slot?
Progressive slots work the same way as regular slots. Usually, there are 3 to 5 reels that contain high-paying and low-paying symbols. To start playing, you place a bet and push the spin button. Whenever you land 3 or more matching symbols on any of the game’s pay lines, you score instant prizes. This is one of the progressive slots advantage that you can use.
Progressive slots vs regular slots
The difference between progressive slots and regular slots lies in their jackpots. In regular slots, you usually win the jackpot by landing a 5-of-a-kind combination on the highest-paying symbol. This is usually the Scatter or Wild if both special symbols apply.
However with progressive slots, you get the chance to win any of the jackpots in a bonus game triggered by landing special symbols. Bonus games come in different forms, and vary according to the slot. The wheel of fortune set-up is one of the more popular types of bonus games, but there are others such as pinball-style gameplay.
Jackpots in regular slots are most often in the thousands. You typically won’t find a regular slot that can reward up to millions at a time. In progressive slots, however, this is pretty common and some jackpots can climb up to tens of millions.
How do progressive slots work?
Jackpots in regular slots cannot compare to the jackpots you can win in progressive games. Progressive slot machine jackpots are bigger because they continuously grow every time the slot is played. The pot grows because a percentage of every bet placed on the game is added to the progressive jackpot. As long as no one has won the jackpot, it will just continue growing until someone wins it.
The more people play the slot, the more the jackpot increases in value. That’s why games with a large player base such as Microgaming’s Mega Moolah have some of the largest prizes to be won on a slot machine.
Are progressive slots better than regular slots?
You’ll find your answer depends on a deciding factor. If you think the bigger the jackpot, the better, then yes, progressive jackpot slots are better. But in terms of gameplay, they usually do not differ from regular slots except from special features.
Though there are also regular slots with special features. The odds of winning progressive slots are relatively the same with regular slots. In terms of entertainment, both slots offer the kind of fun but progressive slots definitely offer more thrill because of the jackpot.
Forms or tiers
There are often three jackpot tiers in a progressive slot: the mini, major, or mega jackpots. Mini and major have lower values compared to the mega since they are won more often than the grand prize.
All jackpots increase as more players place bets, but the mini and major have lower prizes because they are won more regularly than the mega jackpot. Whenever someone wins the low or mid-tier jackpots, their values reset to default while the mega jackpot continues to rack up more money.
The mega jackpot comes with lower chances of winning but it’s not impossible to make it happen. Once you snatch the grand prize, you’ll take home a pot worth millions, all collected over a long period of time.
How to win on progressive slot machines?
Progressive slots always have a bonus feature where you can try your luck in winning any of the jackpots. Wheel of fortune is one of the more popular forms. In some cases, this feature activates at random, so you have to keep on spinning until the feature activates and you can then try your luck. In other slots, the feature needs to be activated by landing a combination of special symbols. Only then can you play the bonus game and try winning the jackpot.
Basically, the same principle in regular slots applies in progressive slots. You just have to keep spinning and hope luck is on your side. Progressive slots are much like regular slots, only with bigger jackpots and lots of exciting features.
Types of progressive slots
There are different types of progressive slots that vary in their way of collecting a percentage of a players’ bet. This often depends on the type of casino you’re playing in. Land casinos often have standalone and local progressive slots while online casinos have wider ranging progressive slots.
Standalone Progressive
Standalone progressive slots only collect bets placed on that specific machine to feed the jackpot. This is the earliest type of progressive jackpot slot, and it’s often found in brick and mortar casinos.
Only bets placed in a specific machine are added in the grand jackpot. Nowadays, most progressive slots are linked together, meaning all bets placed in the game, regardless of location, are collected into the jackpot. But there are still standalone progressive slots in casinos all over the world, with jackpots usually ranging from $5,000 to $10,000.
Local Progressive
This type of slot is a level-up from the standalone type. Local progressive slots collect bets from all slot machines in a land casino. It’s no longer limited to a single machine but instead, a network of slot machines contribute to making the jackpot bigger. Grand prizes in local progressive slots typically range from $100,000 to $1,000,000.
Wide Area Network Progressive
Wide area network progressive slots are the most dominant type of slot machines with progressive jackpots. It collects from all slot machines in different casinos at the same time. This large network of machines causes the jackpot to rise up to tens of millions.
Online casinos contribute largely to the growing value of progressive slots since they make these types of slots instantly accessible to players all over the world playing at the same time.
The wide area network is the most popular type of progressive slot today and thousands of slot games have this feature. Its popularity reigns supreme in online and offline casinos because of their huge prizes. To date, the record of the highest online jackpot won stands at around $21,500,000 from Microgaming’s Mega Moolah.
Best progressive slots
There are thousands of progressive slot games from leading gaming providers. Microgaming and NetEnt are especially popular for their progressive jackpot slots with entertaining visuals and immersive gameplay. Check out some of the best progressive slots to play below:
Mega Moolah
Microgaming’s Mega Moolah is one of the most popular progressive jackpot slots in the industry today. As a fan favourite, it earned the nickname ‘millionaire maker’. Mega Moolah features 4 types of jackpots: Mini, Minor, Major, and of course, the coveted Mega jackpot that resets back to 1 million as soon as it is won.
In 2015, Mega Moolah earned a Guinness World Record for the ‘Largest jackpot payout in an online slot machine game’ when it paid €17,879,645.12 to a lucky player. But in September 2018, the record was broken by the same game when someone hit the mega jackpot, standing at €18,915,872.81. Microgaming currently has the largest network of progressive jackpot slots in the industry and has paid out more than €948,000,000 to date.
Try your luck today in the best progressive slot with 5 reels and 25 paylines. You don’t have to bet at maximum in order to trigger the bonus since it activates at random. Even with a low bet, you could win millions!
Major Millions
Major Millions comes from Microgaming’s wide range of progressive slots. It offers two types of gameplay: the classic 3 reels and 3 paylines or the video slot version with 5 reels and 15 paylines. No matter which type you choose to play, the million dollar jackpot doesn’t change.
In the classic version, landing 3 Wilds on the third payline grants you the single jackpot whilst in the video version, you’ll have to land 5 Wilds on the 15th payline to snatch the highest prize. Additionally, you’ll have to play at maximum bet if you want to take home the jackpot. Today, the Major Millions jackpot stands at €1,778,653, and it’s well on its way to passing the highest payout record of €1,945,884.
Words by: Leann Padilla
