If you’re looking to win a jackpot that could change your life, then progressive slots are the game to play. Let’s face it—you’ll never win several hundred thousand playing blackjack or roulette. The payouts just aren’t high enough.
The purpose of this page is to provide an explanation of what progressive slots are, how they work, and why you might be interested in playing them. We’ve also included descriptions of some of the more popular progressive jackpots available both online and in traditional brick-and-mortar casinos.
The most exciting thing about playing casino games is winning, while progressive jackpot party slots provide an opportunity to win more than any other games do. The sums of money you can win are huge, and keep getting bigger with every bet that you or the others place while playing a certain game (individual progressive jackpot) or on multiple slots that form a progressive network, often. The Concept of Hot and Cold Slots Can Mean Little Look up any resource on slots myths and you’ll assuredly find a section on hot and cold games. This concept doesn’t relate directly to what I’ve covered on finding hot progressive jackpots, but rather a frequency on any type of payout.
What Is a Progressive Slot, and How Does It Work?
On most slot machines, the jackpot is a fixed amount, but on a progressive game, the jackpot rises as players put coins in the machine and spin the wheels. A tiny percentage of each coin played is used to “feed” the jackpot. There are three types of progressive slot machine games.
Progressive Slots Meaning Dictionary
Standalone Progressives
A standalone progressive slot machine has a jackpot ticker on the game, but only bets placed on that specific machine feed the jackpot. This was, at one time, the only kind of progressive slot machine game available, but most progressives feature multiple machines that are linked together. Still, so many standalone machines were manufactured that these games are still easily found in casinos throughout the world. Usually the jackpot on the games will be under $10,000.
Local Progressives
Local progressives were the next step in the evolution of this type of game, and they’re still commonly found. These games feature jackpots within a specific casino that are linked. This network can include as few as a dozen or so machines, or it can include a hundred machines—it just depends on the casino. Usually the jackpots available on these games are under $1,000,000, and often they’re under $100,000.
Wide Area Network Progressives
These are some of the most popular casino games on the market today. A wide area network jackpot links slot machines from multiple casinos in the same state. This allows the jackpot to accumulate into astronomical sums of money, often over $1 million and sometimes even over $10 million. The most well-known brand of wide area network progressives are the Megabucks games from IGT, which is the most successful slot machine design company in the world.
How Do You Win a Progressive Jackpot?
No strategy or system can increase your chances of winning a progressive jackpot on a slot machine game. The odds of winning are similar to the odds of winning the lottery, although you get many more chances of winning per hour with a slot machine game than you would get playing a lottery game.
An important thing to keep in mind about progressive jackpots is that they don’t become “due”. The chances of winning are astronomically small no matter how large the jackpot has gotten. It’s possible for a jackpot to grow large enough that a bet on a particular slots game will be a positive expectation bet, but it’s not a practical opportunity to win. A 1 in a million shot is still a 1 in a million shot, even if the jackpot is up to $2 million.
Progressive Slot Machines Tips
Online Progressive Jackpots
With the rise of online casinos, progressive jackpots on the Internet have become just as popular as the games in actual land-based casinos. Microgaming is one Internet casino provider which has established its fame and reputation based largely on its large assortment of fun, colorful, and relatively loose progressive jackpot games.
Online progressives work just like their land-based cousins. Every wager you make on your computer feeds a tiny amount into the progressive jackpot for that game. Since lots of players are now gambling from the comfort of their homes, these jackpots can become just as large and life-changing as the progressives in Vegas or Atlantic City.
Most Popular Progressive Games
Megabucks is one of the most popular progressive networks available. The probability of winning this jackpot has been estimated at 1 in 50 million. The amounts won on this machine vary from $10 million into the hundreds of millions. Like many lottery games, Megabucks is paid out as an annuity over 25 years.
Wheel of Fortune is a popular brand of slot machine, and it’s available in multiple denominations. One of the most common versions is the quarter version, which has a starting jackpot of $200,000. The jackpot on this game has gotten close to $2 million in the past, but it’s usually won when it’s still under $1 million.
The dollar version of Wheel of Fortune progressives starts with a $1 million jackpot. It’s not unusual for the game to reach $5 million or more, and it’s almost reach $10 million on occasion. Like Megabucks, this jackpot is paid out as an annuity over time.
Elvis isn’t just the king of rock and roll. He’s also a symbol of classic Vegas, so it’s entirely appropriate that he has a progressive slot machine network named after him. The game starts with a $100,000 jackpot, and it costs 25 cents per spin. Keep in mind that to be eligible for the jackpot, you have to make the max bet, which is 3 coins, or 75 cents. We don’t recommend playing progressive slots without making the max bet, because you usually won’t be eligible for the top prize unless you do.
Mega Moolah is an online-only progressive jackpot available at Internet casinos powered by Microgaming software. Multiple games feature the brand name, and the jackpots and betting limits vary. This progressive network features some of the largest jackpots online, often reaching $1 million or more.
When you play any type of Progressive slot game you will see the Jackpot rising in value when you play them. The rate at which the jackpots increase can and does vary depending on just which slot it is you are playing along with just how many people are playing that particular slot at the same time as you. The more players playing a progressive slot will of course mean the jackpot will increase much more rapidly than is the case when only a small number of players are playing it.
However, when a progressive jackpot slot pays out its jackpot then it will have its jackpot reset to something known as its Seed Value. This is an amount of cash that the designer of the game has chosen as the lowest amount that any one progressive slot games jackpot is going to be, and once the jackpot has just paid out the progressive meter will then drop down to that amount and will, as more players play that game, start to rise in value again.
Best Progressive Slot Machines
To give you some ideas of the seed values on a range of slot machines we have listed several of them below, this will allow you to spot just when one of them has recently paid out, as by taking a quick glance at the jackpot meter if it is anywhere near the following values then that means one lucky player has just won the jackpot.
By knowing just what the seed values are then it will help you avoid playing slot games that have just paid out, for it is very rare that any slot game is going to payout its jackpot twice in very close succession.
Microgaming’s Progressive Slot Game Seed Values
As Microgaming have the biggest range of progressive slots then it is probably going to be their range of these types of games you want to play, for not only is there plenty of different progressive slots on offer, but the jackpots attached to them grow very quickly due to the huge number of players playing them at any time of the day or night.
Mega Moolah Slot Seed Value – As Microgaming’s Mega Moolah slot has four progressive jackpots on offer and the jackpots are attached to several different versions of the game then you will of course find the values currently displayed on each jackpot meter is going to vary every time you glance at them. The jackpot seed values of the Mega Moolah slot games four jackpots are as follows: Mini Jackpot 10.00, Minor Jackpot 100.00, Major Jackpot 10,000.00 and the Mega Jackpots seed value is 1,000,000.00.
Major Millions Jackpot Seed Value – Three different MajorMillion’s slots feed the one progressive jackpot pool, these are the three reel version of the game along with both the video slot and mega spins slot versions of Major Millions. This does of course mean that you can win the jackpot playing any of them and when someone does win the jackpot then the Major Millions jackpot is reset to a seed value of 250,000.00.
Tunzamunni Jackpot Seed Value – Five coins which are fixed at values of 0.05 have to be sent into play on Microgaming’s Tunzamunni slot for you to have a chance of winning the progressive jackpot, and whilst this is therefore quite a low stake slot the jackpot can become huge in value, when it is won the jackpot will then reset to a seed value of 10,000.00.
Treasure Nile Seed Value – One of Microgaming’s more unusual video progressive slots is their Treasure Nile slot game, it can be described as unusual for although it is a video slot you cannot trigger any type of bonus game feature when playing it. Nine paylines have to be set into play for the ninth payline is the one that the progressive jackpot is awarded on, and when won the reset seed value which will be displayed on the jackpot meter is 40,000.00.
King Cashalot Seed Value – The King Cashalot slot, unlike the one named above is a video slot on which a pick to win type bonus game feature can be won as can an ever rising progressive jackpot. The seed value which the slot will display once the jackpot has been awarded is a fairly substantial 100,000.00, and the jackpot has been known to grow to some very large amounts, so it may be a slot you could enjoy playing if you like bonus games and huge jackpots.
Fruit Fiesta Seed Value – The progressive jackpot may not look that valuable when it has been reset to its seed value on the Fruit Fiesta slot game, for it has a seed value of just 800.00! However as this slot is a very low stake slot which does get a lot of attention from players the jackpot never stays that low for very long and can rise to some large amounts, and when its jackpot is quite high then that is the best time to get stuck into playing it.
Lotsaloot Seed Value – The final Microgaming progressive slot which you may be interested in playing is their Lotsaloot slot, this is both a 3 reel slot and a five reel basic video slot, however you have to play maximum bet spins when playing any of them to have a chance of getting the progressive jackpot and both versions feed the same progressive jackpot. As soon as the Lotsaloot slot pays out its jackpot then it will reset to a seed value of 2,500.00.
Microgaming Progressive Slot Seed Value Anomalies
It is worth pointing out that the progressive jackpots found attached to all Microgaming slots use UK Pounds Sterling as their base values, but as you can play them in many different currencies, should a jackpot be won in any other currency then the jackpot displayed on the slots jackpot meter is awarded in that different currency.
This will occasionally then result in the seed value being reset to a different value than those listed above based on the exchange rate offered by the Microgaming progressive network. This often sees the seed value include any differences in the value from the currency it was won and its current exchange rate value against the Pound.
Author: Marcus Nilsson
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