Introduction to Progressive Jackpots
Let’s start this guide with defining what is a progressive jackpot, as the term might not be familiar to beginners in gambling. So, a progressive jackpot is a jackpot that increases every time the game is played until the main prize is won. Basically, every bet (or a part of the bet) made by the players in the specific game is added to the jackpot fund, and then, at one lucky moment, someone hits that jackpot which can sometimes reach several million.
Thus, the main advantage of playing games (usually slots) with progressive jackpots is the possible amount of wins you can get from a single bet. Besides, such a prospective significantly increases the thrill — believe me, it’s much more fun to play a slot when spinning the reels can change your life forever.
Of course, progressive jackpots are not perfect and have their disadvantages. And the main one is that they, obviously, offer lower payout rates, which means you won’t be able to win often. Otherwise, online casinos would just go bankrupt paying all those jackpots left and right. But this fact shouldn’t keep you from playing games with progressive jackpots at all as, you know, nothing ventured — nothing gained.
Types of Jackpots
Progressive jackpots are not the only type of wins you can get in casinos, and even though my today’s guide is devoted to them, let’s take a short look at the other ones as well.
- Fixed jackpots. As you can guess from the name, it’s a jackpot with a fixed amount that doesn’t change.
- Pooled jackpots. A pooled jackpot is a kind of progressive jackpot where bets are crowdfunded to the jackpot fund from the bets made by players in multiple casinos.
- Local jackpots. Unlike pooled jackpots, a local jackpot is only composed of the bets made by players in a single casino. It’s still a progressive jackpot, though.
- Multiple jackpots. Slots with multiple jackpots offer….several jackpots, yes. These jackpots are usually lower than progressives, but you have a chance of hitting all of them if you are lucky.
How to Choose a Progressive Jackpot (GUIDE)
There are many kinds of jackpots offered by online gambling games, but we are going to talk about progressives here, as they are the only ones that reach truly enormous sizes and are thus so hunted by online gamblers who want to win a jackpot online.
Even though hitting a jackpot mainly depends on your luck, it’s not the only factor, as you need to know how to choose the right progressive jackpot slot to at least have a chance to win it. Otherwise, you can spend your money on a game that doesn’t pay at all or in a casino with a poor reputation that will do everything to keep your money unpaid.
So, here is my list of five steps you need to make to choose a perfect progressive jackpot.
Step 1. Check your favourite provider for progressive jackpot slots
If you are a more or less experienced online gambler, you probably have one or two gambling games providers that you like the most, either for graphics, gameplay, unique features, or the wins. There is a high chance that one of those providers creates games with progressive jackpots as well.
All you need to do to find them is to use the filter you can see on the right side of this page. Tick the “slots” box, then tick your favourite provider, and look through the games to find the ones that offer progressives — that’s it. You can also use the filter to see smartphone-friendly games and websites if your goal is to find the jackpot mobile casino.
Step 2. Check when the last jackpot was won
Progressive jackpots, especially the big ones, are not won and paid out every day, as the time is needed for the final amount to be collected out of small bets. That’s why it’s important to always check the date when the last jackpot was won and skip the game if it happened recently, as there is no chance for this exact slot to give you the jackpot soon again.
To do it, you can use one of many jackpot trackers you can find online. Jackpot trackers are the websites that keep track of all the jackpot-related information and update it in real-time.
Step 3. Make sure you choose the game with a high RTP rate
If you read my guides carefully, you know that all gambling games are different in terms of RTP, and progressive jackpot slots are not an exclusion. As a rule, the RTP rate of a progressive jackpot is lower than the one of the average classic or video slots, which means these games are less eager to give you the wins — that’s the price you pay for having a chance to become one of the progressive jackpot winners.
So, you need to be even more careful when choosing the game now, as even though the RTP is going to be lower, it shouldn’t be too low — you still want to get wins on your way to the jackpot, don’t you? Always check the RTP of the game you are going to play, and if you can’t find this information anywhere — go find another website as it’s a bad sign.
By the way, you can also sort the games on my website from the ones with the highest RTP to the ones with the lowest one using the drop-down filter right above the game list.
Step 4. Try the demo version first
If there is one piece of advice that I can’t help but give to the players, it’s the “always play a demo game first”. There is no better way to understand whether you like the game or not and to refine your betting strategy than to play a free version of the game, which is usually available in an online casino.
If for some reason, you play a progressive jackpot slot in a casino that doesn’t offer free demos, you can always do it here on my website. I do my best to keep the list of demo games fresh and updated and regularly add new titles once they are released.
Step 5. Look through the list of casinos and choose the one you like
Once you understand that you like the game and are ready to spend real money on it, it’s time to get yourself a reliable online casino that will treat you fair and will let you get the money fast and easy if you win a jackpot.
As always, the easiest way to find an online casino is to pick one out of my casino list. Here, all the websites are licensed by UKGC and other respectable licensing institutions, have fairness certificates from iTechLabs and eCOGRA, and have numerous positive reviews from players.
World's Best Progressive Jackpots
So which game do I play to win big? — you might now be asking. Well, the choice of progressive jackpots is quite big, but there are some incontestable leaders that never leave the top lines of all the jackpot lists. Here they are:
- Mega Moolah. This is not only the most popular progressive jackpot slot in the world but also the one that offers the highest possible win. It was created by Microgaming and has quite a decent RTP rate for a progressive — 94%. The largest jackpot paid by Mega Moolah slot was £15,890,344.
- Major Millions. This Microgaming slot has a much lower RTP, 89% only, but it’s still loved by the players for its features and graphics. The highest jackpot won in Major Millions was £1,600,909.
- Hall of Gods. At this point, NetEnt finally comes to the game. The famous casino games provider created a beautiful progressive slot with RTP as high as 95.3% and quite a large jackpot — the highest one paid out as for now reached £6,950,385
- Mega Fortune. The name of this NetEnt slot promises exactly what you can get from this game as the person who won the highest progressive jackpot in Mega Fortune got £15,873,951. The RTP rate of the game is 96%.
- Beach Life. This beach-themed progressive slot by Playtech is slightly less popular than the previous ones, but it’s still worth trying as its 93% RTP and a jackpot of £5,523,871 are quite promising.
- Jackpot Giant. If you like mythical games and large jackpots, then Jackpoint Giant by Playtech is what you need. This 5-reel video slot with 94.22% RTP has already brought £5,234,364 to a lucky player, who said you can’t be next?
- King Cashalot. It’s a 9-payline video slot by Microgaming based on the story of a king who was totally obsessed with gold. Will you be able to win his riches? The game offers 91% RTP (not so much, but bearable) and the largest win amounted to £1,135,096,94.
- Arabian Nights. NetEnt is great at making themed slots, and Arabian Nights is not an exception. Detailed graphics, great sound design, 96.25% RTP — this is what you can expect from this progressive jackpot slot. The highest jackpot paid by Arabian Nights was £7,674,804.
- Empire Fortune. This Yggdrasil slot can boast quite a high RTP of 94.3% and a lucrative Jackpot Wheel feature that can bring you the wins. The most lucky player got more than £2 million out of a £2 bet in this game, so this is definitely the one worth checking out.
- Funky Fruits. The last but not least progressive slot that I want to mention is the Funky Fruits by Playtech. You will like it if you love fruit-themed classic slots but want something more advanced. The numbers are — 93.97% RTP and £1,923,155 as the highest payout.
Top 3 Providers of Progressive Slots
As you could have noticed reading the Top-10 list, most of the famous progressive slots are made by one of three gambling industry leaders — NetEnt, Microgaming, and Playtech. Let me tell you a little bit more about each of them and share some additional info about their progressives.
NetEnt
NetEnt is the Swedish provider of gambling games. It was founded in 1996 and since then has become one of the main players on the gambling scene. The company is mostly known for its high-end video slots, some of them offering progressive jackpots as well.
Slot machine | Current jackpot | Max win | Avg. time between distributions |
Mega Fortune | £3,573,975 | £15,873,951 | 11 weeks |
Arabian Nights | £284,808 | £7,674,804 | 71 weeks |
Hall of Gods | £3,752,919 | £6,950,385 | 24 weeks |
Mega Fortune Dreams | £2,484,095 | £1,919,898 | 20 weeks |
Best Netent casinos to play progressive jackpots:
Microgaming
Microgaming is one of the world’s largest gambling games providers with hundreds of titles in its games collection. While the company is great in slots, it also creates quite decent table games. But the one thing Microgaming is most famous for is its super-paying Mega Moolah progressive jackpot.
Slot machine | Current jackpot | Max win | Avg. time between distributions |
Mega Moolah | £4,798,116 | £15,890,344 | 17 weeks |
Major Millions | £234,927 | £1,600,909 | 10 weeks |
King Cashalot | £1,070,030 | £1,357,370 | 63 weeks |
Tunzamunni | £53,615 | £426,176 | 89 weeks |
Best Microgaming casinos to play progressive jackpots:
Playtech
Playtech was founded in 1999 in Estonia. Today, it’s a huge company that offers all kinds of betting games to players from all over the world. Even though there are not too many progressives in its list, they are all worth checking.
Slot machine | Current jackpot | Max win | Avg. time between distributions |
Beach Life | £1,340,911 | £5,523,871 | 24 weeks |
Jackpot Giant | £4,369,457 | £5,234,364 | 25 weeks |
Funky Fruits | £2,273,320 | £1,923,155 | 14 weeks |
Gold Rally | £457,745 | £4,168,074 | 6 weeks |
Best Playtech casinos to play progressive jackpots:
TIPS: What You Should Do To NEVER WIN a Progressive Jackpot
Let’s end this guide on a funny note — here is the list of recommendations you need to follow if you never want to win a jackpot. Just in case. If you want one, please ignore them and do quite the opposite. Luck permitting, you’ll soon be texting me to share the amazing story about you winning a progressive jackpot in one of the online casinos from my list.
- Forget about demo games. There is no point in playing games for free as they won’t bring you the wins. Learning how the games work? Well, you don’t have time for this.
- Never stop betting. It doesn’t matter what your gambling limit is and what you need your money for, keep playing until you win.
- Don’t claim bonuses. They’ll hardly help you win a jackpot, and that’s your one and only goal here. Better no wins than a small win, right?
- Always trust a jackpot tracker, and don’t look for info yourself. Jackpot trackers never lie, just find the one you like and the jackpot is already in your pocket.
- Don’t spend time looking for a reliable online casino. It doesn’t matter where you play, the size of the jackpot is the only thing that matters.
Conclusion
Of course, chances of winning a progressive jackpot are not too high, otherwise, we’d all be millionaires. But it doesn’t mean that they are non-existent. The chances get even higher if you know which game to play and which online casino to choose for your bets — and I’m always here for you to help with this part.
