Progressive Jackpot Basics

When you hear about an online casino player winning millions on a slot machine game they were most likely playing a slot machine with a progressive jackpot. Because everyone playing the game in every casino where it's offered is contributing part of each wager to the jackpot pool, a very large prize can accumulate.  If you place a maximum bet when you are playing a slot machine with a progressive jackpot, and you get the winning symbols required for the jackpot, you won’t win 2x or 3x or 5x or even 100x your bet. You will win the whole jackpot!

What is a Progressive Jackpot?

If you place a maximum bet when you are playing a slot machine with a progressive jackpot, and you get the winning symbols required for the jackpot, you won’t win 2x or 3x or 5x or even 100x your bet. You will win the whole jackpot!

Where Does the Jackpot Money Come From?

Every time you place a qualifying wager, some of your bet goes to the progressive jackpot pool. A jackpot ticker in the game will show you what the current jackpot value is.

How Do Progressive Jackpots Get So Big?!

You’re not the only one contributing to the progressive jackpot. Every player playing that slot machine is adding to the jackpot with every max bet they place. There may be many players playing the game at your casino, and progressive jackpot games are usually available at many casinos. With many players adding to the jackpot each time they wager, jackpots can accumulate very quickly.

In some cases, several different games are all tied to one jackpot so that even more players are contributing to the jackpot pool.  Mega Jackpot, for example, can be won playing MegaJackpots Cleopatra, MegaJackpots Cluedo or MegaJackpots Monopoly.

Some jackpots, like The Godfather, are only available at one online casino (Party Casino). However, since Party Casino is one of the largest online casinos in the world, there are a lot of players at that one casino contributing to The Godfather jackpot.

Often when a jackpot gets very large, or even it has been longer than usual since it was won, players begin to feel that it is due for a hit. When more people start playing the game, hoping to be the next big jackpot winner, it starts to accumulate even faster.

After a win, jackpots are re-set to their starting value. Some are reset to quite large amounts, so they are always big even if they’ve just been won.  The Mega Moolah, for example, is reset to $1,000,000 after it is won so its winners are always instant millionaires!

How Big Can Online Slot Machine Progressive Jackpots Get?

There are many progressive jackpots that are won fairly frequently for several thousand dollars. But there are some that reach millions of dollars before someone wins them.  Some of the biggest jackpot winners include:

• In May of 2009, A Greek player named Georgios M. won a record-breaking €6.3 million on the Mega Moolah slot machine at a Microgaming casino. The Mega Moolah had been hit about a year before for $5.5 million.
• A Canadian player named Sylvie won $4.2 million in the summer of 2008 playing the Beach Life Slot at a Playtech-powered casino.
• Cryptologic’s Millionaires Club III paid out $5,898,352 in May of 2007.
• A more recent large jackpot winner was a Swiss player named Eduard K who won $1,379,044 playing   the Gold Rally 8-Line slot at a Playtech casino.

Check our Progressive Jackpots page for current values of some of the bigger and more popular progressive jackpots.