Progressive Jackpot Games

Wheel of Fortune, Megabucks, and Quarter Mania are some of the most popular casino games comprising the earliest waves of progressive jackpots. The amount of jackpots that have been won in these games are legendary, and today they remain as sought after as ever.

How to Play Progressive Jackpot Games

A progressive jackpot refers to a bonus jackpot prize offered on top of the biggest fixed prize in a particular casino game. As the word "progressive" suggests, this jackpot prize gradually grows as more players play the progressive jackpot machine. Progressives Because the progressive jackpot can grow to a very huge prize, certain conditions are attached to win it. One common condition is that players are required to post the maximum wager, such as to bet the maximum amount of coins in a slot machine, in order to qualify for the progressive jackpot.

In other cases, players are required to bet a fixed amount, like an additional wager of $1 in some slot machines. As soon as a player wins the progressive jackpot, the machine simply resets the amount of this jackpot to a starting value that was already pre-defined, and the pot grows once again from there.

For example, a progressive jackpot slot game might have a top prize of $5,000. This is a fixed prize, which means it does not change or grow no matter how many times you or other players bet on the machine. But the same slot machine might have a progressive jackpot at a starting value of $100,000. Provided you fulfilled the jackpot's conditions, like placing maximum bets, you can win the $5,000 top prize, and on top of it, a jackpot prize that is at least $100,000. While no one is hitting that jackpot, it grows in certain increments the more the machine is played, and can reach as high as millions of dollars. Once the progressive jackpot is finally won, its value is reset to $100,000, from which point it starts to increase again.

Whether in land-based or online casinos, progressive jackpot machines are usually networked to fund a big-prize jackpot that grows with every wager placed by all the gamblers at the participating casinos. This allows casino networks to offer a far bigger progressive jackpot than how much a single machine would. Networking also enables smaller casinos to offer a bigger progressive jackpot than they might have been able to on their own. For example, the biggest progressive jackpot won so far in Jackpot Madness Major Millions has been $1.6 million, nabbed by an American gambler. Because the same progressive jackpot might network several casinos across various locations, it greatly increases the casino jackpot sizes available to be won, and does it in a much shorter time than could be otherwise possible.