Guide to Progressive Jackpots

You've probably seen the term 'progressive jackpot' all over the place—in our site reviews, for instance. Yet, you might not be clear on exactly what a progressive jackpot is. Especially with the huge range of slot machines available to play in online casinos, the different rules and terminology can sometimes be baffling, even to the most experienced players. We thought it was about time to clear up the confusion, once and for all. Read on for the BingoPort guide to progressive jackpots.

Progressive jackpots vs. non-progressive jackpots

With a non-progressive jackpot, the prize pool is set at the start of the game, and is the same every time. On the other hand, a progressive jackpot is like a regular jackpot, but rather than resetting at the beginning of every game, it progresses over to the next one. Each time a player puts a coin into the machine (either virtual or real), a small proportion of that is added to the jackpot. As such, because the prize pool gets bigger every time the game is played, some absolutely massive—even life-changing—jackpots can be won.

It's not just slots that feature this type of jackpot though—you can also find progressive jackpots in some bingo rooms, and even on some table games.

The origins of progressive jackpots

While progressive jackpots are now a staple of online casinos, they actually originated in the physical world. The first progressive jackpot machines were effectively self-contained: the jackpot would roll over and grow incrementally, but only on each individual machine. Then, some bright sparks in the gaming world thought that it might be a good idea to share the progressive jackpots over entire casinos. This lead to the potential for increased prize pools on a much larger scale.

The next step was to link slot machines over entire states. This is in turn lead to the development of online progressive jackpot slot machines networked over the entire world.

How do you win a progressive jackpot?

Unfortunately, like with any slot machine, there's no magic formula for winning a progressive jackpot! The odds of winning the biggest progressive jackpots are similar to winning the lottery. That doesn't mean they can't be great fun, though, so we've picked out a few of our favourites below.

Popular online progressive jackpot slots

Gold Rally

At the time of writing, this machine has the largest progressive jackpot you can play for! Gold Rally is perfect if you like keeping things simple and can't be bothered with complicated features or obscure symbols. It's a real back-to-basics 3-reel slot, just with a massive jackpot. As you might have guessed, this game is themed on a gold mine—one with a complete disregard for health and safety. This makes for a really entertaining experience—so why not have a flutter? You never know, you could strike gold for real!

Mega Moolah

Mega Moolah is another one of the biggest names in progressive jackpot slots, and it certainly lives up to its name. In 2015, one lucky player from Cheshire won a colossal £13.3 million on this machine! It's a bit more sophisticated than Gold Rally, and while the progressive jackpot is inarguably a big draw for many players, it's the exciting gameplay that keeps people coming back for more. This slot is based around a jungle theme, with different animals representing different value symbols.

Fruit Fiesta 5

The Fruit Fiesta series has been a staple of Microgaming's slots lineup for quite some time now. All things considered, this is a pretty simple slot game—just watch out for that wild symbol, represented by the Fruit Fiesta logo. The jackpot currently stands at over £43,000—enough to throw one crazy fiesta!