Many online slot rooms will advertise their progressive jackpots, and the number will seem absurd. But was exactly is a progressive Jackpot?
A progressive jackpot is a jackpot made up of a number of different sources, to be won by one ‘big hit’. In slot machine terms this means a bunch of slot machines that have been hooked up; a percentage from each of these machines is paid into a central pot; so rather than having a jackpot made up from one machine, you may have a pot with contributions from 20 different machines therefore enabling these pots to grow at 20 times the speed to that of a single machine pot. The payback percentage on progressive machines are effected by this paying into the progressive pot, as their payout percentage will not include the amount that was subtracted, often leaving progressive machines with an overall payout percentage as lower than one might find on a non-progressive jackpot machine; those dedicated to progressive jackpots simply consider this as a minor inconvenience in comparison to the possibility of winning the enlarged pot.
Not all progressive slots are the same; rather there are 3 different types of progressive slot machine. The first kind is known as an In-House slot; this variety of slot is owned by the individual casino, and is linked with other slots in that casino or with slots in other casinos owned by the same organization. The relevancy of knowing if the machine is an In-House machine is that the jackpot will be determined by how many machines are paying into it. Less preferable to the In-House slot is the Stand Alone Progressive. This type of machine creates a progressive jackpot not by taking a percentage from different machines, but rather from different wins; the Stand Alone will payout less on each smaller win, in order that the biggest win will be bigger. The largest progressive jackpots however, come from Area Wide machines. These are the ones you will see also in online casinos; they are linked up between numerous casinos and casino chains. Because they are run by independent operators rather than individual casinos they are able to straddle competitive fields.
In terms of chances of winning on slots, this varies greatly depending on which type of machine you are playing at. For the most part a progressive jackpot is harder to win on than a regular slot machine; the payout percentages are lower, the operating of these machines simply requires more overheads, and the winning of the jackpot on a progressive is even more down to chance than a non-progressive slot is. However, their popularity is explained by a combination of the fun-factor and lottery-syndrome; people from all over the casino, city, state or country are contributing to a pot that would quite literally change your life should you win it.
