Progressive Slots Jackpots: An Inside Look

Wondering what’s different about the progressive slots vs. the non-progressive slots? Putting it simply, progressives offer more money but at the same time, you have to pay money as well.

One of the biggest makers of progressive slots and the leader in the world’s gaming software is International Game Technology (IGT). The most known game by IGT is probably by far Wheel of Fortune that reels in about a billion dollars a year. The amount of money that goes into this game is enormous and the chances of winning are 1 out of every 46 million. However, Wheel of Fortune hasn’t had the largest jackpot win in history. Microgaming, the Web’s leader in progressive slots, offered the largest jackpot with a sum of $1,683,526. In 2004 alone, more than 3,500 players won over $117,000,000 from progressive jackpots around the world.

Now in progressive slots, size is a big issue and Microgaming is well aware and has done everything possible to be on top. Microgaming’s progressive slots game has a size that takes up the whole entire computer screen and makes the sound that is projected seem like it’s real life. As you can well imagine, these software makers are making big money off these progressive slots and it has become a very big business.

So how do progressive slots work? The concept is actually quite simple. Software makers create the software and send out the same game to every casino. The jackpots that are offered are a pool of contributions made by all the casinos to the same fund which the manufacturer supports. This fund gets sent to an independent computer that keeps track of all the money that goes in it called a jackpot server. Since it is a unanimous jackpot, when someone wins it somewhere in some random casino then the jackpot goes down to it’s original number on that game in every casino.

Now if you’re wondering whether or not the House wins, the answer is yes, they always win. The thing about progressive slots is that you are the one that pays more so in reality the House isn’t making less money off progressive games than off non-progressive games.

In reality the persons playing the progressive slots are the ones building the jackpot. The way it works is that the extra money that is given in progressive games goes to a progressive fund that contributes to the original amount of money that must be in the jackpot no matter what and then what is added to it after that amount by player’s bet. The quick changing numbers on a slot machine’s counter is the additional money made from the part of each bet that corresponds to the fund.

There isn’t a set amount that the maker has to receive into the fund; however, it usually tends to range about 1-10%. In many cases it is 10% especially in land based casinos.
But now the online casinos have made it possible to win the million dollar jackpot even if you’re in Beijing. The winnings from certain makers will now in many cases receive foreign money and when the payout is done, pay it according to the days currency conversion for that particular currency.

Interested? Two good sites to go to that offer a list of all the major online progressive jackpots are www.slotcharts.com and www.awsomejackpots.com. These sites offer the entire list of jackpots and their winnings therefore making it able for someone to study the charts and map out possible wins.

Online jackpots are still not as big as land based jackpots but as the number gets larger the chances of winning big get larger with it too. So if you like taking chances then maybe progressive slots are a game to look in to.