Progressive jackpot slots have an accumulated jackpot prize, unlike most slot machines you’ll find in a casino. Because progressive jackpots are the largest prizes players will find in a casino, they draw tremendous interest once their pot grows. Many slot players search for the biggest progressive jackpots when they choose a gambling site.

This article describes how progressive slots work. We also list the best progressive slot machines in land-based casinos and online gambling sites. For those who want tips on finding the best progressive slots, we even give recommendations on the best slot casinos in the mobile, online, and brick-and-mortar categories.

Key Takeaways:

• Progressive jackpot slots have a main prize that increases every time someone plays and doesn’t win the accumulated jackpot.
• Learning how progressive slots work helps players find the slot games with the biggest prizes, thus offering life-changing jackpots.
• We detail the best progressive slot machines in the land-based and online casino gaming market, including game titles, sites that offer such slots, and past jackpot sizes.

How They Work

Progressive slots have a main jackpot that grows each time someone plays and doesn’t hit the jackpot. This accumulated jackpot can grow into the hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. With land-based slot machines like MegaBucks and online slot games like Mega Moolah, the pot can rise into the tens of millions of dollars.

In theory, any progressive slot machine could grow into the millions of dollars. Depending on the probability of hitting the game’s jackpot combination, the people can predict a range in which the jackpot should hit. Of course, random number generators ensure that the results of one spin have no connection to the results of another. This unpredictability assures fairness and keeps the game fun for everyone.

Variables in Progressive Slots

People should keep in mind several variables such as networked progressives, random progressives, and multi-tiered progressive slots. In the space below, we’ll give a quick rundown of each concept.

• Networked Slots: Sometimes slot machine of the same title are networked with each other. The jackpot prize grows when any of the machines has a spin that doesn’t result in the progressive prize being won. Networked jackpots grow faster than standalone progressive slots.
• Local-Area Networked Progressive Slots: A local area progressive means only a small number of slots are networked. For instance, five machines on slots row might be networked together. These grows a bit faster than a single machine.
• Wide-Area Networked Progressive Slots: These are networked of similar slot machines over a wide area involving multiple casino operators. In online slots, these might be in different countries. Wide-area progressive grow at the fastest rate — and usually have the biggest accumulated jackpots.
• Random Progressive Slots: Random progressive don’t require a payline to align. Instead, they hit when a certain number of scatter symbols appear anywhere on the screen. Designers call these “scatter pays.” Random progressive slots often have jackpots in the tens of thousands of dollars. RTG’s Reel-Series Slots are a good example of random progressive slots.
• Multi-Tiered Progressives: Some slot machines have several progressive jackpots of different sizes. It’s common to see a four-tiered progressive game. Designers call these the Mini, Maxi, Major, and Grand Jackpots.

How can understanding progressive jackpot slot machines help me win a big prize?

When you understand the odds of winning a progressive jackpot, you can better plan for the long haul. Understanding about expected payback, volatility, and variance helps you pick which games to play. It helps you calculate your bankroll, allot the budget for gaming sessions, and pick the size of your bets properly.

People who win progressive jackpots on the slot machines get lucky. Winning the big prize is a major boon, but it’s also unlikely without a high number of spins. Therefore, understanding how slot jackpots works helps you stay in the game long enough to get lucky.

Where to Play

Players can find progressive slots at land-based casinos and in online casinos. Land-based players can find progressive jackpots at commercial casinos (like in Vegas) or tribal casinos. The largest progressive slots in the brick-and-mortar US casinos are in Nevada. MegaBucks is a wide-area networked progressive slot that links MegaBucks machines in Las Vegas, Reno, Tahoe, and elsewhere in Nevada.

Online and mobile casinos also house progressive slots, though these games tend to be different than their land-based counterparts. Microgaming has some of the largest online progressive slots. Titles like Mega Moolah and WowPot are in the Top 10 among the largest progressive jackpot wins in online gambling history.

All of the online casinos we review have progressive slots. In most cases, the sites list their progressive games on their own page. If you find a site menu, you’ll find links to Slots, Table Games, Video Poker, Specialty Games, and Live Casino games. One of those entries often is “Progressives.” Click on the link to find all of the progressive slots on the site — a list usually of less than one to two dozen games.

Online Casinos with Progressive Jackpot Slots

Our top three picks for the best online casinos with progressive slots are BetUS Casino, Super Slots, and Wild Casino. In the space below, we go over the online progressive slots at each of the sites. Pick and choose to find progressives from Nucleus Gaming, Betsoft, Dragon Gaming, Rival, and DGS.

BetUS Casino

BetUS Casino has all of the progressive slots from Nucleus Gaming: Super Crystals, Lucky Clovers, Coco Bongo, Moguls, and Spin To Ride. Their jackpots range from the tens of thousands to the low six figures, but these are the games you should seek out if you enjoy Nucleus Gaming slots.

We found seven progressive jackpot slots from Betsoft at BetUS Casino: Mr Vegas, Good Girl Bad GIrl, Greedy Goblins, Treasure Room, The Glam Life, Mega Glam Life, and At The Copa. Good Girl, Bad Girl is actually two games in one. You either play on the Good Girl or Bad Girl track and the jackpots trigger at different times. Therefore, you could say BetUS Casino has eight progressive slots from Betsoft.

Super Slots

First of all, Super Slots boasts a huge list of online slots — 888 and counting. Second, it has a lot of Dragon Gaming’s progressives. Examples includes Lucky Macau, The Bank Heist, Aztec Warrior, El Mariachi, The Defenders, Wilderness Wins, and Prosperous Bloom. Most of these are smaller progressives in the tens of thousands of dollars, but they give players a realistic shot to hit big prizes.

Third, Super Slots also features some of Rival Gaming’s big progressive jackpots. Players should use the search box to find games like Diamond Rhino and 5x Win (Five Times Win) from Rival. These are slot titles that have paid out many times for players. Diamond Rhino’s largest jackpot has been $304,811, while Fives Times Win’s record prize was $317,076.

Wild Casino

Like Super Slots, Wild Casino has an absolutely massive catalog of slots. Among those are progressive jackpots, including Betsoft titles like Rags To Witches, Sleighin’ It, Legend of the Nile, Mega Gems, Mega Joker, A Night in Paris, and A Night in Paris: Jackpot. That’s just the start of it. Wild Casino also features Betsoft jackpot slots like The Slotfather, Pharaoh King, Jackpot Jamba, Ghouls Gold, Chase The Cheese, and Diablo 13.

Wild Casino also has a progressive slot title from DGS (Digital Gaming Systems). The game is called Pirate’s Treasure. Like DGS, Pirate’s Treasure Slots doesn’t get a lot of attention.

Where can I play progressive jackpot slots?

The best place to play progressive jackpot slots is at an online casino. Depending on the region where you reside, you’ll find between 10 and 50 online progressive slots on good sites. Most US online casinos have a dozen or more progressive slots. Canadians will find more on their gaming sites.

Players also can find progressive jackpot slots in land-based casinos. Currently, commercial casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City have a lot of progressive slot machines. Of course, it requires travel for most Americans to play in those destinations. Tribal casinos also have progressive slots, though they won’t have as many as Vegas casinos. A few exceptions exist, such as WinStar Casino and Choctaw Casino in Oklahoma.

Tips for Winning

When entering a casino, players should have a broad strategy for winning. Some tips below should always be followed, such as betting the max, using bankroll management, and finding trusted casinos. Others present a challenge, such as choosing whether to target a smaller jackpot or a larger jackpot.

Bet the Max

Make the max bet on every spin. Betting the maximum number of paylines activates all paylines. Often, the final payline is the jackpot combination. If you don’t bet the max, you won’t be eligible for the progressive.

Stretch Your Bankroll

Prepare yourself for the long haul. Find the minimum bet required to activate the progressive and use that as your flat bet (every time.) Stretch your bankroll, so you can make the max number of bets on the progressive.

Read Slots News: Find the Biggest Jackpots

Read about which progressive slots that haven’t paid in a while, or look at online review sites that discuss jackpot information. This doesn’t assure you’ll have better odds of winning, but it does mean you’ll win a bigger jackpot if you do get lucky.

Seek Out Small-Area Jackpots

Alternately, you can target progressive slots networked in local areas. The jackpots won’t be as big, but the odds of winning will be higher. Small-area progressive slots can be a boon to a player’s bank account, even if they aren’t life-altering prizes.

Play Trustworthy Progressive Slots

Play games with a history of payouts. Games like MegaBucks, MegaJackpots, and Wheel of Fortune are popular because they’ve made a lot of people millionaires. In online gaming, Mega Moolah and WowPot have done the same.

Use Fair Casino Operators

Whether it’s a brick-and-mortar casino or an online casino, play at operators with a history of paying. Learn the reputation of a website before depositing cash there. Make certain they honor their financial commitments by paying out progressive jackpots.

Avoid Slow-Paying Sites

Some offshore casino sites have a weekly limit on how much they pay players. Research to ensure those sites have an exception for progressive jackpot winners. Or better yet, find a casino that has no weekly limit on payouts.

Try Sites with Hot Drop Jackpots

A few online casinos now have “Hot Drop” jackpots. These work along the same lines as progressive jackpots, where the pot grows until someone wins. Though they’re the size of random progressives, Hot Drops are bonus jackpots that happen every day or even on an hourly basis.

What are some strategies for winning on the progressive jackpots?

Two distinct strategies exist for winning on progressive jackpot slots. One is to find the progressive slot with the best odds. That probably means a progressive jackpot that tops out between $100,000 and $400,000. While any accumulated pot can theoretically build to any level, game designers build some slots where probability suggests jackpots in the six-digits instead of seven or eight-digits. If you want a better shot at a progressive, find ones with smaller expected jackpots.

Another is to find progressive slots with huge jackpots that haven’t hit in a while. If the jackpot has grown to a certain size, a progressive slot could become a positive expectation game. That means the jackpot prize exceeds the odds of hitting that prize. Such jackpots aren’t any more likely to hit than they were when the pot was low, but it means the payout is truly massive.

Conclusion

Players who dream of a life-changing jackpot should consider playing progressive slots. While the odds of winning an accumulated prize worth millions of dollars are small, winning is possible. Even better, casinos offer progressive slots with prizes in the five, six, seven, or eight digits. Even pessimists can find progressive slot jackpots worth their investment.

Bookmark this page for the next time you play the progressive slots. Keep in mind MegaBucks, Mega Moolah, and the many random progressive jackpots when it’s time to play. Over the months, we’ll update our list of casino sites with the biggest and best jackpots. When you want to play, click one of our links and try your hand at the best progressive jackpot slots on the internet.