Probably there is no one who haven’t heard the word “jackpot”, but what exactly is jackpot and what does it mean in the world of online casinos? Basically, jackpot is a large prize in a lottery or a casino game. There are fixed jackpots with a predetermined prize and progressive jackpots which accumulate until they’re won.
Most often progressive jackpots are video slots or lotteries, but there are also poker machines and even Blackjack tables with progressive jackpots. The grand prize of progressive jackpot increases within each game it’s played until the jackpot is won. Winnings can be thousands and even millions in cash prizes. After the huge payout, progressive jackpots reset to a specific, predetermined value and again – start to grow.
These large funds of money attract many players, of course – who doesn’t want to become a millionaire from a single game? Surely, you can simply play the game, entertain and never mind about the jackpots, but if you want to take that chance and go a little deeper in discovering the essential aspects of jackpot games and winnings, here’s what you need to know.
Qualifying – if you are aiming for the jackpot, be aware that not every bet on a progressive slot machine can trigger the huge payout. Usually, progressive slots require maximum-credit bets. For progressive video poker games, usually there is a rule where you need to place a side bet to be eligible for the jackpot. Each game has its own set of rules in order to qualify for jackpot – not only differing between online casino game types like slots and table games, but also in each individual game.
Progressive jackpot withdrawal options – some casinos have strict withdrawal limits per week or month. For example, 10 000€. While this is not so big of a problem with smaller wins, when it comes to jackpots it can be pretty difficult to split 5 millions into 10 thousand per withdrawal. Although, usually casinos have an exception for such payouts like huge jackpots, but be sure to check the rules and understand the policy of withdrawals.
It is not possible to predict, when the jackpot will be triggered. Of course, there are casino enthusiasts, who analyze payout statistics and patterns, and try to develop some basic strategies to better aim for the jackpot, but in fact they are truly random and winnings can occur multiple times in a day or none for months.
Most popular online casino jackpot video slots
Mega Moolah
Mega Moolah is one of the most popular progressive jackpot video slots. It’s African safari themed slot developed by Microgaming and it has made more than 70 millionaires. To enter the Mega Moolah jackpot wheel, players have to randomly trigger a bonus round. Then new game screen appears with a wheel of four possible jackpots – mini, minor, major and mega.
The starting point of Mega Moolah progressive jackpot is €1 million, but it has dropped amazing, record-breaking multi-million wins. To date the largest jackpot win was €18,915,872.81 paid in September 2018. Mega Moolah slot is included in Microgaming’s progressive jackpot network, which is the largest network in industry with payouts more than €1 billion, and it includes many widely-known video slots.
Mega Fortune
Mega Fortune from NetEnt is also widely popular progressive jackpot slot game. Mega Fortune is themed on the life of the rich and famous – yachts, champagnes, diamonds and cigars, the symbols will definitely let the player imagine life after the jackpot win. It is 5-reel, 25-line slot with maximum bet size of €50.
Players need to get at least three Bonus symbols in order to unlock the bonus round, which includes 3 wheels of fortune – lining up from smaller cash prizes to the largest Mega Jackpot prize.
Hall of Gods
Another NetEnt Mega Hit Jackpot slot game is Hall of Gods (2010), which in themed slot based on stories from Norse mythology. As you probably suspect from movies and comics, leading role in this slot is taken by Scandinavian god Odin, and the story revolves around his sons Thor and Loki.
Hall of Gods is five reel, low to medium volatility slot game with RTP percentage of 95.3%. All gods and their weapons are low pay and high pay symbols in the slot, while expanding wild is Midgard Serpent (monster from the sea).
If we are talking about the jackpot, the most important symbol in the game is raven – the scatter which will take players to free spins bonus game if the player manages to land at least 3 identical symbols. Once in bonus game, the main aim is to get three bonus symbols anywhere on the third, fourth and fifth reel. Bonus symbol takes the form of a Thor’s hammer which hits a shield.
Then it’s time to open shields in ‘Pick Win’ feature and hope for one of three jackpots.
Also popular
Besides these three all-time favorites, there are some incredibly popular jackpot slot games. Here are some of them:
Cosmic Fortune (NetEnt)
Jackpot Giant (Playtech)
Mega Moolah Isis (Microgaming)
King Cashalot (Microgaming)
Beach Life (Playtech)
Tunzamunni (Microgaming)
Arabian Nights (NetEnt)
Different types of jackpot
There are four main types of jackpot games: local and network, fixed and progressive. Each type differs in the system of how the jackpot is counted and how it can be won.
Fixed jackpots
Fixed jackpot is the type of jackpot that is predetermined by the provider and doesn’t accumulate to a larger sum. Fixed jackpots are not influenced by the bets made in the game made by other players.
Usually, if a jackpot game offers three jackpots, two of them will be fixed amount of money and the third will be progressive jackpot.
Progressive jackpots
The prize pool of progressive jackpots grows each time there is a bet placed in the game that doesn’t form a winning combination. All bets of players from a specific casino or from a network of casinos contribute to the growing prize.
Usually there is a predetermined starting point for a progressive jackpot, for example, 20 000 €. The game grows its prize pool until it’s won; it can come to hundreds of thousands and even millions of Euros. Then the jackpot resets to the predetermined amount, in this case – 20 000€, and starts growing again.
They say that a jackpot in a single game cannot be won more often than once in a few months, but actually no one can predict when the jackpot will be won. There are plenty of examples, where one game has paid out its jackpot prize in the same day. For example, in the beginning of 2019, Mega Moolah (Microgaming) made two millionaires in just 28 hours.
Local jackpots
The prize pool of local jackpots is accumulated by the bets made in a specific casino and in this casino only. For example, five casinos can offer exactly the same game, but their jackpot prize will differ because it’s determined by placed bets in each of the five casinos.
Surely we would expect that these jackpots would be smaller than progressive network jackpots, but as it is with online casino games – you can never now. If it’s a very popular casino and very heavily played game, that hasn’t paid out jackpot for a long time – the jackpot prize can become massive.
Network jackpots
The prize pool of network jackpots is accumulated by the bets made in a network of several online casinos. In this case, the same game will have the same jackpot prize in all of these casinos. These jackpots are usually the ones who make the headlines in online casino news, which makes instant millionaires from time to time.
The most popular games in this section are NetEnt’s Hall of Gods, Mega Fortune and Microgaming’s Mega Moolah, but there are plenty of network jackpot games (also Poker games, Blackjack and other table games), that offer diversity in the gameplay and in the prize pool.
