Guide to Progressive Slots Jackpots

Progressive slot jackpots are a player’s dream. There’s a chance that if you hit the right combination, you can win a huge amount of money. Millions, even. But before you put your first coin in, a little advice will help get you ready. You may not win your dreams, but with our guide to progressive slots jackpots you’ll at least have a better shot.

What Are Progressive Slots?

A fixed jackpot slot machine has a specified jackpot amount for its largest win. If your play results in the specified jackpot symbols, you will receive the amount posted on the pay table. Progressive jackpot slots, on the other hand, add a certain amount of money from each play to the jackpot (usually 1–2% of the amount wagered). As a result, the jackpot steadily grows larger until someone wins. Once the jackpot is claimed, the jackpot starts over at its minimum amount.

What Type of Progressive Slots Should You Play?

Progressive slots come in three types, based on how many slot machines are contributing to the progressive jackpot.

• Stand-alone progressive slots add to the jackpot only from one machine. As a result, the jackpot amount tends to be small, but your odds of winning it are closer to a fixed jackpot machine. Also, stand-alone slots tend to have a much lower house edge than the interconnected progressives.
• In-house progressive slots add to the jackpot from several interconnected machines in the same casino. Every time someone plays one of these machines, it adds to the progressive jackpot for all of the machines. Because there are more machines adding to the jackpot, in-house progressives promise payouts many times larger than stand-alone progressives. The odds of winning, however, are low, and the house advantage much higher.
• Wide-area progressive slots add to the jackpot from several hundred or more machines connected between multiple casinos. These wide-area progressive slots pay jackpots in the millions, though your chances are correspondingly smaller. These machines have very low return-to-player percentages and larger maximum bets. This is a deadly combination for players without a big bankroll.

How Do You Win at Progressive Slots?

Slot machines are totally random. The only way to “win” at slots is to be lucky. However, there are ways to stay in the game long enough to increase your chances of hitting a jackpot.

• You can only win the progressive jackpot by betting the maximum amount on a spin.
• Your first criteria, then, is to choose a machine whose maximum bet fits your bankroll, which should be enough for 200 non-winning plays.
• Look for a machine with a high progressive jackpot. They aren’t always the expensive machines. In 2016, a woman scored $10 million on a progressive penny slot after putting a little over $10 in the machine.
• Balance the jackpot amount with the overall Return To Player. A low RTP means you’ll burn your bankroll much faster. Going bust gives you exactly a zero chance of winning the jackpot.

Remember: realistically speaking, you aren’t going to win the jackpot. You can still walk away a winner – or at least enjoy the game longer – if you pick the higher RTP machines.

What Happens When You Win a Progressive Slots Jackpot?

Who cares? You won!

No, seriously, of course you care.

As you might imagine, winning millions of dollars in slots is much more complicated than winning enough for your next beer.

1. If you’re playing in a land casino, a casino employee will approach you within minutes, if not seconds. They monitor everything, and as soon as a jackpot hits, a casino representative springs into action.If you’re playing online, a casino representative will phone you immediately.
2. You will be asked for a legitimate government-issued photo ID, such as a driver’s license. You must have a photo ID to win the prize. If you don’t have your ID with you, the casino will give you a week to ten days to produce it.
3. If you’re playing in a state with an exclusion list – people banned from gambling – the casino rep will immediately check your name against that list. If you’re on the list, you win nothing.
4. They will then check the machine to verify that the win is genuine. This may take a while. If they determine the machine was malfunctioning, your win is nullified.
5. Once you and the machine are both confirmed legitimate, they will want proof of your taxpayer ID. They literally file your winnings with the IRS by the next day.
6. If the win is small enough – for example, thousands or tens of thousands of dollars – they will pay you on the spot, usually in cash.
7. If your win is in the hundreds of thousands or millions, you will get paid some of the money, but not all. The rest will be paid in a lump sum by the end of the year or in an annuity. You will be given 90 days to make your choice.
8. If you win in an online casino, the money will be deposited to your account unless the jackpot is paid by the manufacturer. You will then receive the money according to the withdrawal rules you agreed to when you started playing. If, for instance, you’re only allowed to withdraw $2,000 a month, that’s what you’ll get until you withdraw the entire jackpot. Always read the fine print before gambling online!

The bigger the win, the longer the process is likely to take. If you are ever lucky enough to find yourself in this situation, always remember this: you’ve finished the hard part – really, the impossible part – by scoring the win. Everything else, no matter how complicated, burdensome, or time-consuming, is a piece of cake in comparison.