Understanding Progressive Jackpots

Progressive jackpots are a major attraction for slots players because they usually offer large payouts. New players are especially attracted to online slot games with progressive jackpots. However, all progressive jackpots are not alike. New players should understand the differences between the progressive jackpots that various online slot games offer. This article will highlight some of the features of progressive jackpots in slots games.

In most online slot games the progressive jackpot is hit when five like symbols appear in an enabled payline. The pay table specifies which symbol will result in the progressive jackpot being hit. Usually this is the wild symbol or a symbol that is central to the theme of the slot game. There are some other conditions associated with the progressive jackpot being hit. Players have to enable all the paylines and wager with the coin of the largest denomination. If these conditions are not met then the slot game will pay out a fixed amount for getting the five symbols in an enabled payline.

Progressive jackpots of the kind described above are of two types. One type of progressive jackpot pays out very large amounts but hits only a few times a year. Beach Life and Gold Rally from Playtech are examples of this type of jackpot. The other type of progressive jackpot hits several times a week but pays out much smaller amounts. The Rapid Fire series of jackpots from Cryptologic exemplify this kind of progressive jackpot. Online casinos review sites like CasinoAdvisor are a good place to be better informed about the kind of jackpot that a progressive slot game offers.

In the last few years online gaming software providers have introduced a different way of hitting the progressive jackpot. Such jackpots do not require a specified combination of symbols appearing in an enabled payline. The jackpots can be hit randomly in any spin and the player is simply informed that the jackpot has been hit and his balance has been credited. These progressive jackpots are appropriately known as random jackpots. Real Time Gaming offers several online slot games with random jackpots in its Real Series.

In its watershed online slot game called Mega Moolah, Microgaming has introduced a novel way of hitting the random jackpot. The random jackpot is not hit during a regular spin. However, a bonus game is randomly triggered. This bonus game is a Wheel of Fortune type of game that can result in the player winning a very high value progressive jackpot.

There are two other trends in progressive jackpot online slot games that need to be understood. The first one is the concept of networking. Many online gaming software providers have sets of slot games that are linked to the same progressive jackpot. Players can wager on the different games and the same progressive jackpot amount will keep increasing. When the jackpot condition in any one of the games is met the entire amount will go to the player and the progressive jackpot amount will be reset for all games. The Movie Mayhem set of four online slot games from Cryptologic is an example of a progressive jackpot network.

The second trend is of offering multiple jackpots in the same game. The highest jackpot pays larger amounts but is hit less frequently. The lower jackpots pay much smaller amounts but are hit very frequently. Therefore such slot games can cater to all types of slot players and cover a larger share of the market. The Marvel Comics slot games from Cryptologic and the Mega Moolah slot games from Microgaming are examples.