Progressive Slots

Progressive Slots: How Do They Work?

The way progressive slots work is very simple: whenever you make a bet (or anyone else for that matter) a percentage of your bet goes towards the jackpot. Therefore, everyone that plays on a progressive jackpot slot, such as Achilles , is playing for the same jackpot.

Sometimes, it may be the case that a single jackpot is shared between a variety of slots. If a number of progressive slots are linked - usually by the software provider or by the casino - a percentage of all bets made on these linked slots will contribute to one, overarching jackpot. This helps to boost the jackpot value into the millions, but it also makes it more difficult to win.

Therefore there are three different types of progressive jackpot, with each type being defined as follows:

• A jackpot available on a single machine at the casino.
• A jackpot that has multiple machines at the casino connected together.
• A jackpot that has multiple machines across a network that are connected together.

Types of Progressive Slots

A jackpot amount on a progressive slot can be moderate, big, or massive. The size of the jackpot on a progressive slot depends on the type of progressive it is.

There are 2 major types of progressive slots, standalone progressive slots and networked progressive slots which comprises of local and wide-area varieties:

• Standalone Progressive Slots

  As the name suggests, standalone progressive slots are loners; they are not connected to any other machines or games at the online casino or other online casinos. They are also therefore referred to as flat top slots; as in they top out at a particular amount that is reasonably big but by no stretch of imagination are the ones that give you a million dollar payout.

  Standalone progressives are also unofficially considered to be non-progressive, as the jackpot amount is not built up over prolonged periods of time as play progresses on the game at different online casinos or even land-based casinos running the game. The jackpot amount is limited, because the contribution to it comes from wagers placed solely on that machine or game.

  Here is some more info on standalone progressive slots – these were the first of the progressive slots to hit the market. Technology has advanced over the years and now there are way more sophisticated games for players to use to try and get their million dollar paycheck but you still find standalone progressive slots at online casinos and especially, at land-based casinos. The payouts with this kind of progressive slot are not too high, anywhere between $10,000 and $20,000 generally.

• Local Progressive Slots

  As technology advanced, it became possible to link up different slots at a casino in a way that a share of the wager on each of them went towards building up a jackpot. Thus was born the local progressive slot. Local progressive slots are linked directly to other slots but at the same land-based casino or online casino that you find them in.

  As you may have gathered from the definition above, local progressive slots were literally the next step in the evolution of the progressive slot. Because multiple machines are involved in contributing to the jackpot, the progressive jackpot amount is definitely much higher than what you could potentially win with a standalone progressive.

  While local progressive slots are connected over multiple machines at the land-based or online casino, they are limited to a single location. That is why the jackpot amount, while being big, is nowhere of mammoth proportions. You could win anywhere between $100,000 and a million dollars with you a local progressive slot.

• Wide Area Progressive Slots

  With standalone progressive slots leading to the arrival of the local progressive slot, the next step in the evolution of the progressive slot machine was inevitable. That came in the form of the wide area progressive slot. The wide area progressive slot is an extension of the local progressive slot – the connectivity is not between slots in a single casino but across a network of multiple casinos. As the name indicates slots across a wide area are connected to create the jackpot value for these slots.

  Because multiple slot machines across a wide area are connected and all of them contribute to the jackpot, the jackpot value is usually very high for these slots. You find these slots quite frequently at online and also mobile casinos nowadays. You find some of them at land-based casinos as well.

  The biggest positive with regard to wide area progressive slots is the huge payout. But there is also another side to them that is directly related to the huge payout: these games come with abysmally low Return to Player (RTP) values compared to what you get for regular slots, and even compared to the standalone and local progressive slots.

FAQs Concerning Progressive Slots Bonuses