Progressive Jackpot Slots

The biggest jackpots are always won on progressive slot machines. The reason for this is that the jackpots grow as the games are played until one lucky player hits the winning combination. While the lure of big jackpots can be hard to resist it is important to note that progressives ten to have lower payout percentages.

Progressive Slot Machines

When you play a progressive slot, a percentage of every bet you place is added to the jackpot. This means that there is by definition a lower payout percentage than found on a non progressive game. Of course this is countered by the chance to win thousands or millions of dollars.

One of the biggest changes to the slot machine industry occurred in 1986 when IGT released the first multi casino progressive jackpot network. This meant that the same slots at casinos across the country all shared the same jackpot.

Now almost all progressive games are part of a jackpot network which means that the possible jackpots are huge.

Progressive slots come in a wide variety of forms from three reel games to five reel games and can have between 1 and 20 winning lines. Below is an example of a progressive slot online. Image 1 shows the game as a whole and Image 2 highlights the jackpot counter which grows until won.

If you are looking for big jackpots then you can either play online or offline The current jackpot record online was set on the Mega Moolah slot game at over $6,100,00.00. The jackpot was paid out in one single payment unlike at land based casinos where you get installments.

If you would like to check the current jackpots of the major progressive located at land based casinos we recommend IGT's Mega jackpots page which lists all of the current jackpots by game or by location.

The current world record for a progressive slot machine jackpot is $39,710,826.36 on the Megabucks $1 machine at EXCALIBUR, LAS VEGAS on 03-21-2003. Quite a nice payout for a $3 bet!