Jackpot Slots Explained: Odds, Types, and How Progressives Work

Hitting a jackpot is something many casino players hope for.

Winning a jackpot is the best-known way to land an exceptionally large payout on a slot. The accumulated prize goes to a single player, no special technique or skill is required, and whether you win comes down to luck.

What You Will Learn

• In slots, a jackpot means a big win.
• Winning comes down to luck, but how often a jackpot hits and how large it tends to be vary widely by jackpot type.

This article takes about 13 minutes to read.

What Is a Slot Jackpot?

A jackpot is a top prize won on a slot, but the word is used in two main senses. The first is the maximum payout a particular game can award, that is, the most you can win on a single spin. The second is the progressive jackpot, which is usually what people mean when they talk about jackpots at online casinos.

A progressive jackpot is a prize pool that grows as a portion of each player’s bet is added to it. The player who lands the jackpot-winning combination receives the entire accumulated amount.

Who wins and when is completely random, and anyone who meets the bet requirements has a chance to win.

How a Progressive Jackpot Works

With a wide-area progressive jackpot (one shared across many casinos, explained below), the prize is paid not by the casino but by the provider that supplies the game.

The provider sets aside part of each player’s bet as the jackpot prize. When a jackpot is won at a casino, the provider pays the accumulated amount to that casino, which then passes it on to the player.

Because a portion of every bet placed by players around the world goes into the pool, the prize can grow to an enormous amount.

This means a payout does not depend on the online casino’s own finances. Some casinos, however, set withdrawal limits and may pay the prize in installments.

The odds depend on the slot, but the chance of landing the jackpot-winning combination is extremely low. The jackpot on Megabucks, a slot found in land-based casinos, is said to hit about once in tens of millions of spins.

Because of this, the prize pool keeps growing over time, so at any given moment a very large jackpot may be waiting to be won.

Types of Jackpots

Slot jackpots are divided into types according to how wide a network they draw on. Jackpots on a narrower network pay less but hit more often, while larger jackpots are harder to win but offer much bigger prizes.

1. Standalone (single-machine) jackpots
2. Linked (local) jackpots
3. Wide-area jackpots
4. Mystery jackpots

(1) Standalone (Single-Machine) Jackpots

A standalone jackpot is one in which the prize builds up on a single machine.

As the word “standalone” suggests, the jackpot grows and is won on that one machine alone, so you do not compete with players on other machines for the prize.

Some machines also have a set maximum jackpot amount and are configured so that the jackpot is certain to hit before it reaches that cap.

At online casinos, however, players around the world can access the same game, so strictly speaking there are no standalone machines online.

Some players call games with a fixed jackpot and no progressive feature “standalone” (or “standard”) slots.

(2) Linked (Local) Jackpots

A linked (local) jackpot is one whose network is open only to players at one casino, or at that casino and its sister brands.

In other words, only players at the same casino are eligible for the jackpot. The prize is smaller than on a wide-area slot, but because fewer players take part, it hits more often.

Many slots with linked jackpots also feature what is known as a must-drop jackpot, which is guaranteed to be won within a set period. Many of these jackpots drop once a day (daily jackpots) or once an hour, and they hit correspondingly more often.

(3) Wide-Area Jackpots

A wide-area jackpot is one that players all over the world compete for. The prize pool is shared across every online casino that offers the game, and some jackpots are also shared across several different games.

Because players worldwide contribute to it, the prize pool tends to grow very large. The trade-off is that it hits less often than the other types. A practical approach is to choose according to your goal: a wide-area jackpot if prize size matters most, or a linked jackpot if you care more about how often it hits.

(4) Mystery Jackpots

A regular jackpot slot awards the jackpot when you land the jackpot-winning combination.

A mystery jackpot, by contrast, has no fixed outcome that triggers the win. It is a progressive prize awarded independently of the game result, so there is no way to tell who will win it or when.

It is essentially a variation of the linked (local) jackpot and is often run as a promotion at a single casino.

As on an ordinary jackpot slot, the win appears without warning, but keep in mind that it is not tied to the outcome of the spin itself.

7 Online Slots Where You Can Win a Jackpot

For each game, we describe how often the jackpot tends to hit and what kind of payouts to expect, to help you choose a slot.

The return to player (RTP) figures in the tables are the values published by the providers and include the jackpot contribution where applicable. For Mega Moolah, the widely quoted base-game-only figure is shown as well. Settings for the same game can also differ from casino to casino, so check the in-game information before you play. Note: All max win amounts are taken from Casino Listings. Progressive slots have no upper limit, so the highest win recorded to date is shown for them.

Mega Moolah

Released in 2006, Mega Moolah is a video slot that remains one of the best-known jackpot slots at online casinos.

Every slot with Mega Moolah in its name is connected to the Mega Moolah jackpot network, so players on several games compete for the same jackpot.

In the original Mega Moolah, a jackpot screen can appear suddenly at the end of a spin, and the Jackpot Wheel then awards one of four jackpots: Mini, Minor, Major or Mega.

The Mega jackpot starts at $1 million, and payouts of more than $20 million have been recorded. Wins above $10 million are very rare, however, and the chance of winning is extremely low.

Ozwin’s Jackpots

Released by Yggdrasil Gaming in 2018, Ozwin’s Jackpots is a video slot with a published RTP of 96.70%, a high figure for a progressive game.

The trade-off is a small jackpot of about $10,000 at most, though it hits relatively often compared with games that offer larger prizes.

The jackpot can only be won during free spins, when collecting five orbs of the same color triggers a jackpot.

The orbs come in five colors, each tied to its own progressive jackpot, so you can sometimes win more than one jackpot at once. If you care more about how often a jackpot hits than about its size, this is one of the first games to consider.

Divine Fortune

Divine Fortune from NetEnt is a jackpot slot that is popular around the world, including among players in Asia. In the base game, a wild triggers a respin, and there is also a free spins round, so the game offers plenty of variety.

Collecting three coins triggers the jackpot round, in which coins showing prize values fill a grid of 3 rows by 5 columns.

The round starts with three spins. Each time at least one coin lands, the spin count resets to three and the round continues. Filling one horizontal row pays 20x the bet, and filling two rows pays 100x.

If all 15 positions are filled with coins, you win the Mega jackpot. The Mega jackpot starts at $10,000 and pays about $100,000 on average.

Blood Suckers Megaways

Blood Suckers Megaways from Red Tiger is a Megaways remake of NetEnt’s popular video slot Blood Suckers.

During free spins, features such as multipliers, wild symbols and wild lines are awarded at random, and combined with the Megaways mechanic, they make larger payouts more likely.

Red Tiger is also known for its casino-specific jackpots. Only players at the casino offering a given jackpot are eligible, so the prizes are smaller but hit more often. The game gives you a chance to win both in the free spins and through the jackpot.

Gold Rally

Gold Rally from Playtech is a video slot that players have enjoyed for more than 10 years. The maximum bet is $16, and the jackpot is only in play when you bet that amount, so the game requires a larger bankroll than most.

The game uses a 3×3 grid, so nine symbols appear on each spin. The only condition for the jackpot is that all nine positions show the scales symbol. When that happens, you win the full amount in the pool at that moment.

The highest payout so far is about $6 million, and two players in Asia have won more than $1 million. The bankroll requirement is high, but the jackpot conditions are the same for every player who meets it.

Diamond Strike

Diamond Strike from Pragmatic Play is a video slot with jackpots. They are fixed jackpots rather than progressive ones, so no portion of each bet is set aside for a prize pool.

Landing three gold 7 symbols triggers the jackpot bonus, which awards one of four jackpots. The Mega jackpot pays 1,000x the bet, for a maximum payout of about $75,000.

Three scatters trigger free spins, where high multipliers are also possible.

Phoenix Fire Power Reels

Phoenix Fire Power Reels from Red Tiger is a video slot with a large 6×8 reel layout. During free spins, many wilds cover the reels, giving you a chance at payouts of more than 1,900x.

The game’s key feature is its daily jackpot, which many Red Tiger video slots share. It is not triggered by specific symbols but is awarded at random during spins.

The daily jackpot can only be won by players at casinos that offer it, and one player is guaranteed to win it each day. As a result, it hits more often than other types of jackpots.

Record Jackpot Wins

Many players have won jackpots of more than $1 million.

The World Record Is About $39.7 Million, and Beginners Have Won Huge Jackpots Too

Jackpot slots are popular not only at online casinos but also at land-based casinos in places such as Las Vegas and Macau. The best-known jackpot at land-based casinos is Megabucks.

The largest jackpot ever paid on Megabucks is about $39.7 million.

The record was set on March 21, 2003, at the Excalibur Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, when a 25-year-old software engineer from Los Angeles hit the jackpot after wagering only about $100. Guinness World Records recognizes it as the largest slot machine jackpot ever won, and more than 20 years later it remains the world record for a slot win at a land-based casino.

At online casinos, the jackpot slot with the largest prizes is Mega Moolah. Its record payout, won in April 2021, is about €19.43 million (€19,430,723). The win came on Microgaming’s progressive slot Absolootly Mad: Mega Moolah, when an anonymous player at a Belgian online casino hit the jackpot, and Guinness World Records recognizes it as the largest online slot jackpot.

The winner was reportedly traveling in the Middle East at the time and was almost completely new to online casinos.

What Players Say About Winning a Jackpot

Players often post about their jackpot wins on social media.

Some describe hitting a jackpot for the first time at an online casino and posting a screenshot of the win.

Others have won jackpots at land-based casinos. A point that comes up in these posts is that a single jackpot can be larger than all the winnings a player has built up gradually through regular play, and some players say this makes them question the value of their regular play.

At casinos in some countries, tax may be withheld on jackpots above a certain amount, depending on local rules.

Jackpot Odds and Expected Value: What Changes and What Doesn’t

The chance of winning a jackpot is very low. Some things change with the game you choose and the amount you bet, and some do not.

Because part of every bet goes into the prize pool, jackpot slots have a lower base-game return to player (RTP) than other slots. Keep this in mind when you choose a game and a bet size.

Raising Your Bet Increases Your Jackpot Chances but Not Your Return

On many games, your chance at the jackpot on each spin is proportional to the size of your bet.

Jackpot slots set aside a fixed share of each bet, usually a few percent. For example, on a slot that contributes 1%, a $1 bet adds $0.01 to the pool and a $5 bet adds $0.05.

Because the jackpot draw is weighted by the amount contributed, a higher bet gives you a better chance of winning on each spin. However, your expected loss per spin rises in the same proportion, so the RTP and the house edge stay the same.

Some games also require the maximum bet to qualify for the jackpot. If you choose one of these games, you have to bet enough to meet the requirement, so the more practical decision is to choose a game that fits your bankroll.

Jackpot Odds by Slot: From 1 in Tens of Thousands to 1 in Tens of Millions

The table lists slots whose jackpot odds have been published. Most of them are land-based casino machines, and they show how widely the odds of winning vary from one machine to another.

A Growing Jackpot Does Not Make a Win More Likely

For many jackpot slots, the current pool and past wins are published on websites known as jackpot trackers. These sites show only how large the pool is; they cannot tell you whether a win is near. Each spin is independent, so on a standard progressive slot, a large pool does not make the jackpot any more likely to hit (the exception is must-drop jackpots, which are guaranteed to pay out before they reach a set cap or deadline).

The odds of winning stay the same, but because the payout grows, the theoretical expected value rises along with the pool.

Once the pool passes a certain level, the RTP can in theory exceed 100%. However, the odds of winning are on the order of 1 in tens of millions, and no individual player can spin often enough to come close to that theoretical value. With odds this low, a player’s results over any realistic number of spins will almost certainly end in a loss, so a large pool is no reason to bet more.

Things to Check Before Playing for a Jackpot

On most jackpot slots, any bet at or above the minimum qualifies you for the jackpot. Some games, however, set specific conditions for winning the jackpot, and if you do not meet them, you cannot win it.

For example, Playtech’s Jackpot Giant has a maximum bet of $4. If you bet less than $4 per spin, you cannot win the jackpot even if you land the jackpot combination (five wilds on a designated payline).

The jackpot requirements are listed in the pay table, so always check them before you play.

Summary: Jackpot Types Differ in Hit Frequency and Prize Size

The term “jackpot” can mean either the top payout available on a given slot or a progressive jackpot, which grows as a share of each bet is added to the prize pool. At online casinos, it usually means the latter.

Jackpot slots range from games limited to a single casino to games in which players around the world compete for the same jackpot. In general, a narrower network means smaller but more frequent jackpots, while a wider network means larger but rarer jackpots.

A growing number of games now offer top payouts of 10,000x the bet or more, but jackpot slots have produced wins worth tens of millions of times the minimum bet.