If you’re looking to win a jackpot that could change your life, then progressive slots are the game to play. Let’s face it—you’ll never win several hundred thousand playing blackjack or roulette. The payouts just aren’t high enough.

The purpose of this page is to provide an explanation of what progressive slots are, how they work, and why you might be interested in playing them. We’ve also included descriptions of some of the more popular progressive jackpots available both online and in traditional brick-and-mortar casinos.

What Is a Progressive Slot, and How Does It Work?

Im looking to get the Jackpot from any slot machine to gain the xp in-game. Ive gotten the Car achievement from a previous save and am looking to get level 10 in the Casino. Ive tried playing. Do I Have to Report All Winnings? All gambling winnings received from slot machines are subject to. The machines accept cash but do not pay out in cash; instead, they print out a receipt which must be taken to a cashier. According to figures from the Oregon Lottery, during its fiscal year from June 28, 2018, through June 25, 2019, the VLT’s had an approximate return of 92.34%.

On most slot machines, the jackpot is a fixed amount, but on a progressive game, the jackpot rises as players put coins in the machine and spin the wheels. A tiny percentage of each coin played is used to “feed” the jackpot. There are three types of progressive slot machine games.

Standalone Progressives

A standalone progressive slot machine has a jackpot ticker on the game, but only bets placed on that specific machine feed the jackpot. This was, at one time, the only kind of progressive slot machine game available, but most progressives feature multiple machines that are linked together. Still, so many standalone machines were manufactured that these games are still easily found in casinos throughout the world. Usually the jackpot on the games will be under $10,000.

Local Progressives

Local progressives were the next step in the evolution of this type of game, and they’re still commonly found. These games feature jackpots within a specific casino that are linked. This network can include as few as a dozen or so machines, or it can include a hundred machines—it just depends on the casino. Usually the jackpots available on these games are under $1,000,000, and often they’re under $100,000.

Wide Area Network Progressives

These are some of the most popular casino games on the market today. A wide area network jackpot links slot machines from multiple casinos in the same state. This allows the jackpot to accumulate into astronomical sums of money, often over $1 million and sometimes even over $10 million. The most well-known brand of wide area network progressives are the Megabucks games from IGT, which is the most successful slot machine design company in the world.

How Do You Win a Progressive Jackpot?

No strategy or system can increase your chances of winning a progressive jackpot on a slot machine game. The odds of winning are similar to the odds of winning the lottery, although you get many more chances of winning per hour with a slot machine game than you would get playing a lottery game.

An important thing to keep in mind about progressive jackpots is that they don’t become “due”. The chances of winning are astronomically small no matter how large the jackpot has gotten. It’s possible for a jackpot to grow large enough that a bet on a particular slots game will be a positive expectation bet, but it’s not a practical opportunity to win. A 1 in a million shot is still a 1 in a million shot, even if the jackpot is up to $2 million.

Online Progressive Jackpots

With the rise of online casinos, progressive jackpots on the Internet have become just as popular as the games in actual land-based casinos. Microgaming is one Internet casino provider which has established its fame and reputation based largely on its large assortment of fun, colorful, and relatively loose progressive jackpot games.

Online progressives work just like their land-based cousins. Every wager you make on your computer feeds a tiny amount into the progressive jackpot for that game. Since lots of players are now gambling from the comfort of their homes, these jackpots can become just as large and life-changing as the progressives in Vegas or Atlantic City.

Most Popular Progressive Games

Megabucks is one of the most popular progressive networks available. The probability of winning this jackpot has been estimated at 1 in 50 million. The amounts won on this machine vary from $10 million into the hundreds of millions. Like many lottery games, Megabucks is paid out as an annuity over 25 years.

Wheel of Fortune is a popular brand of slot machine, and it’s available in multiple denominations. One of the most common versions is the quarter version, which has a starting jackpot of $200,000. The jackpot on this game has gotten close to $2 million in the past, but it’s usually won when it’s still under $1 million.

The dollar version of Wheel of Fortune progressives starts with a $1 million jackpot. It’s not unusual for the game to reach $5 million or more, and it’s almost reach $10 million on occasion. Like Megabucks, this jackpot is paid out as an annuity over time.

Elvis isn’t just the king of rock and roll. He’s also a symbol of classic Vegas, so it’s entirely appropriate that he has a progressive slot machine network named after him. The game starts with a $100,000 jackpot, and it costs 25 cents per spin. Keep in mind that to be eligible for the jackpot, you have to make the max bet, which is 3 coins, or 75 cents. We don’t recommend playing progressive slots without making the max bet, because you usually won’t be eligible for the top prize unless you do.

Mega Moolah is an online-only progressive jackpot available at Internet casinos powered by Microgaming software. Multiple games feature the brand name, and the jackpots and betting limits vary. This progressive network features some of the largest jackpots online, often reaching $1 million or more.

Introduction: Winning the Jackpot on Megabucks Slot Machine

Have you ever thought about winning the jackpot on the Megabucks slot machine? If there’s a motto for gamblers coming in search of a fortune in Las Vegas, then it’s, “Go big, or go home”! The thing about playing jackpot slots in the casino is that in order to win big, you have to place maximum bets. So, though we always reckon you should follow some serious guidelines on money management, it’s also true that you’ll never hit the big time unless you slash out. And if you’re going to be laying the massive progressive jackpot slots, then your dream is to hit the main prize. And there’s just no way of doing that without playing to the max.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of gamblers playing progressive slot machines will not become overnight millionaires. Quite the opposite. They will lose money thanks to the house edge and every game inherent odds, which stack up against them. The casino is a business and it runs on the losses of most of its customers. But on March 21st, 2003, a random tourist decided to try his luck and in an instant became a Las Vegas legend.

The Largest Progressive Jackpot

It was on that fateful date that a young man came from Los Angeles to visit his relatives. A member of his family, his uncle to be precise, said that he should try the Megabucks slot machine which was in the Excalibur Hotel and Casino. He told the young man that the machine hadn’t paid out for some time….and that maybe today would be the lucky day. At that time, the Megabucks slot machine hadn’t actually paid out for nearly one year. We should also point out that this machine was based on the largest network progressive jackpot in the world.

Initially, megabucks had seeded the machine with $1 million in 1997 and then again, but with $10 million in 2005. But back in 2003, it had a starting seed of $10 million. If you add all the $3 per spin that was put into the slot over almost a year, then the prize was a massive $39.7 million when our young man went to play. He said to himself, that he would allow $100 to play and no more. It was some silly fun for him as he wasn’t a gambler. He just was following his uncle’s advice for no particular reason.

How Does the Megabucks Slot Machine Work?

Before we go on with our story, let’s first take a look and see how a Megabucks slot machine actually works. The Megabucks slot was originally put on the market in 1986 by its manufacturer, one of the best jackpot game providers, International Games Technology (IGT). At this time, all slots machines were “static” meaning that they were standalone machines, where each machine’s kitty and payout were based on the monies fed in. But IGT revolutionized the whole industry with the idea of linking machines together. These then became progressive jackpot lotteries. This would also increase the jackpot total. So, if a player was playing a slot in Reno and another anywhere else in Nevada, then all their monies would go towards just one pot.

Over One Year Since the Last Payout

This “wide-area progressive slots” idea was an instant success. Players were transfixed on the machine’s meter, showing the prize rising to seven figures. In fact, you could watch the meter climb every day, as the odds were very very long on the possibility of winning the top prize. The actual Megabucks slot machines were very simple in design. There were none of these multiple pay-lines and expanded reels that you find on today’s machines. It was just three reels. You 43 was to send these spinning. They each featured the traditional symbols of sevens, bars, and cherries. All you had to do was line up three matching symbols on a single pay-line.

Megabucks Slot Machine: Massive Jackpot

All the current features on any slots just hadn’t been invented then. So there were no free spins, no scatter symbols, and certainly no video clips and wacky sound effects. It was just a simple no-frills slot machine, albeit with a massive jackpot. By the way, the game’s jackpot symbol is a “Megabucks Eagle” which shows the company’s distinctive logo. Now the odds of landing just one eagle are 1:368. And the odds of landing all three, and thus winning the jackpot are 1:49,836,032. It’s for this reason that the prizes go unclaimed for lengthy periods of time. And it’s this combination of long time periods between wins and all the $3 which are continuously being put into these machines, that allows the main prize to reach such epic proportions.

Megabucks was a constant in the news of the time, as huge jackpots were won. For example, a record-setting $27.5 million was won by a lucky player in 1998 at the Palace Station. Then another record jackpot fell to a cocktail waitress playing at the Desert Inn in January of 2000. That record-breaking amount was $ 34.9 million. And here we are, three years later, as our anti-hero sits down to play.

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$100 Flier Turns Into Life-Changing Record Jackpot Win

So, with just $100 to his name, our young man would of gotten only 33 spins. Yes, it’s true you can play the Megabucks slot machine for both $1 and $2. But you need to be placing the maximum wager of $3 in order to have a chance at the main prize. This player was maybe born lucky as he was to later reveal that he had three sevens on his birthday. Without any jackpot winning strategy and yet within those thirty-three spins, the young man watched in wonder as those three Megabucks symbols lined up. And, in the blink of an eye, he’d beaten odds of nearly 1: 50 million and won nearly $40 million.

Megabucks Slot Machine: The Winner is Still Collecting His Winnings

Interestingly enough the winner chooses to take his prize in yearly installments. This is a rare way of doing things. Many winners are concerned as to whether the game provider company, who has to pay the prize will be in existence in the next 10 years. Never the less, he decided on 26 installments of $1.6 million each year. From today, he still has another $15 million to collect over the course of the next 10 years. The winner wisely chooses to stay anonymous. He gave a statement, “I’m still stunned; it doesn’t seem real yet. But both of my parents are still working, so some of this money will go to fund their retirement.”

How To Win Slot Jackpot

Largest Megabucks Jackpot Ever – And By a Long Shot

There was a confirmation from the vice president of IGT, John Sears, that the jackpot of $39,713,982.25 was the largest ever. “This MegaJackpot is nearly $5 million more than the previous world record slot jackpot amount of $34.9 million – this one goes into The Guinness Book of Records.”

Competing Jackpot Hunters Lament Loss of Record-Setting Total

Everyone was happy to see the jackpot finally find a winner. But there was also disappointment for many that the prize was now back to $10 million. For many hard-core slot players, the win was a bitter-sweet moment. The Las Vegas Sun newspaper did a series of interviews where they inquired as to the feelings of other long term slot machine players. Kim Wong from Kailua told the paper, “I was here at lunchtime around 12:30 and it was still around $39.7 million. Then I came back around a quarter after one and it was resetting. It was such a drag. It was a little more enticing with the $39 million up there. But I’m still playing.”

A certain Judy Selasky from Lavonia, Michigan told a similar tale. Saying that though a record payout was off the table, she and her husband would still play in hopes of a “lightning strikes twice” type of moment: “I said, ‘Hurry up and get up to the room, so I can get downstairs. I figure if he won, there might be some magic here. I’m not a hog.”

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Conclusion: Winning the Jackpot on Megabucks Slot Machine

Las Vegas is a city that appears to only deal in excess. As we said at the very beginning, go big or go home. Well, this young computer programmer for LA did just that. And for many gamblers, knowing that someone was able to win such a huge prize, gives them the hope that one day, it could be them. Especially when you consider that 16 years have passed since that fateful day. And since then, though many jackpots have come and gone, still no one has come close to that record amount of cash. Check out our casino jackpot guides.

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