Progressive jackpot slots have long tempted players with their astronomical top prizes that continuously rise until won. As the jackpots have grown larger in recent years, more players try their luck, hoping to win a life-altering amount of money from a small bet.
Progressive slots are linked across multiple machines at Mr Z, with a portion of every bet adding to the ever-increasing jackpot. The more people who play, the faster the jackpot grows. Once a lucky player triggers the jackpot, it resets to a predetermined base amount and starts increasing again from player contributions.
While the jackpot meter may display five or six-figure sums even at reset, the base jackpot is usually an amount in the tens of thousands. From that reset point, it quickly starts climbing again based on player activity.
Below is an overview of how progressive prizes grow:
|
Month |
Jackpot Amount |
Key Events |
|
January |
$50,000 |
Jackpot resets to base after previous win |
|
February |
$75,000 |
|
|
March |
$125,000 |
|
|
April |
$400,000 |
Increased activity during tournament series |
|
May |
$1,250,000 |
|
|
June |
$5,000,000 |
High publicity draws more players |
|
July |
$12,500,000 |
|
|
August |
$15,800,000 |
Won by a lucky player |
As shown above, progressive jackpots can quickly snowball to staggering amounts with enough player volume. But does this mean they are still worth playing nowadays?
One reason today’s progressives eclipse those from past decades comes down to sheer volume. There are simply more progressive games found at more casinos and online sites than ever before.
Where once your only option may have been a couple standalone progressives on a casino floor, now you can browse and play hundreds of different progressive titles across the internet. This naturally leads to faster-growing jackpots from the increased activity.
Additionally, game developers keep raising the ceiling of how high a jackpot can climb before forcing a payout. It’s now common to see advertised jackpots reach well into eight figures, rather than rarely venturing past seven.
Finally, multi-site pooling means even obscure slot titles can feature substantial jackpots. By combining play data across many participating operators, jackpots collectively grow from the combined betting action, instead of relying on volume at an individual location.
Another modern trend comes from an increasing number of jackpot winners rather than just one sole lucky recipient per payout. Many progressives now feature multiple tiers with varying prize pools.
For instance, a game could have prizes ranging from mini jackpots in the hundreds up through life-changing multi-million dollar windfalls. Various players all holding tickets made during the same winning spin then get a piece of the total payout.
This method allows more players to experience at least a smaller jackpot win, if not the full mega prize. Plus, by paying out more tiers, it reseeds the top jackpot at higher amounts, leading to faster escalation.
That said, splitting a giant jackpot inevitably leads to less money per top-prize winner. So while more players may luck into smaller windfalls, the chances of altering your life from rags to riches lessens compared to decades past.
While today’s progressive jackpots certainly grab attention with their towering, constantly inflating payouts, are they ultimately still worth playing? Can an average player reasonably expect to bag one of these elusive prizes?
The answer compared to 20 years ago depends on your viewpoint. Your chances to individually win a specific jackpot remain quite slim, often ranging from 1 in 10+ million to over 1 in 100 million. However, more tiers and more available progressives also mean better odds for players as a whole.
Ultimately, recreational players should view progressive slots similarly to lottery tickets – an entertaining way to take a shot at a big payout, but not a sound gambling strategy. The astronomical wins attract the headlines but represent extremely rare events.
Of course, that miniscule probability is all part of the appeal. Even if your odds stand virtually no chance, there is always lightning that could potentially strike if fortune defies logic. For optimistic dreamers, taking a long shot gamble at life-changing money will always hold some degree of temptation.
So while the boxcar numbers on today’s progressives keep reaching once unthinkable heights, the fleeting possibility of instantly cashing a small bet into millions ensures these games will continue tantalizing our sense of fortune well into the future. Just don’t expect to quit your day job anytime soon.
