Progressive jackpot is a term used in both online and brick-and-mortar casinos, and it refers to the jackpot reward tied to a progressive video slot or slot machines.
Unlike a fixed jackpot, the money you can win from a progressive jackpot continuously changes each time a player makes a wager playing a progressive video slot. Usually, with each wager, a small portion of the players’ bet will be contributed to the prize pool that keeps on rising until one lucky player wins the progressive jackpot, at which point the jackpot resets, and the cycle starts from the beginning.
There are several different types of progressive jackpots. They can be stand-alone, in-house, and wide-area progressive jackpots. Stand-alone progressive jackpots are usually tied to a machine and are found in brick-and-mortar casinos. In-house progressive jackpots have several machines or video slots linked to them, and each time a player wagers on either of those slots, the progressive jackpots increases.
Wide area progressive jackpots are the hardest to win, but they offer life-changing prizes. They usually involve several video slots from the same provider, such as Microgaming’s Mega Moolah franchise of slots, for example. Whenever a player makes a wager on any of those slots, regardless of the casino they are playing in, a portion of their bet will be added to the progressive jackpot prize pool. Such jackpots often reach millions of dollars in prizes.