Progressive Jackpot Slots

Progressive jackpot slots are a hot item at most online casinos. This is thanks to the fact that they payout enormous amounts of money when someone wins. There are different types of progressive jackpots you can encounter when playing slots. There are specific jackpots that may be of interest and the casinos that offer them. Progressive slots usually have a higher house edge than the average fixed jackpot games. Players ignore the odds and losing sessions, if it gives them a chance to get a life-changing jackpot.

This page will go over the best online casinos for progressive slots. Also pointing out the progressives with the highest jackpots right now, along with those that have the best return-to-player (RTP). Once US players finish reading this page, they should have a good idea where to play. There is also enough information on international online casinos to compare. Players in Canada and the United Kingdom might be surprised to learn that the US-friendly gaming companies often offer much better odds, even if their jackpots are not always as high.

Best Progressive Jackpot Slots Online  

Different Progressive Jackpots

There is several progressive jackpot terms that slots players are likely to encounter. Below is a short lexicon of progressive slot machine terms, including the phrase and its definition.

Crossover Slot Machine

A crossover slot machine is roughly synonymous to a “random progressive.” It is a hybrid between a fixed and progressive slot — offering progressive game mechanics unlikely to produce a huge pot.

Fixed Jackpot Slots

A slot machine without a progressive jackpot. The top prize is a fixed amount, whether this is 2000 coins, 10000 coins, or 100,000 coins.

Flat-Top Slot Machine

The same as a fixed jackpot slot machine. It is called a “flat-top” because the prize pool does not rise.

Linked Progressives

Gaming machines with linked jackpots make the prize pool increase faster. At online casinos, two different slots games from the same software company might have a linked jackpot.

Local Progressives

A progressive jackpot which links several machines, but all inside the same land-based casino. These are often in the same bank of machines.

Multi-Level Progressives

Software companies now offer multiple progressive jackpots on one machine. The standard multi-level gaming machine offers 5 progressives, each one bigger than the last: Mini, Minor, Major, Maxi, and Grand. The 1st level progressive might be $10 or $20, but the 5th level progressive often reaches into the hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars.

Progressive Slots

A slot machine with an accumulated or “progressive” jackpot. A fraction of the bet from every spin which does not win the biggest prize on the game feeds the pot. When a player finally hits the winning combination (usually a royal flush), they win the progressive jackpot. Players accumulate points to move up the progressive level the longer they play, but they have one reel combination which can trigger the top level prize on any spin.

Random Progressive Jackpots

Jackpots which are not tied to a winning combination on a payline. These can happen anytime during play. Usually, a random progressive is smaller than a progressive jackpot tied to the royal flush.

Wide-Area Progressives

A progressive jackpot which links machines from many different casinos. This might cover all the gaming machines in a state or in an interstate situation.

Rival Gaming Progressive Slots

There are only four accumulated jackpots in the entire Rival Gaming catalogue. The jackpots are fairly small by most gamblers’ standards.

Rival Gaming offers nice graphics and a lot of bonus features, like wild symbols, scatter symbols, free spins, bonus games, and (especially) multipliers. In the US gaming market, no software developer offers more multipliers than Rival Gaming. Progressive jackpots are not the company’s specialty.

Players who want to find Rival Gaming progressive slots should look at websites like Bovada, Bodog, Slots.lv, and Ignition Casino; along with many more online casinos. Here’s a table with the pertinent information you’ll need when deciding which game to play.

In the table below, I include the game’s name, its number of reels, as well as its number of paylines, its return-to-player percentage, and the current size of its jackpot. The information provided is updated for the middle of April, 2016.

The biggest payouts have the lowest return-to-player, but a 94% RTP is still good. Compare these rates to the Microgaming slots below and you’ll see the difference. The payouts on Strike Gold and Major Moolah are small, but the RTP are 97% and 96%, respectively. That matches anything in the gaming industry, including the fixed jackpot games which have such high RTPs.

Betsoft Progressive Jackpots

Betsoft is known for its 3D animated graphics, but it offers 21 progressive jackpots which are competitive with any games in the industry. There are enough Betsoft progressives that it’s hard to put them all in one table, especially because their 2-cent, 5-cent, 10-cent, 25-cent, 50-cent, and one dollar gaming machines each have different jackpots.

If you want to gamble on Betsoft progressive slots, play at BetOnline Casino, Slots.lv, Bovada, Bodog, or Ignition Casino. Information for the size of the Bovada and Slots.lv jackpots are available online, so I’ve collected that information in a table below, as a resource to our readers.

To give an example of the wide range of jackpots offered, here is a comparative look at the “Bad Girl” jackpot at Bovada and Slots.lv, two sites you’ll read about a lot at this resource. Notice that the pot sizes fluctuate wildly from one version of the game to the next.

These are the top payouts for each of the progressive slot titles at Bovada Casino. If you cannot afford the $1 per spin bet on a game like “At the Copa” Slots, drop down to the next biggest payout. As you can see from the list below, the 10-cent payout is usually the best denomination, if the $1 machine isn’t. Notice that the biggest jackpot on Greedy Goblins right now is the 2-cent betting limit. Take a look at a site called CasinoListings for the full payout information.

Slots.lv does not have progressive payouts quite as high as Bovada at the moment. Still, their progressives reach into the tens of thousands of dollars. Greedy Goblins is, once again, the title which needs highlighting.

It has the largest jackpot at Slots.lv at the moment.

RealTime Gaming Progressive Slots

RealTime Gaming has the largest number of progressive slots for U.S. gamblers. Also, RTG has the biggest jackpots for American players.

OUSC offers a huge amount of information on the RTG slots alone. That’s because RealTime Gaming has devoted so much time to progressives. Some players would say the long list of RTG progressives are bogus, because the local-area progressives and (especially) the random progressives are not what players really want. For that reason, I’ve separated each into its own category, so you don’t have to search for which RTG slots you considered to have real progressives. We’ll start with the biggest jackpots and work our way down.

American players who want to play RealTime Gaming progressive slots should consider Slots.lv, Club World Casinos, Bovada, Aladdin’s Gold, 5Dimes Casino, and Ignition Casino. Those outside the United States should consider Bodog Casino.

The RTG slots with the biggest jackpots are the “wide-area progressives.” These pots grow the fastest because they are linked according to the many online casinos which have RTG slots. As a jackpot grows, this only speeds up the process, so a few of the RTG slots (Aztec’s Millions, Jackpot Piñatas) have large payouts. In fact, these are the best progressives in the US gaming market.

Local progressive jackpots do not increase as fast as the pots listed above. Also, they seldom get as big as the top RTG progressives listed above. That being said, the following list of games have a jackpot which is triggered in the traditional way, with a jackpot reel combination.

RealTime Gaming produces more slot machines with random progressives than any other software developer. These are local area jackpots independent of the reel alignment. They are programmed by the operator and not by RTG.

These jackpots do not increase that quickly, indicating they are not that popular. That being said, RTG has produced so many of these games, they must be popular with operators and players alike. The list below are those games which have verified random progressives.

RTG has produced dozens of Real-Series Slots in the past few years. These games have enhanced graphics and sounds, while offering progressive jackpots. The list below includes dozens of Real-Series Slots. Most of these only have random progressives, so their jackpots might not be what you would imagine. That being said, AskGamblers lists every single game below as a progressive jackpot slot machine.

RealTime Gaming produces some jackpots which trigger at special times during the game. Three of these games have progressives build on losing spins. If ever a player has a really bad streak of luck of 29 losing spins, they trigger the progressive.

The first of these games was “It’s Good to Be Bad”, which became popular enough that RTG released others with a similar feature. Here are the special jackpot games.

Real-Series Slots feature themes from around the world. RTG caters to Americans, but their gaming machines are designed with a global customer base in mind. A growing part of that customer base include Asian gamblers. I’ve noticed in the past 5 years, RTG has released a number of China-themed progressive slot machines. While a few are scattered throughout the lists above (example: Mystic Dragon Slots), below is a small list of China-themed Real-Series slots.

While I’m discussing RTG progressive jackpots, I wanted to mention that games like Let ‘Em Ride ($157,255) and Caribbean Stud Poker ($145,366) often build significant progressive jackpots. Both examples are table games and not slots, but players who like those games should consider playing them.

IGT Progressive Slots

International Game Technology is the all-time champion of progressive jackpots. IGT invented progressive slots back in the 1980s for brick-and-mortar casinos. When others began to produce progressive jackpots, IGT created the definitive big-money jackpots: Wheel of Fortune Slots and MegaBucks Slots. Wheel of Fortune Progressives remain arguably the most popular progressive slot machine to this day. MegaBucks wide-area progressives boast 8 of the 10 biggest progressive jackpots of all time.

Unfortunately, since the passage of the UIGEA law by the US Congress in late-2006, IGT websites have not accepted play from American gamblers. That prohibition still remains in effect, except in New Jersey. In the New Jersey online casino market, 888 Holdings has partnered with Caesars Interactive on a series of websites for their 3 land-based casinos: Caesars Las Vegas, Harrah’s, and Bally’s Casino. Thus, New Jersey gamblers can play IGT Interactive slots.

IGT only has one progressive jackpot in the American gaming market at the moment: Mega Jackpots. This prize is linked to several different slot machines, so you can play one of three different games while trying to win this progressive jackpot.

Mega Jackpots has a reputations of having large prizes. Players tend to enjoy these games much more as they give them different unconventional games to choose from. Some are based off of popular table games, like monopoly.

MegaJackpots Monopoly

Licensed slot based on the Monopoly board game. Monopoly Slots is a popular game in land-based casinos.

MegaJackpots Cluedo

Licensed slot based on the Cluedo board game, known as “Clue” in the United States.

MegaJackpots Cleopatra

One of dozens of Ancient Egypt-themed slot machines, Cleopatra has the same $734,058 jackpot as Monopoly and Cluedo.

888 Casino websites are the only place Americans can gamble on IGT progressives on the Internet at the moment. The New Jersey Divison of Gaming Enforcement lists six different web addresses associated with the Caesars Interactive:

Once again, the only Americans who can play at these sites are those residing in New Jersey. Players anywhere else in the USA can register accounts, but cannot play for real money. If you have an account and happen to be in New Jersey, you’ll be able to play on these IGT progressive jackpot slots.

Microgaming Progressive Jackpots

Microgaming offers bigger progressive jackpots at times. Their progressive slots sometimes reach $5 million prizes. RealTime Gaming slots usually get into the $2 million range before they hit. That being said, you’ll notice that the RTP on the Microgaming progressive slots are far inferior to American progressives. You might prefer the trade-off, but a good case can be made that the Betsoft and Rival Gaming games are a better bargain.

Microgaming progressives were great when they first launched. For instance, Treasure Nile Slots paid out a record (for the time) of $389,843.85 only 3 weeks after it launched in 2001. These days, the Microgaming progressives leave a little something to be desired.

Conclusion

US players have a lot of options if they wish to play the progressives. The top prizes are not going to exceed about $2 million, which is below the international standard. Still, the return-to-player percentage on these games are competitive, and I don’t know a single person who couldn’t stand to win a couple of million dollars. Until more US states license and regulate online casino gambling, the RTG, Rival Gaming, and Betsoft progressive slots are solid playing options for progressive players.