Slot machine games have been used since the late 1880s when Charles Fey built the first slot machine game, the Liberty Bell, in his workshop. Progressive slots came along about 100 years later in 1986 when IGT (International Gaming Technologies) released Megabucks, the first progressive game.

Until Megabucks all slot machine games paid a fixed maximum jackpot prize. The progressive technology IGT developed allowed games to gradually increase their jackpots over time.

I think it’s fair to say that progressive games have become common and popular across the world. Players love the big jackpots.

But are they worth playing for?

1. A progressive slot machine pays out more each time that a player spins, but does not win the jackpot. For example, if a machine has a $1,000.50 progressive meter, and you play one losing spin, the jackpot would then rise to $1,000.51, or another close figure. This is a very simple example of how progressive slots function.
2. The Stand-Alone Progressive Jackpot is for an online slot game that is not linked to any other online slots. The progressive Jackpots in Stand Alone Progressive slots are much lower than the progressive jackpots from linked online slots. The In-House Progressive Jackpot combines a group of slots that are all linked together. The prizes here are much higher than the stand-alone progressive jackpots but they aren’t the biggest out there.

Progressive slot machines build big jackpots by adding a percentage of each bet to the jackpot until somebody wins. Standalone progressives build the jackpot from bets at a single machine, linked progressives build a jackpot from bets on a number of electronically linked machines and wide-area progressives build jackpots from bets on machines. The jackpots in the local progressive slots range from $100,000 to $1,000,000. Wide Network Progressive Slots. These are probably the reason you got interested in progressive slot machine machines. The wide area network progressive consists of interlinked slot machines from different casinos, but within the same state. One type that advantage players are on the hunt for when scouring the slot floor is a Must Hit By progressive. The idea behind them is before they hit a certain number, they will pay out. The closer to the number they are, the more likely they are to hit.

I’ve put a few dollars into those million dollar machines just to see what would happen. I didn’t win the progressive prizes but I didn’t like the results of my game play either.

Who Pays for Progressive Jackpots?

Whether it’s a slot machine or any other kind of gambling game, a progressive jackpot is paid the same way as a traditional prize. The money comes from players’ wagers.

The only time a casino risks its own money on a game is when it first introduces the game. The very first player could win a prize and the casino must cover it. Industry experts say it takes only a few weeks for a casino to earn a cash reserve on each game that covers all future payouts.

And that means all those progressive jackpots are covered by players’ wagers.

There’s too much debate and disagreement about how much the casinos make on progressive games to go into the details. The important thing to know is that a progressive jackpot is rarely paid out of the casino’s net worth.

How Progressive Games Work

The idea behind the progressive jackpot is simple. It starts out at a minimum level and as more wagers are played a little bit of each is allocated toward the jackpot.

The jackpot will only be rewarded on a random basis when an extremely rare combination of factors occurs. In slot games this is a combination of winning symbols. In other games it’s a combination of cards or die rolls depending on the game.

Most progressive games require that you make a maximum wager to win the progressive jackpot. So if you make anything less than the max bet and the winning symbols come up you’re only awarded a fixed prize.

The progressive jackpot may be increased by less than maximum wagers.

I know some people believe progressive games are designed to pay only after certain intervals but that can’t be true for all of them. I doubt it’s true for any of them. I say that because I’ve seen two people win progressive jackpots on the same machine within an hour of each other.

That poor second winner had to settle for slightly more than the minimum prize. But she was happy just the same.

A friend showed me an online slot game that had 4 or 5 progressive jackpots. It was a dizzying display of numbers increasing gradually over time. He asked me what I thought about all those jackpots.

I asked him if he was winning any money without the jackpots and he shrugged.

The slot game still pays smaller prizes. Progressive games can pay big or small prizes just like non-progressives. The idea is that the progressive prize retains a small, small percentage of every wager to cover the next jackpot.

The more progressive prizes the game pays the less likely it’s going to pay larger non-progressive prizes. But that’s just my opinion.

When a random number generator decides the action anything can happen even if that means the casino loses money on the game for a while.

Should You Play Progressive Games with Higher Jackpots?

The working theory among many players is that you should wait for a progressive game’s jackpot to climb to a ridiculously high value.

This expectation is based on the classic Gambler’s Fallacy, and just as with lottery games whose jackpots go unwon for several weeks or months, the amount of the jackpot doesn’t matter.

That was a “local” progressive jackpot. There were about 6 games networked together. They were very popular with the casino’s regular slot players.

I’ve never heard of a national progressive game paying jackpots close together but it could happen. The more machines you network together the less money overall each machine need to contribute to the jackpot.

Of course, if the gaming company wants to offer a really big jackpot then it needs to siphon off more money from the wagers. They can do this by offering progressives only on higher wager machines or by increasing contributions from each wager.

Either way, you’re risking more money to win the biggest progressive jackpots than when you play for the smaller ones.

Is Winning a Progressive Jackpot Worth the Trouble?

If a slot machine game offers a fixed top prize of $10,000 why would you not be satisfied with that?

Your chances of winning a $10,000 jackpot are much better than your chances of winning a $1,000,000 jackpot – all other things being equal.

The percentages on these two hypothetical games could be different. You might have a higher RTP on a $25 progressive slot machine game than a $1 non-progressive slot game.

You could also have a higher variance on the non-progressive game – where the big prizes are paid less often but they are larger than the big (non-progressive) prizes on the progressive game.

I don’t know of a simple way to decide between two slot machine games. You should study the help screens. You may need to look up their PAR sheets and see if you can calculate the odds based on their published specifications.

My rule of thumb is that the larger the prize on the table the less likely I’m going to win the prize. It doesn’t matter what the game is.

How Much Do Other People Win from Non-Progressive Prizes?

When you’re learning about a game for the first time look at how it’s paying other players. The frequency of payouts should have nothing to do with the progressive jackpot. That jackpot is being covered by a percentage of each wager just like the other prizes.

Instead, what you want to know is how enjoyable the game is. Everyone enjoys winning so how often that seems to happen is an important clue.

Other people’s results don’t guarantee you’ll win just as much or more than they do. All you want to do is get an idea for how many wagers you must make before you can bring your balance back up to where you started.

Some games pay partial wins. These are called losing prizes. If you wager $5 and the game pays $4 you lost on that prize. You just didn’t lose your entire wager.

I don’t play slot machines very often but I avoid games that pay losing prizes. It takes too much effort to calculate how likely they are to let you get ahead. But I’ve never walked away from playing a game like that with more money than I put in.

Conclusion

Playing a progressive jackpot game is a personal decision. I think you should play the game because you enjoy the experience.

I don’t make extra wagers in blackjack so I never play for the progressive prize. I’ve only once seen anyone win a progressive prize in blackjack but I don’t think it’s a common game.

Even in slot machine games you have a choice. You can choose to play non-progressive or progressive games. You can choose to make qualifying wagers or not.

As long as you’re not forced to pay extra for the prize do what you feel is more entertaining. After all, you just might be the next winner.

“Hey there, Tex. You want some free money?”

If anyone ever says this to you, run away. There’s no such thing as free money and there’s always a catch when someone tells you that there is.

If there’s anything to be gleaned from movies about gambling, it’s that casinos are evil and they want to leave you with nothing…NOTHING.

But wait. What if movies aren’t like real life? And what if your main interest lies in playing the slots?

Here’s some good news, there are right ways to play pokies and come out on top. If you’re careful and calculated, you can avoid the typical pitfalls of casino life using some slot machine tricks.

Let’s go over some of the best practices when hitting the slots. Here are some dos and don’ts for making the most of your trip to the casino.

Grab a pack of cheap cigarettes and put your ugliest suit on, it’s time to gamble.

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Wait, Money Does Grow on Trees?

That thing at the beginning about running away when someone offers you free money?

Well here’s one case where it may actually work out in your favour. Let’s talk about the first thing you should do when trying to take advantage of the slots, use no-deposit bonus codes.

If you’ve ever been to Las Vegas, then you’ve seen what can only be described as casino heaven. The Vegas strip is a veritable pig pen of casino activity, and with so much competition between establishments, the different casinos need ways to get people into their building instead of someone else’s.

That’s where no-deposit bonus codes come in. These are essentially free money vouchers. The casinos use them to bring people in the doors, where they know that will power will eventually fade away along with the free money. So evil, right?

But if you’re smart and careful, you can take this free money and use it to make more money using some of the tricks we’ll outline here.

A Couple Slot Machine Tricks

Sure, most folks just waltz on to the casino floor and just start losing money, but it doesn’t have to be that way. If you get to know the way that casinos work, then you’ll be at an advantage.

How Does Progressive Slot Machines Work Better

Or at least an advantage over the other gamblers. The casino always has the advantage. Remember, you’re in their house.

Loose Slots

Yep, there is such thing as a “loose” slot machine. This is an old-school term that basically means that a slot is more likely to pay out.

In the age of digital slot machines, the actual mechanics of the machine don’t cause it to pay out more, but machines today have random number generators (RNG’s) that do pay out at different rates.

Casinos always keep the machines that have higher payout rates away from the ends of the aisles and away from doorways. This is to keep gamblers from winning big on a machine and immediately taking their business elsewhere.

So always make sure to get into the thick of it before you settle down at a machine.

Bet Max

What? Bet the max amount? Isn’t that the quickest way to bankruptcy?

Yes and no. Machines nowadays have multiple bet lines so when you bet the max you can take advantage of multiple lines. The odds of you winning don’t increase, but the amount you win will greatly increase when you do win if you bet max.

Different machines have different volatility levels. Machines with high volatility are quicker to run you out of town, but the winnings will be way better. Low volatility machines pay out less money at a higher frequency. Keep this in mind.

Play Classic Over Video

Those big flashy video slots with all the fun graphics and loud music? They aren’t just there to entertain you. They’re there to take your money.

The video slots are there to draw people in, and it works. But the casino’s cost of running and maintaining video slots is much higher and they take up tons of space compared to the other machines, so the payout is almost always lower.

Stick to the boring old slots. There’s less to look at but you might just leave them with heavier pockets.

Random or Progressive?

Temptation is the name of the game at the casino, and progressive slots are really tempting.

A progressive slot machine is one that pools all the money from everyone that’s played it since its last jackpot. There are also multi-slot progressive jackpots that pool a few different machines to tempt people with enormous payouts.

Keep It Random, Y’All

Random slots obviously look a bit less enticing, as they have a fixed jackpot. They do, however, pay out those jackpots more frequently. Pick your poison, but often good things come to those who wait.

Pay Tables

Take a look at the pay tables of different machines to compare. A pay table shows the payout for each combination of symbols/amount bet.

Pay tables can be an indicator of a machine’s volatility, and doing a little comparison rather than just sitting down randomly at a machine can help you in the long run. It’s better to take your time and find the right machine that your research tells you is more likely to pay out.

Talkin’ Bout Practice

Did you know that practice always makes perfect? Well, not perfect in this case because it’ll never be perfect. But there are websites where you can try out some of your strategies, look at pay tables, multipliers, and other game features without losing your hard earned dough.

Check out a practice site to try out different games and learn about the nuances of each slot machine. There is a lot of variance between machines when it comes to free spins, bonus rounds, and multipliers, so it will benefit you greatly to familiarize yourself before you do it for real.

Try Math

Listen, these god-forsaken machines were built on math. And if you really want to beat them, you have to fight fire with fire. This requires a lot of time and brainpower, but it is possible to give yourself a chance.

There are loads of math based strategies available online. While they certainly don’t guarantee success, they at least allow you to feel like you’re in control over the game. Get a good pocket-sized calculator, a notepad, and a pen and go get yourself some money.

Know When to Give up on a Machine

This is an easy one. Sometimes you just have to know when to give up if a machine isn’t paying out. It’s not exactly following your gut, but more like letting the results dictate what you do.

You never want to end up like the old person sitting at the same machine for hours on end in their sweats, smoking cigarette after cigarette, dumping all of their excess money into the slots.

And what was stated earlier rings is all too true. The slots will always win in the end.

The easy way to avoid this is to have the willpower to walk away and find another machine. You can do it.

Bounce Around

Not staying too long at one machine is one of the more obvious tips. But if you have the option, bouncing around to different casinos is another good move.

Casinos are all vying for your business, and as mentioned earlier, they will offer you different perks to get you in their clutches. Why exploit the generosity of just one establishment when you can get free spins, chips, and bonuses from two? Or three? Or four? Don’t limit yourself.

Progressive Slot Machines For Sale

Have Limits

No, but do limit yourself though. If you’re not having a good day at the races, pack it in early.

It’s really easy to go down a dark gambling hole, and that’s what the casinos want you to do. But you can always go back, so don’t be discouraged.

Set a limit for yourself on how much money you are willing to spend at this place, and fastidiously stick to it. Yes, the next spin could change your life, but what if it’s actually about 150 spins from now? Be careful out there.

Good Luck

The bottom line in all of this is that this is all luck based. If you are playing the slots and using slot machine tricks expecting to win, you’re doing it wrong! There are lots of so-called “experts” telling you how to play the pokies, but the best advice is to not let the pokies play you.

All that you can do is employ some of these strategies and hope for the best, and you’ll be in a better position than if you just go in blind. Even the most seasoned and strong-willed gambler is at the mercy of the slot machine.

In any case, good luck to all and visit our pokies blog for more articles about all things pokies or look at one of our many gambling guides to gambling in Australia.