Progressive jackpot slots are an interesting variation of your typical slot games, offering the potential for a truly enormous jackpot win. However, the specifics behind how they work can make them difficult to understand, especially if you have never played them before.

But what are progressive jackpot pokies, and what do you need to know if you want to play them for yourself? More importantly, are there specific details you should know that might save you from making a major mistake?

What are Progressive Jackpots?

The term “progressive jackpot” describes a jackpot that increases every time someone plays a certain game. These jackpots are usually shared between all games of the same type or across the same network and will increase based on a proportion of what every player bets.

This means that the jackpots rise the more players are playing that game and will only reset when a player eventually hits the jackpot trigger and earns the winnings – which then resets it back to zero.

This creates a dynamic jackpot where the total amount changes with every player’s bet, increasing until it eventually gets won by whichever lucky player manages to earn the jackpot first.

Progressive Jackpots, however, can be tricky to understand at first. While a regular jackpot will have a fixed amount, the progressive jackpot will always rise and fall depending on the bets and wins that players get, and only one person can usually win the jackpot in the end.

Are Progressive Jackpots Fair?

While progressive jackpots keep going and going until they are won, they are still technically entirely fair. The only real “unfair” part is that winning the jackpot is not based on how much your bets contributed to the total jackpot amount, but this means that every player gets an equal chance to win with every bet they make.

Since the jackpot is the same for all players, there is also no unfairness in who gets which jackpot amounts. The total value is always the same and resets whenever somebody wins, so everyone has the same odds.

Should You Play For Progressive Jackpots

As a feature on many pokies, progressive jackpots offer the possibility of a big win that is not found anywhere else. This can be extremely tempting, and since any player can win them, there is no bias against people who are just jumping in right away.

However, you do need to remember that the amount won will be determined by the total number of bets and the average bet sizes. The more players there are making bets on that jackpot game, the higher the jackpot will climb, and this means that the jackpot amount is always changing.

Since it resets if somebody wins, there is no guarantee that progressive jackpot pokies will have a higher jackpot value even one hour in the future. If somebody wins in that time, it gets reset back to its base value, which could be much lower than the jackpot you saw an hour earlier.

Even so, progressive jackpots are a great option for anybody looking for a more varied experience or who wants to get lucky with a massive jackpot payout if they feel like fate is on their side.