Progressive Slots

Progressive slots are slot machines with jackpots that increase with every play until they are eventually won in their entirety by a lucky player. They offer the potential of enormous prizes (some progressives have paid out lottery-sized jackpots of several million) for relatively small stakes.

If you're the kind of person who likes to have an occasional gamble on one of these progressive slot machines, you would do well to look before you leap. Online casinos don't like to give money away for nothing, so before a progressive pays out a fortune it almost always takes in a fortune first. Before playing a progressive, have a scout around and see if you can find a machine which looks more “ripe” for the picking.

Given the choice between two progressive machines – say one with a jackpot of £1,000 and another with a jackpot of £10,000 – the latter may offer more value for your buck. Of course, the chances of you landing a progressive jackpot are remote, but by picking the progressive with the largest jackpot you ensure that if you do win you’ll have something serious to shout about.

Many slot machines boast about their payout percentages. Some claim to pay out 90% of total takings and some claim to pay out 95%. In some casinos a payout claim of 97% can be found. Whilst these figures are, in the vast majority of circumstances, accurate, don’t assume that they apply to every £100 invested. This is a mistake which many people make. They see a “95% payout” claim and assume that if they gamble £100, they’ll finish up with at least £95 back in their pockets.

The truth is that a complete cycle of a slot machine can be as many as 8,000 or 10,000 individual spins, and it is on these complete cycles that percentages are most often based. Bear this in mind when deciding which of the progressive slots you want to play.

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