Jackpots

‘Jackpot’ seems to be something of an overused word these days.

We hear it in the context of game shows, lotteries and games of course, but also just as a metaphor, for example if we find a particularly good real estate deal or even just a nice bar or café.

We don’t like bandying the word around too much here at Casino Daily News, and would only refer to casino jackpots if and when we really meant it.

Fortunately, then, there is no shortage of jackpot casino games online for us to get our teeth into, or for that matter casino jackpot winners, and we’re always keen to promote the best games, give a heads-up as to where potential big wins are to be had, and report the stories of happy winners who’ve walked away with astronomical sums of money - so read on and we’ll explain a bit more.

What makes a jackpot?

There are 2 (at least) ways of looking at this.

First, we could say that it’s all relative. In other words, one player’s big win could be another’s moderate take home to just pay some of the bills with.

Then again, a real online casino jackpot is labelled as such by the casino or software developer, in which case you can be sure of a substantial sum.

In fact, the jewel in the crown of jackpot online games are the progressive jackpots which many of the casinos run.

These pertain to slots – popular progressives include Mega Moolah and Mega Fortune as their names suggest – and work though a communal pot which each player will contribute a small percentage of their stake to, every time he or she spins the reels.

Since progressives attract so many players and with a house edge of a few percent (in other words the amount the casino can expect to take from any money staked, as a percentage) an online casino will normally ‘chip in’ a percentage to the progressive jackpot pool as well, each time that players stake money.

With the huge number of players on these games, these prize pools build up to massive amounts in a relatively short space of time. In fact it’s a double whammy in that people are attracted to the games by the promise of big wins and in so doing help to contribute to the sum up for grabs.

Add to that the fact that online jackpot games which are progressives are networked, joining different casinos together, so it doesn’t matter if you win the progressive at Guts, or Casumo, or any other site hosting the game – the amount will be the same and is collected from all players across all sites.

What sorts of sums of money are we talking about?

Well, amongst the biggest jackpot winners was one Greek slot player Giorgios, who became a millionaire at age 36 when, after only placing a small bet, he netted the Mega Moolah jackpot for himself with an incredible €6.3m, which was at one time the biggest single win ever recorded in the history of online slots.

Other relatively recent big winners include €2.4m won on Mega Jackpot by a Norwegian player; a Finnish player who picked up an amazing €3.3m on Arabian Nights, amazing in particular since the lucky person achieved the win on just the one spin; and a Swedish player who found their way to €2.5m on Mega Fortune (again!).

In fact Mega Fortune was also responsible for the real elephant in the room, namely the biggest winner on progressive slots at the time of writing; we’ll put you out of your misery by informing you that it was €17.8m in 2013!

So, look out for the progressives: there are a hardcore of around a couple of dozen of them which most of the big online casinos will offer, in addition to literally hundreds of ‘regular’ slots which, whilst not holding up the promise of wins in the progressive slots’ league, may also deliver steady payouts.

As noted, it’s the sheer popularity of progressives which kind of feeds off itself, and as a progressive gets bigger (which might take only a few weeks) more and more players are attracted so the money up for grabs expands almost exponentially.

We will continue to keep you abreast of the biggest jackpot winners – there will be more of them, believe us – and online casino jackpots as well, so you can cut to the chase and get playing progressives and indeed anything else which appeals, so check our site regularly or sign up to our email alert and never be in the dark!