Jackpots explained

Three structures, one principle

The word jackpot covers three different arrangements. They differ in where the prize money comes from and who it is pooled across.

The principle underneath all three is the same. Money paid into a jackpot is money not paid out in ordinary wins.

Fixed jackpots

A fixed jackpot is simply a large fixed prize in the paytable. Pragmatic Play describes its fixed jackpots as awarding "a predetermined multiplier of their current total bet", and notes that "The jackpot size or availability is not affected by other players or network activity"³.

Because the prize scales with the stake, a player betting less wins less from the same event. The probability of triggering it is a property of the game maths, not of the amount staked.

These are the jackpots most often seen in hold-and-win style games, where four or five tiers sit above the reels. Our hold and win collection lists titles built this way.

Local progressive jackpots

A local progressive pools contributions from players at a single operator. The operator hosts the pool, so the meter reflects activity on that site alone.

Pragmatic Play describes its Jackpot Play product as a local progressive that operators "create and host", built around "four jackpot tiers – each with its own win probability and jackpot seed"³. When the product launched in June 2023, the studio named those tiers as Minor, Major, Mega and Grand⁴.

Local pools grow more slowly than networked ones, because fewer players feed them. They also reset more often relative to their size.

Networked progressive jackpots

A networked progressive pools contributions across many operators running the same game or family of games. This is why the headline figures are so much larger.

Pragmatic Play's network progressive, Power Jackpot, runs four tiers named Mini, Minor, Major and Power, with estimated average prizes of €750, €12,500, €125,000 and €4,500,000 respectively³. The studio states that "When a player makes a bet in the jackpot game, a fixed percentage of that bet is added to each jackpot tier"³.

That sentence is the whole funding model. Every qualifying bet is split: most goes to the ordinary return, a defined slice goes to each meter.

Seed, contribution and ceiling

Three numbers define a progressive jackpot.

• The seed is the value the meter resets to after a win. It is funded by the operator or studio, not by the player who just won.
• The contribution rate is the fixed share of each qualifying bet added to the meter.
• The ceiling, where one exists, is the value at which the meter stops growing.

In Great Britain, RTS 9 requires that "An explanation of the jackpot rules must be clearly available to the customer before they commit to gamble", and the guidance lists what those rules must describe: the funding mechanism, the "start-up seed and any ceiling values", the return to player percentage, eligibility restrictions with their respective theoretical RTP, how the prize is determined and awarded, and what happens when several players trigger it at once¹.

Where a jackpot is capped, operators must also explain "how subsequent player contributions are handled", including any overflow or reserve pool¹.

What a jackpot does to the base game

This is the part that is easiest to get wrong.

RTS 9 requires the return to player percentage to be disclosed, either combined or "separated into base game and jackpot components"¹. The existence of that split is the point: part of the advertised return is locked inside an outcome almost nobody will see.

Suppose a game advertises a 96% return with 1% of it allocated to a progressive jackpot. The base game then returns 95%, and an ordinary session, which will almost certainly not hit the jackpot, is played against that 95% rather than the headline number. The figures here are illustrative and not taken from a specific game, but the structure is exactly what the RTS 9 disclosure describes¹.

The general meaning of the return figure is covered in our RTP guide, and the way rare, very large prizes widen the range of session outcomes is covered in high and low volatility slots.

Eligibility restrictions

Some progressive games require a minimum stake, or a side bet, to qualify for the top tier.

The RTS 9 guidance expects any eligibility rules to be disclosed together with "respective theoretical RTP", and expects that players who contribute to a jackpot should remain eligible to win it while they play that game, with chances of winning correlating to contributions¹.

A player staking below the qualifying threshold on a game with a jackpot component may therefore be funding something they cannot win. The rules screen is where that is stated.

A verified example

Very large progressive payouts do happen, and the largest is a matter of public record.

Guinness World Records lists the largest nominal jackpot payout in an online slot machine game as €17,879,645, equivalent at the time to $20,062,600 or £13,209,300, won on Microgaming's Mega Moolah on 6 October 2015 by Jon Heywood in Cardiff, United Kingdom⁵.

One record-breaking result over many years of network play is the correct way to read that figure. It describes what is possible, not what is likely.

The meter is not a signal

A large meter does not mean a jackpot is close. The trigger is drawn from the same random process as every other outcome, and results are independent of what came before.

The Wizard of Odds is blunt about the underlying folklore: "There is no such thing as hot and cold cycles with slot machines. The ups and downs are just normal random variation"⁶.

A long-unhit jackpot has not accumulated a debt. It has accumulated money, which is a different thing.

What to check before playing a jackpot game

• Which type of jackpot it is, and whether the pool is local or networked.
• The seed value, so you can see how much of the current meter is real growth.
• Whether the published return is combined or split between base game and jackpot.
• Any minimum stake or side bet needed to qualify.
• How simultaneous triggers are handled.

All of those points are covered by the disclosure requirements in RTS 9 where they apply¹, and by the general rule in RTS 3 that information about the chances of winning must be easily available before a customer commits².

You can browse titles with a jackpot component in the KiraBet jackpot slots collection.

Gambling involves financial risk, and a jackpot game returns less than is staked over time like any other.