What is meant by a progressive slot or progressive jackpot?

Progressive slot jackpots are a big attraction for online pokie players because they generally offer larger payouts.

In traditional pokie games the progressive jackpot is hit when five of the same specified symbol appear in a payline. The specified symbol is most often the symbol that is central to the theme of the game, or the “wild” symbol. In addition to obtaining five like symbols, players need to have enabled all paylines and wager the maximum number of credits available per play. If the player doesn’t meet these conditions then the game will pay out the standard fixed amount for obtaining five symbols in one payline.

Online poker machines have introduced a new way of hitting the progressive jackpot. This means that players do not have to get the specified combination of symbols, but can get the jackpot randomly in any spin and are simply informed that they have hit the jackpot. These progressive jackpots are known as “random jackpots”.

There are two other aspects of progressive jackpots that should be understood by new gamers. The first is the concept of networking. This means that frequently, different online poker games are linked, and so players can bet on different games and the same progressive jackpot amount will keep rising. If the player of any of these games hits the jackpot, he will receive the entire amount and the jackpot will reset for all the games.

The second is the trend of offering multiple jackpots for the same game. The highest jackpot pays out in very large amounts and is hit less frequently. Lower jackpots are hit more regularly but pays out smaller amounts.

As you can see, with all these new trends, and the chances for winning big even greater, online poker machines offering progressive jackpots are the way to go.