How to Play Progressive Slots Online

How a Progressive Jackpot Is Funded

A progressive jackpot grows from contributions taken out of the stakes placed on the games attached to it, and resets to a starting value when it is won. The Gambling Commission's technical standards require that an explanation of the jackpot rules is clearly available to the customer before they commit to gamble. What those rules should contain sits in the implementation guidance under that requirement rather than in the requirement itself: that the rules shall describe how the jackpot is funded and what the start-up seed and any ceiling values are, and shall describe how the prizes are determined and awarded, including what happens when two or more players appear to trigger the same jackpot simultaneously, for example because of network latency.

Base Game RTP and Jackpot RTP Are Different Numbers

This is the distinction that makes most quoted figures for progressive slots unreadable. The Commission's guidance states that the jackpot system's return-to-player percentage should be displayed, and that this could be one combined game and progressive jackpot RTP figure or broken down into the base game and the jackpot component. Both forms are permitted. A single percentage quoted for a progressive game therefore means nothing until it is known whether the jackpot contribution is inside it or outside it, and a base-game figure and a combined figure for the same game are not comparable with each other or with the figure for a game that has no jackpot.

The Commission here is the Gambling Commission, and everything in this section binds operators licensed in Great Britain rather than everywhere. Its implementation guidance for the same standard adds that where a player is not eligible for a game's progressive jackpot prize this should be made clear, along with their respective theoretical return to player. That is guidance rather than a requirement, but it is an acknowledgement in the rules themselves that the same game can have more than one applicable figure depending on how it is being played.

Eligibility and Contribution

Where a customer contributes to a jackpot pool, the standards state that the customer should be eligible to win the jackpot while they are playing that game, and that the chances of winning a jackpot should increase in correlation with the amount contributed. The implementation guidance on random outcomes repeats the point in the same terms: where a customer contributes to a jackpot pool, that customer should be eligible to win the jackpot while they are playing that game, in accordance with the game and jackpot rules. It is guidance in both places, not a requirement in either. Where a jackpot is capped at a ceiling value, an explanation of how subsequent player contributions are handled should be provided, for example the operation of any redirected overflow or reserve pools.

Progressive, Fixed and Tiered Jackpots Are Not the Same Thing

Not every prize a game calls a jackpot grows. Push Gaming's Razor Shark Jackpots awards five tiers whose values are multiples of the selected base bet, so the amounts are fixed relative to the stake rather than accumulated from other players' stakes. At the other extreme, Evolution states that the top Progressive Jumbo 7 Jackpot prize on its Casino Hold'em tables is uncapped and pays out on a seven-card straight flush, growing in value with each game round until it is won, and that its Caribbean Stud Poker progressive increases in value with each game round until it is won with a royal flush. Evolution lists Big Time Gaming's jackpot mechanics among that studio's own systems for delivering progressive jackpots. A reader comparing two games called jackpot slots has to establish which of these structures each one uses.

The Jackpot Does Not Become Due

A large jackpot is not a closer jackpot. The standards require game results to be acceptably random, prohibit adaptive behaviour, meaning interventions that change the probabilities of game outcomes during play, and prohibit games from falsely displaying near-miss results. The amount showing on the jackpot meter is the amount that would be paid if the triggering outcome occurred; it is not information about when that outcome will occur. The implementation guidance for the same standard adds that all eligible players should be able to see the current jackpot values and that these should be updated as frequently as is practicable, particularly after the amount has been reset following a win. That is guidance rather than a requirement, and it is why the figure on screen should be current.

If a Jackpot Is Withdrawn

The standards also cover what happens to money already contributed. Where a jackpot containing player contributions is decommissioned, those contributions need to be returned fairly according to the circumstances, with priority given to the players who made them, and the Commission names waiting until the jackpot is next awarded, adding the remaining contributions to another jackpot system with a similar player base, or returning them as a one-off event with adequate disclosure, as examples of acceptable methods.