Progressive Jackpot

A grand prize that increases with each successive bet which does not produce a grand prize winner.

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Progressive jackpots in slot machines are a major part of the slots industry today. Originally, a slot machine had a simple, flat jackpot size. If you walked up to a slot machine that offered $5,000 payout on slot machines, you could expect $5,000 as the jackpot amount on any given spin. This jackpot never changed, and the player's pot odds (to use a poker term) never changed. These machines still exist, and are called flat top slot machines.

With a progressive jackpot, though, the jackpot grows every time it is not hit. You might start with a $5,000 jackpot, but that jackpot continues to grow until you hit it. The jackpot amount might increase by a few cents every time it isn't hit. As time goes by, the jackpot become progressively larger. There is no upward limit, because the jackpot grows until it is hit. It might increase to $100,000 before someone lucks into the big win. When this happens, the jackpot returns to $5,000 and starts anew.

In the case of progressive jackpots, players are less likely to win on any given spin. But players have a chance (on the larger progressives) to win life-changing sums of money, much like they would by playing and winning the lottery. This draws in huge numbers of fortune seekers on the slot machines, and has made the progressive jackpot one of the revolutionary features in slot machines of the past generation.