What is the No. 1 draw to online slots? The vast majority of people will say it’s the progressive jackpots that are typically included on the paytable. This is the biggest payout possible—especially when the jackpot has been left to grow for a while. For some games, the jackpot can eclipse the million-dollar mark, making it well worth the effort to scout them out.
If you haven’t yet triggered one of these lucrative prizes, don’t despair—true jackpot wins are quite rare. But that doesn’t mean you should abandon hope of winning one some day. The first step to learning how to win a progressive jackpot is to understand how they work. This online slots guide will get you up to snuff by going over the rules of our various progressive jackpots, explaining how they’re triggered, and showcasing several of our casino slot games that have the biggest active jackpots at press time. But before we get to the jackpot slots, we’ll provide new players with a brief refresher on how to play slots online at Bovada Casino.
How to Play Slots Online
Landing matching icons is the name of the game with online slots. Each game comes with its own unique symbols based on its theme or storyline. To earn payouts, you place a wager by betting coins per payline, and spin the reels, hoping to land multiple matching symbols lined up on a payline, which run from the leftmost reel to the far right for most slots.
If you’re not sure what paylines are, you can find an illustration of a game’s paylines in the game menu at the end of the rules. Slots can come with anywhere from three to 100 paylines, with five-reel slots containing more paylines than three-reel ones. And of course, some slots have no paylines at all, in which case, simply landing matching icons anywhere on consecutive reels, starting with the first reel, is sufficient for a prize.
While the majority of wins will come from landing matching icons, many slots come with bonus features that increase the chances of getting paid in different ways. These can be any of the following:
- wild symbols: substitute for other icons
- multipliers: increase the size of a payout
- bonus rounds: fun challenges completed for extra coins
- free spins: let you spin the reels completely free of charge
To see what kind of bonus features a game comes with, check out the game rules in the menu. And for more information on slot features, be sure to check out our comprehensive slots guide.
Top Progressive Jackpots to Play
At Bovada Casino, you’ll find two types of progressive jackpots: random progressive jackpots and standard ones. Both of these types of jackpots are funded by a percentage of all incoming bets and pay out handsomely when they’re triggered. The random ones are triggered at the end of any given spin, winning or losing, and as the name suggests, it’s determined by a Random Number Generator. Nothing can be done to increase the odds of getting it. The standard progressive jackpots, on the other hand, are awarded as a prize for landing the top winning line; these often have betting prerequisites included in order to be eligible.
Most of the time, the betting prerequisite will involve “max betting,” which refers to the number of coins that are bet per line and not the coin denomination. If you want to bet max with a smaller bankroll, find the slots with adjustable coin values. For example, when the coin values range from a nickel to a quarter, betting five $0.05-coins instead of one $0.25-coin costs the same, but the former would result in you being eligible for the progressive jackpot—should the max number of coins be five.
As you’ll see while browsing through our slot selection, we have a good mixture of random progressive jackpots and jackpots offered as payouts for landing the top line. We’ll provide you with some game examples so that you can experiment with both types of progressive jackpot.
Standard Progressive Jackpot Games:
A Night With Cleo: $248K
In this 5-reel, 20-line slot you spin your way to bliss among Egypt’s ancient pyramids. At the end of any spin—winning or losing—the progressive jackpot could fall in your lap; there’s no minimum betting requirement included.
Witches & Wizards: $2K
Fantasy fans will delight in the magic spells that are cast on the free spins included in the Magical Experiment feature of Witches & Wizards. On top of that, every time you spin the reels, you could become the recipient of the game’s massive progressive jackpot. Play at any coin denomination.
Standard Progressive Jackpot Games:
Five Times Wins: $50K
With its glitzy lights and iconic cherry symbols, Five Times Wins pays homage to old school one-armed bandits and offers a juicy progressive jackpot to players who hit the top line. When you look at the game’s paytable, you’ll see the prize “Jackpot” listed under 3X for landing three 5X icons. You must bet three coins in order to be eligible for the prize. If you bet two coins, you’d have to settle for a 3000-coin jackpot, and with one coin, you’d win just 1500 coins.
Food Fight: $738K
Slinging meatballs across a cafeteria is not only encouraged but rewarded when playing the aptly titled 5-reel, 9-line slot, Food Fight. Cross your fingers that pudding will fly your way; should you land five icons on a payline while wagering the max five coins, you’ll be pummeled with all of the coins in the progressive jackpot.
Money Magic: $50K
Watch a magician pull a rabbit from a hat as you spin the reels of this eclectic 5-reel, 9-line slot game. At the top of the screen, a jackpot continues to build until someone manages to trigger it by landing five Flower symbols on one of the paylines. Note, to be eligible, you must bet the max five coins per line. This Flower symbol is a potent bonus feature as it also acts as a wild and doubles payouts with a 2X multiplier.
Gold Rush Gus: $82K
A progressive jackpot is one of several bonuses featured in Gold Rush Gus. To access them, you must land two Key symbols on the first and third reel; this will cause a mole to pop out of the earth, bearing a Treasure Chest. Should a blue-white diamond appear in the chest, you hit the progressive jackpot—the best out of the four Treasure Chest prizes.
Shopping Spree: $4,192K
One of the most unique progressive jackpot options can be found in Shopping Spree, a 5-reel, 9-line slot that brings out the shopaholic in all of us. As you spin through cosmetics, designer bags and shoes, diamond ring icons whip around—they’re your ticket to the progressive jackpot. Land five of them on a payline, and you get the option of taking the progressive jackpot advertised, or going on the ultimate shopping adventure in New York City with us as your personal shopper. The choice you make doesn’t affect the amount of money you collect.
Super Diamond Mine: $540K
In Super Diamond Mine, you mine for jackpots instead of precious metals. Land five “Mine” symbols while betting five-coins per line, and the jackpot is yours.
All of these games and more are available for real money payouts in the slots section of our online casino. Compare them all to figure out which one has the biggest jackpot—they’re constantly growing, paying out, and then restarting so the amounts shown may have already changed by the time you start playing. Make sure you’re spinning the reels when they’re at their juiciest and may the jackpot luck fall your way.