Various Types of Progressive Slots
The Progressives and Flat Tops are the two main categories of slot machines at live casinos. Their online casino counterparts are progressive slots and normal slots. These two slot categories are basically similar in all aspects except for the jackpots.
The normal slots have generally fixed amount of jackpot offered. The jackpot amount doesn't changed at all no matter how many players have been already playing at the slot machine. With normal slots, whatever time you will play at the slot machine, the jackpot amount will always be similar as it was the last time you saw it.
Progressive slots are somewhat different because the jackpot amount is never the same all the time. The amount continues to grow higher every time players place their bets on the slot machine. The more players the slot machine entertained, the higher will be the jackpot amount of the progressive slots. There are progressive slots that don't payout for a longer period of time thus resulting to a more higher jackpot amount. The jackpots of progressive slots are most of the time pretty much higher than those of the normal slots.
You can easily identify progressive slots at live casinos because they have electronic displays that show the constant increase of jackpot amount. Generally, progressive slots have three customary types today. These are the standalone progressive slots, linked progressive slots, and wide area progressive slots.
The standalone progressive slots have separate jackpot amount of their own independent from other slot machines. Only those players who played at that particular slot machine will contribute to the increase of the jackpot amount.
The linked progressive slots are group of slot machine within the casino that is linked together, thus sharing on one jackpot amount. The more players on the involved slot machines of the group, the bigger will the shared jackpot amount rises. But be very aware that any player playing together with you on the linked progressive slots can win the jackpot prize. And if ever the other player wins, it doesn't mean that you will have a share of the pie.
The wide area progressive slots are groups of slot machines that are linked together over a very wide area like casino to casino within the city they are located. And there are even wide area progressive slots that are linked from casinos located in different countries. The wide are progressive slots usually have the highest jackpot amount available because there are much more players contributing to the jackpot prize compared to the other two progressive slots.
The rule of the thumb in progressive slots to become eligible of the jackpot prize is to place the maximum bets of the slot machine played.