Why Do Progressive Slots Often Require Bigger Bet Amounts?

All slot games present you with a selection of coins you can use to place your bets. That range of coins will vary from one slot to another. For example, while some are legitimately called penny slots because that is the lowest coin you can use, others might set the minimum bet at five or 10 cents per coin.

You may notice some progressive jackpot slots use larger bet amounts. We thought we’d try and work out why that happens.

The bigger the bet, the higher the progressive jackpot will climb

Everyone is tempted to try and win a jackpot. The higher the amount, the more tempting it is to bet on. It makes sense then for the smallest bet to be larger for one of these games than it might be for a game without a progressive prize.

This doesn’t always happen, but then some progressive pots will reset to a generous amount even when someone has only just won it. Do your research and see whether you can find out more about the jackpot before playing a game.

Bigger bets sometimes unlock a greater proportion of the jackpot

The jackpot amount may not be set for anyone to win. For example, a game may allow you to play one, two, or three coins on a payline. If you choose to play three and you win the jackpot, you will typically win the whole thing. If you only play two coins, you might only win a quarter of it. One coin would trigger just 5% or so of the total amount. That means it would make sense to place the full three coins on the line.

Penny slots would mean a longer period would pass before a tempting jackpot amount would amass

With only a portion of each real money bet placed going into the jackpot coffers, it can take a while for a big jackpot to come together. A lot will depend on how popular a game is too, as well as whether it has a linked jackpot that grows as the game is played at several casinos instead of just one.

Let’s be honest – the bigger the progressive jackpot amount is, the more exciting the thought of winning it would be. That’s why looking for bigger jackpot amounts is so tempting, and why we like betting on them as well.