Mega Fortune Slot Has a Massive Progressive Jackpot

If you’ve ever visited one of the many casinos sites online then you’ll probably have noticed that video slots are some of the most high-profile and popular games you can try there. This is because slots are so simple to play. They require none of the strategy needed to optimise your poker or Blackjack play. Instead, the straight-forward fun is derived from the crazy themes and animations, fast and furious gameplay, and the big payout potential many of them offer.

At any casino you’ll find 100s of slot games to choose from. In fact, deciding which to play might seem like an overwhelming task, and a prominent question in any new player’s mind will probably be, which pays out the most? To answer this question you need to look not just at the jackpot values, but also at the variance and the Return to Player (RTP) of each game.

Slot Game Return to Player (RTP)

Whilst these games are very simple – just click to spin the reels and see what you win – the maths models behind the action are anything but. To really understand what’s going on in each spin the two most important factors to look at are the variance, or volatility, and the RTP of the game.

Return to Player, or RTP, tells us how much a game will pay out, as a percentage of the total money wagered, during a typical session. Most games will have an RTP of around 96%. This means that for every £100 wagered, around £96 will be paid back out in prizes. Of course, this won’t happen every time. For each player the experience will be different. Some will experience an RTP much higher than 100% and walk happily away with more money than they staked, whilst others will find the RTP to be lower than 96% and come away with empty pockets!

When you choose your next slot, look at the game’s paytable – usually accessible from the game screen – to find out what the game’s typical RTP is. Whilst most will be around 96%, you will find games with a higher RTP – sometimes as high as 99%. A good example would be NextGen’s Starmania.

So, slot games with a high RTP are worth checking out as your chances of winning are greater. However, this does not tell the full story. There’s more …

Slot Game Variance

The second factor to consider in any slot game is the variance, or volatility. This can tell you a lot more about how the game is likely to behave as you play. Variance is the deviation from the advertised RTP that you can expect during your session.

Games with a low variance will deviate only a little from the usual RTP. That means you will get stable periods of small, regular payouts, with few prolonged periods of dry, non-paying spins. But it also means that payouts will generally be quite low.

Games with a high variance behave differently. The payout patterns here may deviate wildly from the advertised RTP – some players may experience sessions with little or no prizes at all, whilst others will see huge payouts delivered in short bursts.

These games are known as high risk because the odds of winning are smaller than those on low variance games, whilst the payout potential is much greater.

Typical examples of high variance games are Big Time Gaming’s Bonanza Slot and NetEnt’s Dead or Alive II. Both of which can be found at almost all slot sites and casinos online.

Slot Game Jackpots

The third, and most obvious facet of any slot game that determines how much it will pay out, is its jackpot. This is the top prize that can be paid out by a machine. It will be expressed either as a financial value – such as £1,000,000 – or as a multiplier of the player’s stake – such as 10,000x (or £10,000 if the stake is £1).

All games will display the maximum payout in the paytable area accessible from the game screen.

Most slots will have a jackpot somewhere in the region of 1,000x (typical for low variance games) to 50,000x (typical for high variance slots).

Of course, there are also Progressive Jackpot slots to consider too. These games have huge prizes of over £1,000,000 that pay out every few months. A small percentage of every £1 that is staked on one of these games contributes to its jackpot, so during normal gameplay the RTP value is lower than on most slot games (typically around 90% or less). A good example of a Progressive Jackpot is NetEnt’s Mega Fortune.

So … Which Slots Have the Best Payouts?

So, in conclusion, when looking for a slot with big payouts it’s important to look at all three factors – RTP, variance and jackpots. And remember, a big jackpot will always be extremely hard to unlock, so games with high advertised prizes aren’t always the most fun to play.

But if you’re looking for a blockbuster jackpot then one of the most exciting games to play right now is Who Wants To Be a Millionaire Megaways™ which has a top jackpot of £1,000,000.

Good luck and have fun!