Microgaming, one of the leading providers of games for online casinos this week has confirmed that a record jackpot has been won off of a mobile device of $8.7M dollars on the progressive jackpot named Mega Moolah. Microgaming is based out of the Isle of Mann, a small island off the coast of the UK. The casino where the jackpot was won is the Tipico Online Casino based out of Malta.
The record haul of $8.7M barely tops a progressive jackpot win of $8.6M which was won last summer. The bet size to win the $8.7M was about $7. While real casinos often require annual payments to receive the full jackpot amount, or a drastically reduced amount for a one-time payment, Microgaming and most other operators of progressive slots stay true to the marketing and pay a full one-time payment of the total jackpot amount. While there are debates on whether annual payments are better for winners, either way, it is a life-altering occurrence.
The progressive jackpot win for the mobile device of $8.7M still does not even come close to the $20M win obtained a few years ago in a computer-based online casino along with many other wins of more than $8.7M. As mobile devices become more popular for users and online casinos, expect to soon see mobile device wins topping even PC jackpot wins.
Progressive Jackpots are a relatively new phenomenon, especially compared to the long history of land-based gambling. Progressive slot machines are connected among large networks which all share a single common jackpot. Every time a player loses on any of the thousands of progressive slots that share a jackpot, the jackpot grows.
So at any one moment, you can literally have thousands of players all contributing to an ever-growing jackpot, which resets as soon as someone wins, but which then quickly builds again. While this may sound bad to have a jackpot completely reset, the fame that goes to the machine for a big payout means players flock to it even more and so quickly build the jackpot back up. Jackpots have different minimum amounts, usually $10,000, but it is not unusual to see multiple different progressive slot machines located in the same casino having jackpots over $1M.