Atlassino Academy · Slots · Lesson 7 of 10
Jackpots and progressive meters
The figure climbing on a sign above a row of machines is money those machines have already taken, and the arrangement of symbols that empties it is counted in years of play rather than in spins.
The sign above a row of machines has climbed by a few thousand dollars while you stood there reading it. What have you learned?
The short answer
The figure on the sign is money the machines under that sign have already taken in bets and are holding back, so that all of it can leave in one lump, to one player, once. The figure climbs because people are betting on those machines, and for no other reason at all. And the arrangement of symbols that empties the counter is rare enough that the wait for it is measured in years of play rather than in evenings.
One counter, every machine in this row
$318,750
The row was half full
One counter, every machine in this row
$322,400
The row is still half full
Only the figure differs, because bets were made on the machines underneath. The reels are the same, and the arrangement that empties the counter is exactly as rare as before.
Leoformer dealer · rules and maths
People stand in front of a sign like this one and do a piece of arithmetic, and it is always the same piece: how much money is up there, divided by what I am betting a spin. It is the wrong sum, and it is the only sum the sign hands you the numbers for.
The sum worth doing is how long the wait is, and the sign does not carry it. A teaching machine can be counted all the way through, so we count one. A real machine cannot: its reel strip is not published, and what it says about its odds sits behind the More Info button, not on the sign.
Whose money is on the sign
Every bet made on a machine under that sign pushes the figure up a little. The money in the counter did not come from the room, and the room is not adding it to what the machines pay back: part of every bet made on those machines is set aside instead of going into the pays printed on the glass, and it is kept in one place so that all of it can leave in one lump, to one player, once.
- A bet on any machine under the signEvery machine tied to the counterand every bet made on any of those machines, however small
- Part of that bet is set asideOut of the same money the pays come fromthe machine does not give back any more because of the counter — the slice comes out of what it gives back anyway
- The figure on the sign climbsBy that much, and by nothing elsean empty row for an hour moves the figure not at all
- The arrangement lands on somebody’s machineOne lump, one player, oncethe counter empties and starts counting from the bottom again
How many machines feed one counter varies from row to row. That changes how fast money arrives, and nothing about your spin:
| One counter, fed by | What that does to the figure on the sign | What it does to the chance on your spin |
|---|---|---|
| the machines in one row | it climbs at the speed of that row | nothing at all |
| machines in rooms in more than one province | it climbs faster, and it starts higher | nothing at all |
| machines in a room and the same game on a screen at home | both kinds of machine push the same figure up | nothing at all |
A counter fed by more machines is a faster till, not a shorter queue.
How long the arrangement takes
Our teaching machine has 3 reels with 64 stopping positions on each reel, and the biggest prize on its glass needs one particular symbol to stop in the window on all three reels at once. Exactly one stopping position on each reel carries that symbol.
The reels turn 600 times an hour, and dividing that count of arrangements by the spins in an hour puts about 437 hours of pressing the button between one arrangement and the next. A real machine sets the arrangement for its biggest prize far more spins apart than our teaching machine does, and there is a limit on how far apart a machine may set it in silence: past a certain length of odds, a machine in Ontario has to print the odds of its biggest prize where a player can read them.
| One arrangement in | Hours of pressing the button | Years of that, at 2 hours a week |
|---|---|---|
| 262,144 spinsour teaching machine | 437 | 4.2 years |
| 17,000,000 spinsthe longest a machine in Ontario may put its biggest prize without printing the odds | 28,333 | 272 years |
Two hours a week is the setting of this example rather than an observation about anybody. For scale: a lottery draw that takes six numbers out of forty-nine can be filled in 13,983,816 different ways, so a machine sitting at that ceiling is asking for a wait of the same order as a lottery draw.
Hours and years both slide off, so here is the same wait counted in people instead. Put 1,000 people at our teaching machine for two hours a week for a year — 62,400 spins each — and count how many of those people see the arrangement land at any point in that year.
- 212saw the arrangement land at some point in the year
- 788finished the year without seeing the arrangement once
- 4saw the arrangement land at some point in the year
- 996finished the year without seeing the arrangement once
One square is one person. Only the machine changed between the two grids.
Leoformer dealer · rules and maths
The figure is printed a foot high; the wait is printed nowhere.
That is why I would rather you read the wait than the figure. The size of the prize decides nothing about your evening. The wait decides all of it.
What the prize costs the rest of the paytable
A machine gives back a set share of the money staked on it over its whole life, and the biggest prize on its glass is part of that share rather than something added on the end of it. So the more of the declared return a machine ties up in an arrangement almost nobody meets, the less of that return is left for the pays that come round often.
On our teaching machine, hold the declared return and the rarity of the arrangement fixed and change only the size of the prize:
| The prize on the glass | Its share of the return | Left for every other pay |
|---|---|---|
| 2,621 credits | 1.00% | 91.00% |
| 13,107 credits | 5.00% | 87.00% |
| 52,429 credits | 20.00% | 72.00% |
Machines in real rooms do not publish their split this way, but the shape of the trade holds on the floor as it does on our teaching machine. A machine with a bigger prize pays out less often along the way, and the prizes a player is likelier to meet in an evening are the small ones, on any machine at all.
On the glass
- The return this machine declaresthe same as the machine four seats along
- How often the smaller pays come roundmore often
On the glass
- The return this machine declaresthe same as the machine by the door
- How often the smaller pays come roundless often
Only the shared prize is printed on the glass; the lines under it are what follows from its size. How much less often the smaller pays come round is in the lesson on volatility.
The bet the glass asks for
Some machines will not put you in for the shared prize unless you bet a set amount, and that amount is often the largest bet the machine takes; other machines put any bet at all into the running for it. Which of the two kinds you are standing at is printed on the glass in front of you, and that line is worth finding before the first spin rather than after the arrangement lands.
On the glass
On the glass
The same planned bet, one printed line different: in for the shared prize at the first machine, out of it at the second.
Where a bigger bet does buy a better chance at a linked prize, the chance of the arrangement has to rise at least in step with the bet. That rule, laid out from a bet of $1 at one chance in 1,000, comes out like this:
| Bet a spin | Chance of the arrangement on one spin | Money staked before one shot at the shared prize |
|---|---|---|
| $1 | 1 in 1,000 | $1,000 |
| $2 | 1 in 500 | $1,000 |
| $3 | 1 in 333 | $1,000 |
The money staked before one shot stays the same on every row: tripling the bet brings the shot in a third of the spins and empties your money three times as fast.
Both halves of that rule belong in the same breath, because saying only the first half turns the rule into an argument for betting more. The first half is that a bigger bet buys a proportionally better chance at the shared prize. The second half is that the same bigger bet puts money through the machine proportionally faster for the whole time you are waiting, and what that costs an hour is worth working out before you press anything.
- A bigger bet buys a proportionally better chance at the shared prize. Doubling the bet at least doubles the chance of the arrangement on each spin, and a machine with a shared prize that gives a bigger bet anything less than that has to tell the player so.
- A bigger bet does not buy a cheaper shot at the shared prize. The money you stake before one shot at the shared prize comes out the same at every bet, so what the bigger bet changes is the clock: the same shot arrives in fewer spins, and the money you brought for the evening goes that much faster.
Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks
One line from me. No figure on any sign is a reason to bet more than the plan you walked in with, and if that plan is not written down yet, Game plan takes a couple of minutes.
A machine that asks for three dollars a spin when you came in on one is not offering you a deal. It is quoting you the price of a ticket you had not planned to buy, and walking along the row to a machine that takes the bet you did plan costs you nothing at all.
Is it close?
A counter counts money. It does not count your spins, it does not count anybody else’s spins, and nothing behind the glass is keeping a record of how long the figure on the sign has been going up.
There are machines built the other way round, and the machine you are sitting at may well be one of those machines: collect five keys and the bonus round opens, and while you collect those keys the machine really is keeping score of your plays. A progressive counter is deliberately not that kind of game. What a counter holds is money, and that money arrives in it from everybody’s bets rather than from your own run of plays.
- What it countsyour own plays, on this machine, in this sitting
- Where it finishesat the fifth key, and the bonus round opens
- Does it know you are thereyes — it is keeping score of you while you play
- What it countsmoney staked, by everybody, on every machine under the sign
- Where it finisheswhen the arrangement lands on somebody’s machine, at a spin nobody can name
- Does it know you are thereno — it shows the same figure to whoever sits down next
People read a climbing number as a countdown because nearly every climbing number they meet really is one. A progress bar climbs towards the end of the job. The number on a queue screen climbs towards yours. Four keys out of five leaves one key to collect. The figure on the sign is the only one of the four that has nowhere to arrive.
| What is climbing | What it counts | Where it finishes |
|---|---|---|
| a progress bar in an app | the work already done | at the end of the work, and you can see the end from the start |
| the number on a queue screen | the people served before you | at your own number |
| five keys on the glass | your own plays on this machine | at the fifth key |
| the figure on the sign | money staked on every machine under that sign | nowhere you can see — when the arrangement lands on somebody’s machine |
The progress bar, the queue number and the five keys each have a finish you can see from where you are standing, and each of the three is counting something somebody actually did. The figure on the sign has no finish in sight, and it is not counting anything you did either: it counts money staked by everybody in the row, and it has no way of telling your share of that money from anybody else’s.
A player standing at that row has three things to read, and each of the three says something different. Reading only the sign leaves out the two that can be acted on.
- The sign over the rowHow much money the counter is holding, and nothing else whatever. No sign has ever carried a chance.
- The glass on the front of the cabinetWhich bets are in for the shared prize. One line, and it differs from machine to machine.
- The More Info button on the screenWhat the machine publishes about its odds. It is a button rather than a sign, and you do not need anybody in the room to point you at it.
The belief that a machine can be due, hot or cold is taken apart in the lesson on slot myths.
Practice: reading the sign
A slot machine leaves you nothing to decide once the button is down, so nothing in the practice run presses a button. The decisions worth practising are the ones you make standing up in front of a machine: what the figure on the sign has actually told you, whether the bet the glass asks for is the bet you came in with, and what a counter at its highest is a record of. Every square on the strip below is one of those moments, and all of the squares are there from the start. Only your first answer on each moment counts towards the score, and when the squares of one level are full the next level begins by itself.
The signs and the glass panels in the practice run are ours, drawn by code — no room’s artwork and no room’s figures. Every amount printed on them is invented, because a real counter reading belongs to the room that publishes it and has no business on a page that teaches.
Lesson done
Review my mistakes (0)
Progress stays in this browser; nothing is sent anywhere.
The practice table needs JavaScript. Here is one moment from it, with the answer.
Level 1 · What the sign says
One counter, every machine in this row
$1,248,900
On the glass
The figure over the row is the largest one you have seen tonight. What has the sign told you?
- How much money is being held back That is the whole of it. The figure is money the machines under the sign have already taken in bets and set aside.
- How often the arrangement that empties the counter lands Nothing on the sign counts spins. How much money is held back and how often the arrangement lands are two different numbers, and only the money is up there.
- That the arrangement that empties the counter is close now The figure climbs because people are betting. The reels do not read the figure.
A counter is a record of money staked, kept in one place so that all of that money can leave in one lump. The reels behind the glass never look at the counter.
All bets made on these physical and virtual slot machines grow the same Powerbucks progressive jackpot (note that only bets of $3 or more are eligible for the progressive jackpot).Loto-Québec, Casino de Montréal · Powerbucks · read
Level 2 · The bet it asks for
One counter, every machine in this row
$318,750
On the glass
You move from $1 to $3 to be in for the shared prize. What have you bought?
- The same money staked per shot at the shared prize, spent three times as fast Three times the chance on each spin, and three times the money through the machine while you wait for it. The rise in the chance and the rise in the outlay cancel each other out.
- Three times the chance for the same money The chance does rise threefold. So does every bet you make between now and the arrangement landing.
- Nothing: the machine is random either way Random does not mean unchanged. A bigger bet really does buy a proportionally better chance at a shared prize — at a proportionally higher outlay.
Proportional is the whole content of the rule. The money staked per shot at the shared prize does not move; only the clock does.
Linked Gaming Devices that have a shared prize (e.g. a linked progressive) must have at least the same chance of winning that shared prize proportional to the Bet amount, unless otherwise disclosed to the player.AGCO · Minimum Technical Standards for Gaming — 11. Game Behaviour · section 11.5 Linked Features · read
Level 3 · Is it close?
One counter, every machine in this row
$1,248,900
Nobody in the room remembers it higher
On the glass
The highest figure anyone remembers. What does that tell you about your next spin?
- Nothing about your next spin The figure records money taken in bets since the last payout. Your next spin is drawn from the reels, and the reels have not been told any of that.
- That the arrangement is closer than it was last week More money has gone into the counter. That is a fact about last week, not about the next few seconds.
- That this row is the one to sit at A high figure is a big prize, not a short queue. Nothing about the size of the figure shortens the wait for the arrangement.
People read a climbing number as a countdown because climbing numbers usually are one — a progress bar, a queue number, a ticket screen. This one is a till.
Metamorphic Game: A Game where free Games, feature Games or prizes (other than progressive jackpots) are triggered by the cumulative result of a series of Plays.AGCO · Minimum Technical Standards for Gaming — Glossary · read
Every moment is answered the same way: by a line printed on the machine, or by a sentence a regulator or a provincial operator published about machines like it.
How the practice strip works
Where the answers come from. Nothing is typed in by hand. A question about a line on the glass is answered by that line; a question about what a counter records is answered by a sentence a regulator or a provincial operator published, and the source sits under the explanation.
One strip, no rounds. Every square is one moment, and they are all there from the start. Your first answer fills the square; when a level’s squares are full the next level begins by itself, with no button in between. Practising a mistake turns a cross into “fixed in practice” and does not change the count: only first answers do.
No money in it. There is no balance, no credit, no spin and no reel. Progress stays in this browser; nothing is sent anywhere.
Check yourself
Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks
Five quick ones. Pick an answer, then check it. No timer, no points: just whether it stuck.
And the question at the start
The first of the three answers is the one that holds. A few thousand dollars went into the machines under that sign while you were standing there, and that is the entire content of the change you watched. The figure was not counting down towards the arrangement, and it was not a comparison with the row behind you either: a busy row and a quiet row hold the same reels, and the only thing that differs between the two rows is how quickly the figure over them gets large. The second answer is the one almost everybody picks, and it is worth knowing why: a number that only ever goes up looks like a number that is getting somewhere.
Where to look next
19+ (18+ in AB, MB, QC) · Play responsibly · the helplines for every province are at the end of this page
Further reading
- Minimum Technical Standards for Gaming, 11: Game Behaviour · Alcohol and Gaming Commission of OntarioWhat a slot machine in a room is allowed to do, clause by clause: the payout floor, the reel strip, the odds on the largest prize and the ten games of history every machine can show you.
- How to play slots · Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (PlaySmart)An operator walking through the arithmetic of one spin, with its own worked example: nine lines on a nickel machine, and what one press of it takes.
- How to play slots · British Columbia Lottery Corporation (Casinos BC)Reels, lines and the province’s average return, in the words of the corporation that runs the rooms.
- Understanding chance: slot machines · Loto-Québec (Wise Play)The near miss, volatility and the illusion of control, named and explained by a provincial operator rather than by us.
- Informed Gambling: slots and VLTs · Manitoba Liquor & LotteriesA short brochure on what a payout percentage is and is not, and why two machines with the same one can empty a wallet at different speeds.
- Registrar's Standards for Internet Gaming: game design and features · Alcohol and Gaming Commission of OntarioThe same machine on a screen: what a regulated site in Ontario may not do with the picture after the outcome has been drawn.
If it stops being fun
If gambling stops being entertainment, help is available. 19+ in most of Canada; 18+ in Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec. More on responsible gaming.
How it’s worked out
Numbers, sources and hosts
Where this happens. Every machine on this page is a cabinet standing in a room you can walk into — the sign over a row, the glass on the front of the cabinet, the counter that ties one machine to the next. A progressive on a screen at home is built differently and is not covered here. What one spin costs and what a machine’s declared return means are the two things this page assumes you already have, so the cost of a spin and return to player come before it. Nothing on this page tells you which machine to play, or when.
The teaching machine. Three reels, 64 stopping positions on each, the prize symbol on one position of each reel. Every one of its 262,144 arrangements is counted out when the page is built, not raised to a power, and one of them is the prize. Its declared return of 92% is a figure we chose for the example. Real machines’ reel strips are not published, so no arrangement count on this page belongs to a game you can sit at.
Hours and years. 600 spins an hour is a reel machine running as fast as it allows, timed with a watch by researchers at a casino; the same figure runs through the rest of the course. Two hours a week is the setting of the example and nothing more. The year-long run is exact arithmetic on 62,400 independent spins, not a simulation.
What is deliberately missing. How much of each bet feeds a counter, the chance of a particular shared prize, and the figure at which a given counter has to be paid out: no document we read publishes any of the three, so none of them appears here, and no sum that needs them is attempted. Nothing on this page says a high counter makes a machine worth playing, because there is no arithmetic that could say it.
Sources. Every fact with a source button carries the publisher, the document, the clause where it applies and the date we read it. Where a rule belongs to one province, the page says so.
Hosts. Leo and Maya are illustrated characters. Their backstories, a former dealer and a former floor supervisor, are written for the course: neither is a real person, and neither speaks for any casino. The rules and numbers on this page come from the sources it cites, not from their experience.
No promise. A machine is played against the house, and a sign above it changes none of that. Reading the sign tells you what a prize is and what it costs the rest of the paytable; it does not make the machine cheap, and nothing here says an evening at one is a good idea for you.
A shared prize rises in proportion to the bet
Linked Gaming Devices that have a shared prize (e.g. a linked progressive) must have at least the same chance of winning that shared prize proportional to the Bet amount, unless otherwise disclosed to the player.
Section 11.5 Linked Features
AGCO · Minimum Technical Standards for Gaming — 11. Game Behaviour · read
Some machines ask for a set bet before a shared prize is in play
Sometimes with progressives, you have to bet a certain amount to be able to win the jackpot – often the max bet.
OLG PlaySmart · Slots — how to play: Slot machine features · read
Where a machine keeps what it publishes about odds
Game odds are usually printed right on the playing surface for table games and can be found in the More Info button on slot machines.
Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries · Informed Gambling — Odds · read
Spins an hour on a reel machine
traditional mechanical reel slot machine games, the player can play approximately every 6 s, which is approximately 10 spins per minute, or 600 spins per hour. On the two video slots games, the player can play approximately every 3 s, which is 1,200 spins per hour.
Every bet on those machines grows the same figure
All bets made on these physical and virtual slot machines grow the same Powerbucks progressive jackpot (note that only bets of $3 or more are eligible for the progressive jackpot).
A shared prize rises in proportion to the bet
Linked Gaming Devices that have a shared prize (e.g. a linked progressive) must have at least the same chance of winning that shared prize proportional to the Bet amount, unless otherwise disclosed to the player.
Section 11.5 Linked Features
AGCO · Minimum Technical Standards for Gaming — 11. Game Behaviour · read
Bigger prizes, thinner pays along the way
Machines with bigger jackpots tend to have less frequent payoffs and will deplete your bankroll faster
OLG PlaySmart · Slots — strategies: Make the most of your play · read
A feature that builds over plays, and what is left out of it
Metamorphic Game: A Game where free Games, feature Games or prizes (other than progressive jackpots) are triggered by the cumulative result of a series of Plays.
AGCO · Minimum Technical Standards for Gaming — Glossary · read
Every bet on those machines grows the same figure
All bets made on these physical and virtual slot machines grow the same Powerbucks progressive jackpot (note that only bets of $3 or more are eligible for the progressive jackpot).
One counter across rooms in more than one province
Powerbucks™ progressive jackpot is here, and it’s unlike any other jackpot. The $1 million-plus progressive jackpot is linked across multiple jurisdictions in Canada, allowing the jackpot to climb faster.
Spins an hour on a reel machine
traditional mechanical reel slot machine games, the player can play approximately every 6 s, which is approximately 10 spins per minute, or 600 spins per hour. On the two video slots games, the player can play approximately every 3 s, which is 1,200 spins per hour.
The longest a machine in Ontario may go without printing the odds
The Top Award displayed on the Gaming Device must not have odds exceeding 17 million : 1, unless the odds of winning the award are disclosed to the player.
Section 11.10 Award Odds
AGCO · Minimum Technical Standards for Gaming — 11. Game Behaviour · read
The same figure set beside a lottery draw
The odds of hitting the top award vary greatly by machine, and may be as low as one in 17,000,000 spins – comparable to winning Lotto 6/49.
OLG PlaySmart · Slots — odds · read
Bigger prizes, thinner pays along the way
Machines with bigger jackpots tend to have less frequent payoffs and will deplete your bankroll faster
OLG PlaySmart · Slots — strategies: Make the most of your play · read
Which prizes a player is likelier to see
It is more likely that you would win smaller prizes on a slot or VLT than a top prize.
Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries · Informed Gambling — Slots and VLTs (brochure, February 2023) · read
Some machines ask for a set bet before a shared prize is in play
Sometimes with progressives, you have to bet a certain amount to be able to win the jackpot – often the max bet.
OLG PlaySmart · Slots — how to play: Slot machine features · read
A shared prize rises in proportion to the bet
Linked Gaming Devices that have a shared prize (e.g. a linked progressive) must have at least the same chance of winning that shared prize proportional to the Bet amount, unless otherwise disclosed to the player.
Section 11.5 Linked Features
AGCO · Minimum Technical Standards for Gaming — 11. Game Behaviour · read
A feature that builds over plays, and what is left out of it
Metamorphic Game: A Game where free Games, feature Games or prizes (other than progressive jackpots) are triggered by the cumulative result of a series of Plays.
AGCO · Minimum Technical Standards for Gaming — Glossary · read
Spotted a mistake on this page? Tell us
Been here before? Review us on Trustpilot