It’s no secret that progressive jackpots can lead to a lifechanging amount of money. There have been many jackpots won that total well over a million dollars. For an online slots player, that’s the dream come true—to hit one of those big wins that make all of the little wins and losses worthwhile. After all the time that you’ve invested in slot playing, finally you have hit the biggest prize of them all.

To get started with progressive slots, you need to understand the basics. First, they are called progressive slots because the jackpot keeps growing and growing until someone wins. That means the longer that it takes for somebody to win, the bigger the win will be when it occurs. This has led to jackpots of millions of dollars in the past. That’s a prize worth chasing after!

Next, you need to know that some progressive slots are linked to more than one jackpot at the same time. For example, The Incredible Hulk has three different progressive jackpots that can be won. The more jackpots there are, the better your chances of hitting one, especially if multiple jackpots have had long periods of time since a win was hit. Having some background knowledge about what you’re playing will go a long way toward helping you to better your chances.

A progressive jackpot win can make you an instant millionaire. The odds are stacked against you, but someone has to win, right? Before you start playing one of these games, it’s important to have a firm grasp on how large the jackpot is, when the last time it was won, and if the information is available, you should know about how long the gaps in time were between previous wins. This won’t give you a precise idea of when a jackpot will be won, but it can tilt the odds a little more in your favor.

Various progressive online slot games have multipliers, just like other slot games do. If you find a progressive slot game that has a multiplier, be sure that you are meeting the minimum conditions to use the multiplier. Sometimes this is a dollar amount risked, a certain number of lines played, or some condition that can only be met by luck within the game. Pay attention to the rules and be sure that you are doing everything that you can to win as much as possible. Otherwise, you are leaving money on the table.

You have a better chance of winning at other games. However, you don’t have a better chance of winning a huge amount of cash. So, the question you need to ask yourself is: is it better to have a decent chance of winning a small amount of money? Or, is it better to have a very small chance of becoming a multi-millionaire?

It comes down to what’s best for you in the end. If the time and energy spent chasing a progressive jackpot is worth the allure of a huge payout, then this is the biggest and best prize to go after. If you are able to time your play so that you have an even greater chance of winning, then it’s even more appealing to go after a big win. Ultimately, your chances of winning are not great, even when you wait for the jackpot to grow to the largest it’s been in a while. But, if you have the patience and the expendable cash to go after a jackpot, then go for it. Playing slots is all about having fun, after all. If you are looking for a huge win, then this is your chance to pursue it.

In the U.S., most casinos don’t release the data from their slot machines. That doesn’t mean that there’s no data available, though. In fact, slot machines tend to have a lot of information available about their payouts, simply because video slot games are so easily tracked online. There’s a wealth of information available about slot games and their estimated payout rates, but this information isn’t always one hundred percent accurate, especially as games will have different payouts depending on how much you bet.

Selecting the right game for you can be a little confusing if you’re focusing on payout rates, especially if you’re on a budget. But for a lot of players, this is really important to take into consideration. So, we’ve put together a few tips here for you if you want to maximize your chances of winning, but don’t want to break the bank doing so.

Step One: Figure Out How Much You’re Willing to Spend

This is an easy one. Never bet with money you can’t afford to lose. If you need that money for something, don’t bet with it. Figure out how much you are willing to lose happily, and that’s your bankroll. That’s it!

Step Two: Pick a Machine

There’s a lot of advice out there about picking a machine, and most of it is unhelpful. However, there are some machines that are better than others. But, what you choose is completely dependent on what you’re willing to spend. For example, the general knowledge is that your bankroll for the day should be large enough that one spin accounts for no more than 2 percent of your bankroll. If you have $100, you should never risk more than $2 per spin. If you’re not risking much, it will automatically eliminate a lot of the machines that you can choose from. Sometime free online slots will help you get the right game to play. You just have to work through the games one at a time.

Next, figure out what kind of game you’re looking to play. Progressive jackpots have huge win potential, but they will not return as many of the small wins. Low probability games tend to have smaller but more consistent returns. Look at the number you came up with in Step One, and make a decision based on that information.

Step Three: Figure Out a Bet

My personal favorite strategy to bet with is the standard deviation approach. After picking a machine, I start out with the minimum bet and start to count how many spins I take, noting how often I am winning. After about 100 rolls, my data begins to take on some order. I know that for every 10 spins, I am likely to see a winner twice, or so. If I’m happy with the number I’ve found, then I will stick with the machine. Then, I increase my bets to the number I had settled on for the day. Generally speaking, your odds of winning go up slightly when you increase your bet sizes, so I know that I will probably do a little better than what I started out with.

This isn’t a perfect strategy, but it’s a simple and effective method of estimating how much I will win or lose on a machine.

Now, there’s no guarantee that the data you find online will be exactly the same as the machines that are found in a brick and mortar casino. But the odds are that it will be pretty close. Casinos do have the right to make small changes to the games that they are using, but it doesn’t happen often. So, if you know that the Sopranos game has a payout rate of 90 percent when you max out your bet online, you can guess that the rate will only differ slightly when you’re playing in a physical setting with the same bet present. Throughout the U.S., places with brick and mortar casinos all have minimum rates that they must payout. In Nevada, that rate is 75 percent. No matter what, you can be assured that you will be getting a decent rate. Online casinos don’t necessarily need to stick to these rules depending on where they’re located, so doing some research on your own will help you improve your odds of winning.