How does the Mega Moolah progressive jackpot work?

If you’re a regular visitor at online slots sites you may have noticed that some of the games offer a constantly growing progressive jackpot alongside the normal prizes. One such game is Mega Moolah from Microgaming, which in the last 18 years has made over 60 slot players around the world into multi millionaires! 

But how is the progressive jackpot won, how is the total calculated, how much money do the winners get and where do these huge sums of money come from? All these questions and more will be answered in this handy Mega Moolah progressive jackpot guide!

What is Mega Moolah?

Mega Moolah is a video slot from slot game provider, Microgaming. Microgaming also makes other popular games, including Immortal Romance, Thunder Struck II and many more.  Not only does Mega Moolah’s cast of smug-looking Savannah animals offer standard slot prizes and a free spins bonus feature, it also offers an enticing progressive jackpot feature! 

There are 4 tiers of progressive jackpot that are constantly growing and being won, though the one every player hopes to win is the gigantic mega jackpot, which starts at £1,000,000! If you want to try Mega Moolah out for yourself, why not visit MrQ where the game is waiting in the slots lobby.

How does a progressive jackpot grow?

Every time you stake money on Mega Moolah, a portion of that bet is added to the progressive jackpots, and this continues to happen until each of the prizes is won! This means if nobody wins the big mega jackpot for months on end, the jackpot will just keep on growing. The mega jackpot starts at an already impressive £1,000,000, but it often inflates and can get much much bigger before being claimed!

In fact, Mega Moolah’s jackpot entered The Guinness World Record for the largest jackpot payout in an online slot machine game, after paying out a huge £13,213, 838 back in 2015, it topped that in 2018, when £16,138,269.48 was won. Most recently, the jackpot total hit an impressive £13,528,145 and was won on 24th December 2023, giving someone the best Christmas ever. 

How do you win a progressive jackpot?

Simply put, there is no way to predict when you will win the jackpot as it is entirely random, however you do have a higher chance of hitting the bonus jackpot feature by upping your bet. Even if you do get lucky enough to end up triggering it, there are three other, much smaller jackpots that you’re much more likely to win. 

The mini progressive jackpot starts at just £10, the minor at £100 and the major at £10,000. The mega progressive jackpot starts at £1,000,000, but because it’s the hardest jackpot to win that can quickly go up! When the jackpot feature begins, a wheel is spun and wherever it lands determines which price you’ve been lucky enough to win. 

How much do you actually win?

Here’s where the Mega Moolah progressive jackpot can get confusing. Despite currencies worldwide being worth different amounts, no matter what country you are in and what currency you are playing the game in, the Mega Moolah jackpot always shows the same value worldwide.

For example if the jackpot is displaying as 10,000,000 and you win it in Canada, then you will win $10,000,000 in Canadian dollars, however if you win the mega jackpot in Germany then you will win €10,000,000 in Euros. But hang on, if those are different currencies, doesn’t that mean means those players won different amounts of money?

If you convert 10 million Canadian dollars into Euros then the the jackpot in Canada is only €6,593,000. Does this mean Canada is getting a bum deal? Also, where do the millions that are unaccounted for go? 

A Microgaming representative has confirmed to OnlineBingo.co.uk that the Mega Moolah jackpot’s base currency is GBP, which means that if you win the top prize in the UK then you are winning the full mega jackpot amount. However, if you live in a country with a weaker currency like Canada, then you will still win the advertised amount in your local currency.

The 13,528,145 amount that was recently won in euros on Betway actually only removed £11,545,786.79 from the progressive jackpot pool, with the remaining funds put back in to seed the next mega jackpot. Had someone in the UK won the jackpot, they would have won the full amount and the jackpot would have reset back to £1,000,000.

This doesn’t mean that players in other countries are getting an unfair deal though, as they are contributing less to the jackpot too. For example, a player in the UK playing £1 spins is contributing more to the jackpot than someone in Canada who is doing the equivalent $1 spins, which are only worth 57p in comparison. 

What's the easiest way to win the Mega Moolah progressive jackpot?

There's no real way to increase your chances of winning the game, other than increasing your bet to make the feature more likely to appear. It's still completely random. However, the easiest way to give yourself a chance at the huge jackpot is simply to play Mega Moolah at an online slot site! 

As mentioned above, Mega Moolah is available to play on MrQ right now, but there are also plenty of other online casino sites that offer the popular slot game. Why not check out our list of microgaming casino sites and find the one with the best casino welcome bonus for you so you can start playing and hope to hit the life changing progressive jackpot.