The potential to win life changing amounts from wagering a small amount of money is naturally attractive to the majority of people. So it’s little wonder that those who enjoy playing progressive jackpot slots usually also indulge in placing bets on their National Lottery.
This often leads to the question of which of these two games, progressive jackpot slots or the lottery, offer players the best chance of winning big. Here we’ll take a look at the various aspects of these two very popular games and the statistics involved in winning.
In order to compare your chances of winning on progressive slots and lottery games especially when it comes to winning over a million in Pounds, Euros or Dollars, we need to take a quick look at the odds offered on these games.
Lottery Jackpot Prize Odds
Thanks to the intense regulation of lotteries in most countries throughout the world it is relatively easy to calculate the odds of winning from a single ticket. Here’s a quick look at how some of the world’s top lotteries shape up (please note that all values are rounded up or down to the nearest million so figures are not exact or actual figures but will give you an indication of the chance you stand).
- El Gordo Spain: 1: 100,000
- Australia’s Lottery: 1: 4,000,000
- Ireland’s Irish Lotto: 1: 8,000,000
- UK National Lottery: 1: 14,000,000
- Euro millions: 1: 117,000,000
- German Lotto: 1: 140,000,000
- USA Powerball: 1: 175,000,000
- USA Mega Millions: 1: 259,000,000
- Italian Lottery: 1: 623,000,000
As you can see from the above, your odds of winning the life-changing millions on the lottery will definitely depend on your nationality. Also, many countries have state lotteries which offer considerable better odds than those listed above, that said, their prizes are generally way lower too and shared by more ticket holders.
Progressive Slots Jackpot Odds
Most land based and online casinos don’t publish the odds of winning their jackpots. One of the most well-known Las Vegas progressive jackpot slots, Megabucks however is said to pay out at 1 in 49,836,032.
This slot is said to be one of the most difficult games to win on, so we can safely assume that most progressives have a similar or better payout rate. And when comparing the 88.4% of the Megabucks to published payout rates of top online progressive jackpots, they are generally comparable with Mega Moolah and Mega Moolah Isis at 88.12% and 88% respectively. Online jackpot slots with lower jackpot prize values (although usually in excess of £/€/$1 million) have higher payout rates at 89% and above (these include Major Millions, Lotsa Loot and King Cashalot at the highest payout), but the odds of winning big often decrease due to more frequent wins than the bigger money slots.
Comparing the Largest Ever Wins
In January 2016, the world record for the largest ever lottery win was broken when the US Powerball lottery paid out a massive annuity value win of $1,586,400,000, this completely obliterated the previous record held by Mega Millions at $656,000,000.
In comparison the largest ever online progressive win occurred in October of 2015 when Jon Heywood walked away with just over 13 million pounds ($18,614,375) on the Mega Moolah Jackpot which earned a placement in the Guinness Book of World Records.
As you can see, online progressive wins pale in comparison to the amounts you can win on the lottery, but they generally offer better odds of winning. That said your chances for success do come down to which lottery or progressive slot you play, and even then, the odds of winning on either of them are very, very low. All things considered, slots offer the greater all round experience because you have the chance of winning coupled with the game which provides entertainment while you dream.
