Mega Moolah (£19m)
There aren’t many lottery draws around the world that pay out a jackpot of £19m, which explains why online casino gamers are happy to try their luck with jackpot slots instead.
Mega Moolah is a jackpot slot that will feature a few times on this list, and the reason for that is simple: it is one of the most popular progressive jackpot slots around. This is why any reputable online casino from the newest one on the market to those that have been around for years all want to have Mega Moolah in their games libraries.
What’s a progressive jackpot slot, you may be thinking? This is a game in which all players, no matter where they are and which online casino they are using, feed into the jackpot with every spin of the reels. This cumulative effect sees the prize fund increase every single minute of the day until somebody, somewhere triggers the payout with the required combination of symbols.
The logic is that the more popular a jackpot slot is, the quicker the jackpot will rise – and so will its size – hence its ubiquity on the list of biggest online casino payouts.
The largest jackpot of all time was a $23.6m bonanza (around £19m) landed by one player from Belgium back in 2021. They were playing the Absolutely Mad variant of Mega Moolah, and no doubt the individual was going bananas when they realised the extent of their win.
Little is known about the winner and what they did with their money, but you suspect an almighty party would have been thrown…
Mega Moolah (£18.9m)
The Belgian bonanza just edged out the previous highest-ever online casino jackpot, which yet again came via the Mega Moolah slot game back in 2018.
That jackpot payout was $23.5m – which, at an exchange rate of £18.9m, meant that the British winner, who landed the prize at the online Grand Mondial Casino, would later be usurped as the biggest winner by £100,000.
The winning player has also decided to remain anonymous, but we know that they won the prize after making fewer than 50 spins, and that their stake was just £0.60 for the life-changing spin.
That’s some return on investment…
Mega Fortune (£16.9m)
The largest online casino win not paid out via Mega Moolah occurred in Finland in 2013.
The fortunate individual was playing the Mega Fortune slot, another popular progressive jackpot game, when their moment of glory came.
They were playing at Paf casino, one of the biggest operators in Scandinavia, and after hitting the right combination of symbols, they were greeted with a message on-screen confirming that they were now a cool £16.9m richer than they were before.
The lucky winner scooped their prize after staking just £0.20 on the winning spin.
Mega Moolah (£16m)
The fourth biggest win in online casino history, once again secured via Mega Moolah, went to a British war veteran who had been playing the game for just seven minutes when his luck came in.
Jon Heywood, who served as a lance corporal during the Afghanistan conflict, was playing at £0.25 stakes at Betway casino, and he later admitted that he “couldn’t believe” that he had landed an eight-figure payday with a single spin of the reels.
“I couldn’t believe that I’d won all this money at the time – and it still hasn’t sunk in. It’s amazing,” Heywood said back in 2015.
The then 26-year-old vowed to pay for the best medical treatment for his sick father, while upgrading his Fiat Punto for a canary yellow Bentley Continental GT.
Arabian Nights (£13.9m)
Rounding out the top five of the largest online casino wins ever is a new game on the list.
The Arabian Nights slot game was incredibly popular back in the 2010s, and with players from across the globe seeding the jackpot kitty, it was common for seven-figure jackpots to be paid out.
However, the game’s biggest payout came in 2011, when one player from Norway fired up Arabian Nights and proceeded to walk away with the £13.9m jackpot.
There are many other examples of huge wins, but these are the five that top the charts as far as the biggest payouts are concerned – until the next major winner comes along.
How do you win a casino jackpot?
All casino games, including jackpot slots, are defined by their random number generator (RNG), which ensures that every spin is completely unpredictable and unbiased. So, every spin is as likely – or as unlikely – to win the jackpot as the last.
Some jackpot slots dictate that you can only win the big prize if you stake the maximum per spin, and so the best tip is to make sure that you read the instructions for each game you play – that way, you’ll know how to qualify for a major payout.
Then, you’re in the lap of the gods as to whether or not your luck is in as you seek to win the jackpot.
