What matters first in "What is slots game?" is where the prize money comes from. A jackpot is the largest prize a slot can pay, and the way it is funded decides how large it can grow and how it is won. Fixed jackpots are set amounts written into the paytable. Progressive jackpots rise with every stake placed on the games linked to them until someone wins, then reset to a starting sum. Knowing which kind is on the screen explains the number shown above the reels.
Some progressives carry a must drop figure, a ceiling by which the jackpot is guaranteed to be won, which makes a pot close to its limit more likely to pay soon. Very large wins are often paid in instalments or after extra identity checks, and the terms say how. A jackpot that has not dropped for a long time is no more due than any other, unless a must drop ceiling is written into its rules.
Every progressive is funded by a small slice of each qualifying stake, set in the game rules. When the jackpot is won, it drops back to a seed amount paid by the operator or the game maker, and the climb starts again. The slice set aside for the pot comes out of what the game would otherwise pay in regular wins, so the everyday prizes on a jackpot slot tend to be smaller than on a similar game without one.
A small slice of every qualifying stake, fixed in the game rules, feeds the pot, and that slice lowers what the regular wins on the game can pay.
The pot drops back to a seed amount, funded by the operator or the game maker, and then starts climbing again from stakes placed on the linked games.
Fixed jackpots are set amounts in the paytable, while progressives grow either on one game, across several games in a single casino, or across a network of many casinos.
Some pots need a set combination, such as five jackpot symbols on a line at maximum stake; others start at random after any spin, often through a jackpot wheel.
The game rules list the titles and casinos contributing to a network pot; the wider that pool, the larger and rarer its top prize tends to be.
Not always: some tiers require a minimum stake or an optional side bet, and play below that level still feeds the pot while the grand stays out of reach.