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Back-To-Back Jackpots: Are They Even Possible In The Casino?

When playing slots or video poker, whether online or in a brick-and-mortar casino, the idea of winning the jackpot is as delicious as it is elusive. But now consider the possibility of landing one jackpot after another. Though the odds of this actually happening look impossibly improbable, it has happened a number of times, though not with any life-altering amounts of cash. That's because, the bigger the jackpot, like those Megabucks progressives, the greater the odds against landing them.

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The Truth About Back-To-Back Jackpots

For many casino players, especially those who enjoy the slots, their dream is to land one of those large progressive jackpots that you read about every once in a while in the media. But one nagging question that many gamblers have, is whether it’s possible to hit one big jackpot after another ie back-to-back jackpots. This is always asked when playing the same slot machine. Lots of this talk centres around whether the machine will go cold after a big win. But as your logical mind should tell you, all the machines are run by a random number generator. This means that the game will keep paying in normal proportions over literally hundreds of thousands of plays. Knowing this, the idea of a big win should fade into statistical insignificance.

Following on from this, there’s another interesting question that many players ask themselves; if the odds of hitting a jackpot are always the same, then surely if you’ve already won, you should be able to get back-to-back jackpots as well. After all, there are millions of plays made every day. So why doesn’t a back-to-back jackpot happen more often? A question is posed in this manner it’s certainly interesting. But keep in mind there’s a huge difference between whether something is possible, and why it doesn’t happen more often. You’ll find the real answer by looking at the odds of the game.

Let’s Look At Video Poker

A good example is video poker royal flushes. These occur on average about 1 in 40,000 hands. This may vary depending on the pay tables, the player’s strategies and the variation of the video jackpot games at hand. So for two consecutive wins to come up equals 40,000 hands times 40,000 hands. This is a cool 1.6 billion hands for back-to-back jackpots. Looking at it this way, that’s a huge number. But as the questioner points out, there are tens of thousands of video poker machines in the world. Technically, just a single online casino like Bovada Casino is getting thousands of plays every day. This means that in theory, every few days or weeks or months, someone is going to draw a back-to-back jackpot with a royal flush. In some ways, the questioner is not wrong in their thinking.

A Back-To-Back Jackpots Winning Story

The wife of a couple who was recently betting Las Vegas did score back-to-back jackpots. She later wrote about her experience. Apparently, they were playing double bonus poker, with the husband playing deuces wild with quarters. As it was coming up to Christmas time, they were joking about how nice it would be to have a nice win to help with the Christmas shopping. At this point, she was dealt an ace and 4 low cards. After getting rid of the lower cards she landed a royal flush. This gave her a total of more than 4,000 credits. But instead of cashing out, she continued playing. On the next hand, she was an Ace, King and Jack of hearts. At this point, she had a feeling that she might do it again. And she did!

You can find all the casino games at the Bovada Casino

Small Progressives Have Better Chances

The thing you have to remember about this story is that on video slot machines, there’s a huge variety of probabilities. Consider a slot with a small jackpot. This is a “quick-hit” machine by design. In reality, you’ll see that the jackpot on this may payout once per 10,000 plays. This is a relatively short period. In truth, the chance of hitting a jackpot on most machines is going to be much longer. As far as those huge progressive jackpots go, sometimes they only land once every few years.

Now simple mathematics tells us that the two-in-a-row or back-to-back jackpots on a 1-in 10,000 game will pay out once every hundred million plays. So the odds are pretty long against this happening to anyone. But here’s the rub. The chance of it happening is a certainty. This means that someone, somewhere, will score that win simply because the machine has cycled through the required number of plays. So if you’re happily playing online, at Bovada Casino, for example, you have the same jackpot winning chances of scoring one jackpot after another.

Back-To-Back Jackpots In Chicago

Another story comes from a woman who was playing in a brick-and-mortar casino in suburban Chicago. She was a fan of slot machines, which she loved to play whilst her husband would gamble at the craps tables. They were a typical American gambling couple who liked to go to Las Vegas once or twice every year. The woman claimed to have hit a couple of small progressive jackpots in the past. But never on the same day. And certainly never back-to-back jackpots.

Nevertheless, on a fateful day in question, she sat down to a tiny progressive local jackpot that networked just six machines strung together. Barely has she started playing, when she won the jackpot of $1,143. She was paid out by the casino straight away. However, rather than calling it a day, she decided to keep playing whilst her husband was away enjoying the game on the craps table. Though the progressive prize on the same machine went down to its seed money of just $1,000, on her very next spin she won that as well. These were basically tiny jackpots and certainly not life-altering amounts, but it does show that the odds on smaller machines are much greater than those on larger ones.

Chances Of A Back-To-Back Jackpots MegaBucks Win

For example, consider the chance of becoming a multi-millionaire by playing the Megabucks progressive slot. The stats tell us that the chances of a single win are 1 in 50 million. So the chance of hitting back-to-back jackpots would be 50 million x 50 million which he goes to 2.5 quadrillions. As they say, you may be better off going to the beach and counting grains of sand! To the person who asked the question as to why back-to-back jackpots don’t happen more often, well, now you can see the answer. The main takeaway is that, yes, they probably will happen and you can win the jackpot online. But they will not happen that often. Whatever jackpot winning strategies you are trying to employ to land back-to-back jackpots, don’t go holding your breath for too long. We suggest that you don’t think too deeply about the possibilities of landing a jackpot win. Just enjoy playing.