It’s increasingly common for a bank or even multiple banks of slot machines to be linked. In fact, some of the games now even use the word Link to inform players of this.
Some players worry that this somehow impacts payouts – it doesn’t. Generally, the link has to do with the progressives on offer – on linked machines, one or more progressives will be linked across all of the machines.
The difference is pretty easy to understand. The prizes and frequency of winning the prizes doesn’t change just because the machines are linked. Instead of one machine building a progressive and only one machine offering that progressive as it grows.
A linked progressive will be contributed to by multiple machines. It will be won more often, but grow faster. And you have multiple machines on which you can play, and potentially win, the progressive.
Where this can matter more is when the progressive grows unusually high. Not only will multiple machines be continuing to feed the progressive, but there are multiple machines you can play to try to win the progressive.
One of our favorite examples was an Ultimate Fire Link Mega progressive at one of our local casinos that had grown to more than $55,000 from a starting point of $10,000. It certainly made us want to sit down and give it a go each time we were there. And that’s the general idea.
By linking machines, it makes games more enticing to play, which drives more wagers, and in the end, more money for the casino. If you’ve been reading Flip The Switch enough, you know that’s a common thread for some of the changes that hit casino floors.
But at least for players, it can mean easier access to take a swing at progressives that have built up beyond their average.
