Slot machine design goes in a lot of different directions. One that has caught our eye, and apparently other players as well, is the example of when the Mini and Minor don’t change with your bet:
Why do the mini and minor not increase with an increase of the bet?
Kreacher1974 on YouTube
There’s no one right answer for this, as not all games are designed the same. But here’s a few notes about why they would or wouldn’t change:
When Progressives Are in Play
While many modern slot machines feature flat jackpots for the Mini and Minor, some don’t. Dancing Drums, 88 Fortunes, and the original Ultimate Fire Link are among the games that opt instead to have four progressives.
In that scenario, since the progressives remain the same within a given denomination, your odds of winning a progressive increases with bet, as opposed to the amount increasing. On Dancing Drums, the pot closes more often on higher bets; on Fire Link, the Mini and Minor ball are more likely to appear on higher bets within a denomination.
The Lightning Link Model
The popularity of Lightning Link and its siblings means a lot of games follow its structure, which is a Mini and Minor “Bonus Jackpot” that’s a flat amount that doesn’t change within a denomination, but instead your chances of winning one increases with bet.
The thing is, as a flat jackpot, it isn’t really anything that special. When you’re doing a $5 max bet on penny denomination, that $10 mini is 2x your bet. And when you get a Hold & Spin, a lot of coins can drop with a 2x prize, and the game can simply decide to label that a Mini “jackpot” instead.
It’s a psychological trick in a way – you won six Minis, but at that bet it’s 12x your overall wager. So it’s designed to build excitement where it wouldn’t normally be so.
Newer Games Are More Likely to Change with Bet
Increasingly, newer games, such as the All Aboard series and Mystery of the Lamp, will see the flat jackpots change with bet amount, not just denomination. This means there’s a purpose to that specific prize amount, and that the odds of winning it will be the same at all bet levels, because it’s proportional to your bet.
Even though that Mini on an All About game is $6 on a 50 cent bet, that 12x value is also 12x if you up your bet to $1 or $5 on the same denomination. So the game scales with your bet and all of the prize have a specific purpose to the pay tables, as opposed to just being an alternate label for a specific prize amount that can happen more frequently as your bet increases.
It Comes Down to Game Design
Whether a Mini or Minor changes is one of many design decisions that slot makers go through as they work through how a game will be structured. In the end, the math has to math, so whether a flat jackpot serves a purpose or not really comes down to that.
Fortunately for us as players, there’s plenty of each type out there, so you can decide what you prefer and pursue that type of game accordingly!
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