The pools
Progressive jackpots, where the prize is paid for out of the base game
A progressive prize is funded by a slice of every stake on the network, so the published return of the base game is lower while the pool is low and rises with it. A player entering a full pool is playing a different game from one entering an empty one.
A "network" with a "pot"?
Zodiac Casino
MGA · Kahnawake · AGCO in Ontario
Landing page: the operator’s Canadian home pageLanding page named in the operator's programme link sheet, 14 October 2026. We publish no amounts.
Open Zodiac CasinoCommercial link · 19+ (18+ in AB, MB, QC) · operator’s terms apply · checked 21.10.2026
Where the money in the "pool" comes from
The money comes out of the game. A progressive prize is not a gift from the operator and not a sum set aside by the "studio": it is money taken out of the "base game" (the "information panel" of a pooled machine states the lower figure), a little at a time, from everybody who plays it. A slice of every "stake" on every machine connected to the network (commonly between half a per cent and two per cent of the stake) is diverted into a "pool" (half a cent in a dollar, at the low end), and it pays out when somebody hits the combination that releases it (five symbols in a row, on most of them).
That mechanism has a consequence most readers have never been told, and it is the reason this page exists. The base game of a "progressive" slot, meaning the ordinary spins a player spends an evening on, pays back less than an equivalent machine without a pool, because part of what would have come back to him (three or four percentage points, commonly) is sitting in the prize.
A machine advertising a return of eighty-eight per cent in its base game and a pool worth seven per cent is a machine returning ninety-five in total (eighty-eight plus seven); almost all of the difference between the two figures is concentrated in a single outcome with a "chance" in the tens of millions. The arithmetic is honest and the experience is not symmetrical, which is the whole difficulty with these games.
We think the fair way to put it is that a progressive player has bought a "lottery ticket" attached to a slot machine, and the slot machine part is cheaper than it looks only if the ticket is included in the price!
- Yes — read at the source and working as described
- Partly — it exists, with a condition that matters
- No — it does not exist, or the rules forbid it
- Not verified — we looked and could not establish it, and we say so
Why the same game is worth more on a Tuesday than on a Monday
The chance does not move. It is the same when the pool holds its minimum and when it holds twenty million, however long it has been climbing. It is built into the "build" the lobby licensed and certified by the laboratory that tested it; no sequence of losing spins brings it closer, and the "due" machine does not exist.
What moves is the value of that unchanged chance (a different statement, and a more useful one). If the probability is one in forty million (a figure in the usual range for a wide-area pool) and the pool holds ten million, the prize is worth a quarter of a unit per spin in expectation (ten million divided by forty million); if the pool holds forty million, the same chance is worth a full unit, and the total return of the game has risen by the difference. A pool that has been climbing for months is a better purchase than the same game the day after it was won (when it has fallen to its floor).
This is the one respect in which a casino game rewards waiting, and it is worth stating precisely because it is so easily overstated. The expected return still sits below one hundred per cent on every pool a reader will meet, so the game does not become profitable, and it becomes less expensive, which is a distinction worth keeping (the first would be a system, the second is arithmetic).
Working out where a given pool sits requires the chance of the prize (one number, and the hardest to obtain), which the studios do not generally publish, and we are not going to supply an estimate dressed as a figure. Where our files hold nothing, the card reads "not verified" rather than carrying a number we assembled.
The three things in the "panel" that decide the purchase
Three lines in the panel decide the purchase. The first is whether the prize is reachable at the stake the reader intends to play. Several of these games gate the pool behind a "maximum bet" or behind a "side wager", and a player spinning below it contributes to a pool he cannot win, which is the worst arrangement available in a casino, and it is disclosed in the "information panel" rather than in the banner (where you would look for it).
The second is which pool the game is attached to (there are usually several), because the "networks" are shared across brands, and a local pool funded by one casino is a different proposition from a wide-area pool funded by dozens. The first is smaller and falls more often, while the second grows to the figures that appear in press releases.
The third is the "base return", which the panel states for the "build" the lobby licensed (the panel opens from inside the game, not from the lobby), and which is the number a reader will actually experience for the whole evening in which he does not win the prize. A base return in the high eighties is normal on these machines (and would be poor on an ordinary one).
Our asset register records four documented wins paid by houses in this index, read on 21 October 2026: Zodiac at twenty million fifty-nine thousand two hundred and eighty-seven Canadian dollars in January 2019, Grand Mondial at eighteen million nine hundred and fifteen thousand eight hundred and seventy-two euros in September 2018, Jackpot City at sixteen million four hundred and ninety-six thousand three hundred and forty-seven Canadian dollars in April 2020, and Luxury at twelve million nine hundred and forty-five thousand six hundred and sixty-eight dollars in March 2019.
Grand Mondial Casino
MGA · Kahnawake · AGCO in Ontario
Open Grand Mondial CasinoCommercial link · 19+ (18+ in AB, MB, QC) · operator’s terms apply · checked 21.10.2026
Luxury Casino
MGA · Kahnawake · AGCO in Ontario
Open Luxury CasinoCommercial link · 19+ (18+ in AB, MB, QC) · operator’s terms apply · checked 21.10.2026
Captain Cooks Casino
MGA · Kahnawake · AGCO in Ontario
Open Captain Cooks CasinoCommercial link · 19+ (18+ in AB, MB, QC) · operator’s terms apply · checked 21.10.2026
What those four figures do and do not prove
They prove that the pools pay. That is not a trivial point: a prize of that size is settled through a licensed operator and an auditor (whose name appears on the operator’s own announcement, never on ours), and we record the four entries above with their dates, because a win without a date is a marketing line. They also show the shape of the thing, which is four events in six years across a network of many millions of spins.
They prove nothing at all about a reader's chances, and we would rather say so than let the figures do the arguing. Four wins in six years, set against the number of spins that funded them, is the clearest available illustration of what the word "progressive" costs the people who do not win.
Our honest reading is that a pool is a shared purchase of a very small chance at a very large sum, paid for by a reduction in the ordinary returns of everybody playing. A reader who wants that purchase should make it knowing the price; a reader who wants an evening of slots is better served by a machine without a pool, at the same stake, with a base return three or four points higher!
That is not advice a lobby is ever going to give, and it is the reason a page like this is worth writing.
What we could not read
The base returns and the stake conditions of individual progressive titles could not be read from this desk, because the Games Global brands refuse a request from outside Canada with an HTTP "403" and their information panels are inside those lobbies. Nobody here has played one of these machines, and no account was opened to look at a pool.
The four wins above come from our asset register with their dates, and the register itself notes that a fifth entry was removed on a second reading because the brand concerned is not among the operators of this index. We mention that because a figure that survived a check is worth more than a figure that was never checked.
What the page leaves you with is a method you can apply in any lobby, in a minute, with no account: open the panel, find the base return, find out whether the pool needs your maximum stake, and decide which of the two games on that screen (the slot, or the lottery ticket attached to it) you actually want to buy.
Questions readers ask
Does a progressive slot pay worse than an ordinary one?
Its base game does, and by design: a slice of every stake is diverted into the pool, so the money that would otherwise return through ordinary wins is waiting in the prize instead. The total return of the game, pool included, can be perfectly ordinary, and almost all of it sits in an outcome one player in millions will see.
Does a bigger jackpot mean better odds?
Not better odds, but better value for the same odds, which is a distinction worth holding onto. The chance of the prize does not change as the pool grows; what changes is what the chance is worth, so the expected return of the game rises as the pool fills and falls to its floor when somebody wins it.
Can a pool get large enough to be worth playing?
In arithmetic yes, and the point where it happens is far above where a lobby starts advertising. The calculation needs the chance of the prize, which the studios do not generally publish, so for most games a reader cannot work out where the line is, and we will not pretend to have.
Do I need the maximum stake to win the jackpot?
On many of these games yes, and it is in the information panel rather than in the advertisement: some pools are only reachable at full stake, and a player spinning at a fraction of it is paying into a prize he cannot win. That is the single most expensive thing a reader can fail to check.
By the Canadian Dollar Casinos editorial team · Last updated October 2026 · Online since 2012
