Mega Moolah: the first progressive slot

The Mega Moolah success story

At the end of 2006, Microgaming launched one of the most popular progressive slots in the world. Mega Moolah was born as a simple 5×3 slot with graphics that are already outdated today.

Mega Moolah became popular not because of its RTP or volatility, but also because of the difficulty of the game. What really made Mega Moolah a sensation were its huge prizes.

This is one of the first progressive slots. Several players have won millionaire prizes and earned the nickname “millionaire maker”.

Thanks to this title, progressive jackpots have become very popular. Thus, today in casinos, in addition to Mega Moolah, you can find many machines with this type of jackpot.

Rules for playing Mega Moolah 

When I reviewed this machine, I was surprised by its simplicity. Without any prior knowledge, I can easily play Mega Moolah. I was faced with a grid of 5 reels with 3 rows on each. The symbols are very simple and full of animals. The game is inspired by safari, so we can see antelopes, bison, giraffes, lions and many others, as well as classic French deck figures.

While reviewing the progressive slot, I came across a scatter symbol that, in addition to a x100 multiplier on your total bet when five are rolled, also offers a free spins round with 3 or more of these on the screen at the same time.

Types of jackpots in Mega Moolah

As I mentioned, this title is especially popular due to the great prizes it offers. If you are lucky, you can win prizes reaching millions of euros. To access the jackpot, you will have to spin the roulette wheel, which will appear on the screen and indicate the type of jackpot you will receive. Mega Moolah offers 4 different types of prizes:

• Mini: the prize starts from 10.
• Minor: the prize starts from 100.
• Major: the prize starts from 1000.
• Mega: the prize starts from 1,000,000.

Biggest Mega Moolah prizes

During the existence of this title, many players managed to win more than interesting prizes. However, some have managed to achieve the huge progressive jackpots offered by Microgaming games.

Do you know what the biggest prize a player has ever won on this slot is? No less than 19,430,723.60 euros, which a player from Belgium managed to get at the Napoleon casino. Many other players have also won millionaire prizes thanks to Mega Moolah. Below I will tell you what the biggest winnings were on this machine in physical and online casinos:

• M.D. won a prize of 18,915,872.81 euros at Grand Mondial on 09/28/2018.
• Jonathon Heyood from the United Kingdom won 18,879,645.12 euros at Betway on 10/06/2015.
• A Swedish player won 14,239,532.84 euros at Lucky Casino 08/17/2020.
• E.O. achieved a prize of 13,328,028.16 euros at Zodiac on 01/30/2019
• L.V. won 11,546,388.15 euros at Luxury Casino on 03/05/2019.

Other players have won millionaire prizes more recently, although without reaching the figures of the biggest Mega Moolah winners in casinos.

Mega Moolah symbols

From my perspective as an expert, I can say that Mega Moolah is a slot inspired by the African savannah. However, as in most slots, it has a variety of figures.

I have noticed that Mega Moolah symbols are divided into three categories: low value symbols, high value symbols and symbols with special functions. Next, I will show you what the figures are and how much each of them pays, so you can better understand the winning potential in this game.

Low value symbols

These are the figures of the French deck, being the ones that offer the fewest prizes. They pay from 3 figures to 5, with the 5 figures being the highest prize for each symbol:

• 10: x0,08, x0,4 y x1,6;
• J: x0,16, x0,8 y x3;
• Q: x0,16, x0,8 y x3;
• K: x0,32, x1,2 y x4;
• A: x0,32, x1,6 y x6.

High value symbols

Animal figurines based on animals are the symbols that have the highest prizes. Most of them offer payouts from a combination of 3 to 5 symbols, with the exception of the buffalo and elephant, which offer payouts by simply combining two such symbols.

• Antelope: x0.4, x2, x10;
• Zebra: x0.8, x4, x16;
• Giraffe: x1,2, x5, x20;
• Buffalo: x0.16, x1.6, x6, x24;
• Elephant: x0.24, x2, x10, x30.

Symbols with special functions

The figures that have special functions within Mega Moolah in casinos are the following.

• Lion. This is a wild symbol that substitutes for any other Mega Moolah symbol except the tribal character. Combining multiple lions also offers larger payouts. From 2 figures (x0.6) to 5 figures (x600), the most valuable figure is Mega Mula.
• Tribal character. This is a scatter symbol that allows you to trigger a free spins round if three or more adjacent figures land on the reels.

Free spins

In my review of the Mega Moolah machine, I noticed that to trigger the free spins round in this casino game, you need to land the scatter symbol on the screen at least 3 times. These symbols must appear simultaneously on different reels.

By landing 3, 4 or 5 scatter symbols you can get 15 free spins per round. A very interesting aspect that I noticed is that during the free spins round, the prizes are tripled. It is also possible to retrigger the free spins in the same bonus round, greatly increasing your chances of winning.

Frequent questions