Types of Online Pokies: Megaways, Jackpot Pokies, Bonus Buy

Types of online pokies: how to tell them apart

Two games can look alike and play nothing alike. What separates them is the mechanic under the artwork: how a win is counted, what starts the bonus and whether a jackpot is attached. The table below shows the main types with one real example each. The sections after it explain each type in turn.

Numbers in the table are the studio’s headline figures where it prints them, and published RTP tables where it does not. Casinos can run a lower RTP configuration, so check the game’s info panel.

Jackpot pokies online: what Australians can find

The word jackpot covers two different things. A fixed jackpot is a prize with a set value. A progressive jackpot grows with play. Mixing them up is a common mistake.

Progressive jackpot pokies

Progressive pokies pay their top prize from a shared pool. A progressive pool grows every time someone stakes on the game and resets when it is won. The standard example is Mega Moolah from Games Global (Microgaming): a four-tier networked progressive that has reached eight-figure pools. Its base RTP is 88.12%, medium volatility. That is the price of the jackpot, and the gap shows up in the maths.

Fixed jackpot pokies

Fixed jackpots live inside a bonus feature. Joker Mask by BGaming has Mini, Minor, Major and Grand coins worth 15x, 30x, 100x and 1,000x your stake. Wolf Gold has three jackpots on its Money Respin, and Elvis Frog in Vegas has Mini, Major and Mega. These are “major jackpot pokies” in the sense of a named top prize, but the prize is a multiple of your bet, so it cannot grow.

Pokies jackpot odds

We did not find studio-published odds for the jackpot tiers, so we do not print any. What you can read is the RTP, the volatility and the max win. For progressives, remember that the top tier is designed to be very rare. WinCrown lists 1,700+ jackpot games and Casinonic 1,000+ jackpot pokies, so there is plenty to choose from. Casinonic’s, Ricky Casino’s and Lucky7even’s withdrawal caps exclude jackpot wins, and SkyCrown’s terms put progressive wins outside its limits.

Megaways pokies online

Megaways changes the grid every spin. The number of symbols on each reel varies, so the number of ways to win can run into the hundreds of thousands.

How a Megaways pokie plays

Lady Wolf Moon Megaways from BGaming has an extra reel above the grid. Its bonus wheel sets between 5 and 15 spins and a multiplier from x2 to x25, and the wild carries a x2. It lists a 96.75% RTP, a 6,000x max win and very high volatility. Expect long quiet spells and occasional large hits.

Megaways pokies Australia players can find

SkyCrown, Wild Tokyo, Crazy Tower and Lucky7even each list Megaways as a category. Lucky7even lists Megaways next to separate Bonus Buy, Hold & Win and Drops & Wins categories. Our new pokies guide tracks recent releases, and the games guide lists individual titles with their figures.

Hold and Win pokies

Hold and Win, also called hold and respin, is a bonus feature rather than a base-game style. Special symbols lock in place, you get a handful of respins, and each new symbol resets the count.

What it looks like

Joker Mask gives three respins with multipliers of x2, x3 and x5, plus the four jackpot coins. Wolf Gold’s Money Respin starts with six or more money symbols and three respins. 9 Coins from Voltent has a Hold the Jackpot respin with a Grand Jackpot and Bonus Buy. Beasts of Fire Inferno and Tower Run Treasure Steps from Play’n GO use their own hold features.

Where the library is deepest

WinCrown lists 240+ Hold & Win games and Neospin has a Hold & Win category. If you like the style, those two are the places to browse it.

Bonus Buy pokies

Bonus Buy lets you skip the wait for the feature by paying a multiple of your stake.

The price list

Aztec Clusters sells entry at x100 to x800, Wild Cash at x80, Gates of Olympus 1000 at 100x and Nolimit City’s Mental at 80x to 1,000x. Bonanza Trillion and Lady Wolf Moon Megaways also include it. WinCrown lists 2,200+ Bonus Buy games, the largest count on our list, and Casinonic 500+.

The catch

A bought round costs far more than a normal spin, so a small balance can disappear in a handful of purchases. The RTP does not improve because you bought the feature. Treat it as a faster way to reach the volatility, not a shortcut to a win.

Cluster, pays-anywhere and classic pokies

Cluster pays

Instead of lines, cluster games pay when enough matching symbols touch. Aztec Clusters uses a 6x8 grid with cluster pays from five symbols, Fruit Party a 7x7 grid with multipliers that stack up to 256x, and Le Bandit a 6x5 grid. Sugar Rush and Tower Run Treasure Steps use clusters too.

Pays anywhere and tumbling

Pays-anywhere games count a win wherever enough matching symbols land, then remove them so new ones drop in. Gates of Olympus, Sweet Bonanza, Starlight Princess and Divine Queen: Power of Sun all work this way. Wins can chain inside one spin, and the multipliers usually live in the bonus round.

Classic three-reel and expanding symbols

Wild Cash from BGaming is a 3x3, five-payline game with a bonus wheel up to 999x, 96.23% RTP and very high volatility. Super Golden Spins from Pragmatic Play is a 3x3 with nine paylines. Starburst looks classic but has five reels, low volatility and expanding wilds with re-spins. Book of Dead and Rise of Merlin use an expanding symbol in free spins and are rated high volatility.

Other features that sit on top of the types

Types describe the base mechanic. Studios then add features that change how a game feels without changing its category.

Chance modes and cell multipliers

BGaming’s Bonanza Trillion and Bonanza Billion list a “Chance x2” option, and Divine Queen: Power of Sun offers a Chance x10. Aztec Clusters adds cell multipliers from x2 to x10 and sticky wilds up to x100. Check the info panel to see how each mode changes the cost per spin and the RTP.

Tournaments and Drops and Wins

Some casinos wrap the games in a prize event. Neospin holds daily Drops & Wins tournaments with 500 prizes, and Crown Slots lists the Pragmatic Play Drops & Wins promotion. They are an extra on top of a normal game, not a separate type of pokie.

How casinos label their libraries

Lobbies sort games by type, but each casino uses its own names. This is how the first five on our list describe theirs.

Labels are loose and differ between sites, so a lobby tag is a starting point. Use the mechanic described in the game’s info panel, not the label, to judge what you are about to play.

A quick way to shortlist

Open the lobby filter for the type you want, sort by name or by provider, and check each game’s info panel for RTP and volatility. If a casino does not show them, our games guide lists the figures for individual titles, and the casino reviews say which sites print theirs.

Does the type change the RTP

Not in a pattern you can rely on. Headline RTPs in our guides cluster close together across very different types: Aztec Clusters (cluster pays) and Divine Queen (pays anywhere) both sit at 97.00%, Lady Wolf Moon Megaways at 96.75%, Joker Mask (Hold and Win) at 96.12% and Wild Cash (classic) at 96.23%. The clear outlier is the progressive, Mega Moolah at 88.12%.

Volatility is where types differ

What changes between types is how the return arrives. Several of the Megaways, Bonus Buy and cluster games in our list are rated high or very high. Starburst is rated low and Red and Hot Chilli medium-low, both easier on a small balance. Read the volatility before the theme, and treat the type as a clue to it rather than a guarantee. The high RTP pokies guide ranks the highest headline figures we found.

Which type suits you

Match the type to your budget and patience.

If you want longer sessions

Pick a classic or low-volatility game such as Starburst, or a medium-low one such as Red and Hot Chilli at 96.35% RTP. Wins come more often and are smaller.

If you chase a big top prize

Wild Cash Gold lists 25,000x, Mental 66,666x and Epic SixSixSix 20,666x. These are the highest max wins in our guides. The odds of reaching them are small, so set the stake with that in mind. Only adults aged 18 and older may play, and a deposit limit set in advance keeps a big-hit chase affordable. If play stops being fun, Gambling Help Online gives free support on 1800 858 858 around the clock.

If you want to see everything first

Try the demo before you stake real money, especially for Hold and Win and Megaways games, where the bonus rules take a few rounds to make sense. Our free pokies guide shows where demos exist, and the how pokies work guide explains the numbers on this page.

Types of pokies FAQ