Progressives Guaranteed to Hit?

[CVslots]

So, after watching the video from American Casino Guide that r273 posted on a recent thread, it got me thinking...

A local Indian casino has at least one bank of penny machines linked to a Progressive that is "guaranteed to hit" by $75,000....they even text message the customers when it's getting close! If they can't determine exactly when a machine pays out, how can they guarantee the Progressive will hit by a certain dollar amount? It's obviously a server based bank, but what happens exactly?? Is there a threshold, say $70,000, that the Progressive reaches which prompts the payout % to suddenly change? Or does only the payout % for the top award change?

[Neonkiss]

May be the progressive increment so slowly that by the time it gets to the stated 75K, the machines have been through so many handle pulls that it's withing the percentage of the PSR.
 

[stayouttadabunker]

I'm very skeptical of this...
Wouldn't it break the RNG gambling commission regulations to put a machine
into a progressive jackpot test mode on the gaming floor to award a hand-pay?

Which casino is doing this?
I could call them up and ask how this works? 
I'd like to see what answer they give me...

[Mirage_Chaser]

There are two major types of progressive: Combination and mystery.

The type you are referring to is a mystery.

First an explanation, combination is exactly what it sounds like- a specific reel combo (like three wild symbols) is a win that corresponds to a progressive win. This type will never be a "must hit by" jackpot as the win is a random generation from the machine.

Mystery, however, is won at a seemingly random moment unrelated to the current spin of a game. There are specific things that make you eligible for these wins like having had an active play within the last 10 seconds, and in some cases a large enough bet to qualify. The reason these can be must hit by is because they are determined by the progressive controller and not the actual game. In some cases (and I have only seen this with Ainsworth games) the progressive controller is on board but is listed separate from the actual game percentage.

[OldReno]

@Mirage, thanks for that info, interesting to know...
So then the payout award does not necessarily have to be jackpot symbols?
Cool.

[Buzz]

Bunker  Save your self a phone call. I already know the answer you will get.  "Nunya"  Which means "None your F***ing business"    

[Mirage_Chaser]

Less then Jackpot symbols, the actual spin could have been a non winner and still you could win.

[stayouttadabunker]

Sounds like a ruse to get players in to play...
making people think all they need to do is drop in the MAX bet at $74,999.99
and push the Spin button...   

[knagl]

Mirage Chasers is absolutely correct. With Mystery Progressives, every coin inserted helps to increment the meter. When the player on that bank of machines drops in the coin that pushes the meter up another penny to the jackpot amount that was pre-determined by the jackpot controller, that player is awarded the jackpot.

You do not need to bet max to win - it's more of a "right place, right time" situation. That said, max bettors typically have a better chance of triggering the jackpot since they're dumping in more coins per spin, causing the meter to increment faster than the person next to them who is only betting one coin at a time.

[Mirage_Chaser]

It is true if you are one cent away from the top award and you are the only one playing then you will ABSOLUTELY win the top amount. As a matter of fact I have seen a group of people (a whole family actually) wait around a specific bank for the progressive to get high and to jump on all the open games and try to bully people off the other games.

I have even seen people try to sell a spot at a game at a progressive must hit bank. That was of course against casino policy and they booted them out  

[CVslots]

Excellent info guys! Oh it's a definite ploy to get people to come play, especially when it breaks $70,000....     So there is, in a sense, almost a 2nd RNG in the progressive system that determines a specific $$ amount at which it will hit? And I do believe it is one that any player on the bank can hit, not just max bet players, but I could be mistaken, as I do not play penny machines much.

The casino is Black Oak Casino, in Tuolumne, CA. I believe they have more than one of these banks in operation. 

As always, thank you for the informed answer to my question!

-Roslyn

[cowboygames]

Or maybe the progressive meter is programmed to go into a communications error and resets to "0" at $74,999.99 Dang those Indians!

[Tech539]

not to bring life to an old thread but progressives can have a min and max range for its incrementation, I use to see older Mikohn controllers do this at an old IGT slant top bank that incremented from 20K and would always "hit" near 75K-76K. the higher the amount of the progressive the higher the possibility of the progressive will "hit". You usually see this as a separate lockup from the machine, saying that you don't need a payline hit to set off the progressive.