Mega Moolah

Expert’s Verdict

4.5 Excellent

Keren Chen

Last updated July 27, 2021

Still holding the Guinness World Record for the biggest online slot payout, there's no getting around the fact that Mega Moolah is the OG when it comes to life-changing jackpots. In addition to being the original, many argue it's still the best.

If there's something you don't like about the theme, which admittedly feels a bit tired in 2020, or the gameplay, then there are other games in the Mega Moolah range that you can jump over to instead.

In addition to its huge progressive jackpots, Mega Moolah has a pretty decent bonus round too – better than some standard slots.. All in all, we can't really fault this game. It does everything that it's trying to do, and it does it extremely well.

For the Mega Moolah slot, we give this game a rating of 9/10. To learn more about our assessment and grading of casinos and games, check out our How We Rate page. We work closely with the independent regulatory bodies below to ensure every player on our site has a secure and reliable experience.

Key information

RTP

88.12%

Volatility

Medium

Max win

1000000

Bets (min/max)

$0.25 - $6.25

Bonus features

-

Paylines

25

Software

Microgaming

Layouts

Unknown

How do you Play Mega Moolah?

With a 5x3 layout – 5 reels and 3 rows – a Mega Moolah slot machine is visually uncomplicated. Featuring 25 paylines running left to right only, and a bonus round that comes complete with wild multipliers, it's a prototypical video slot in many ways.

Where it really breaks tradition is with its Mega Moolah jackpot bonus wheel. This bonus feature is triggered completely at random and allows players to win one of four progressive jackpots by spinning a wheel.

The game's theme and symbols draw heavily from the African savanna, with lions, elephants, giraffes and other wild animals joining the usual 10, J, Q, K and Ace. This is nothing new in 2020, but the game was one of the earliest to adopt a safari theme.

With low maximum bets and a low (but not necessarily the lowest on the market) minimum bet, most people who play are best described as low rollers. That might seem strange, given that it has such big prizes available, but it's just the way it is. If you want to wager hundreds of dollars on a single spin, it's not for you.

Actually, playing is as simple as selecting your bet level and the number of paylines you want to cover then hitting Spin. You don't need to do anything special to chase the game's big jackpots, as that feature is triggered automatically.

How to Win the Mega Moolah Jackpot

Beyond covering all of the game's paylines, there's not a whole lot you can do to improve your odds of winning when you play Mega Moolah. The jackpot wheel appears randomly, sometimes even after a losing spin, but it goes without saying that players who spin more often should hope to encounter it more regularly.

When it comes to winning symbols to watch out for, you'll want to keep your fingers crossed for bigger and beefier animals appearing. Wins involving monkeys, antelopes and zebras, for example, are much lower than those involving lions, elephants or buffalo. The giraffe is a bit of an outlier, sitting right in the middle.

Lions are always a particularly welcome sight during Mega Moolah real money play, since they offer a 2x multiplier for wins they're involved in and are worth the biggest standard jackpots. It's that jackpot wheel, which we'll talk more about below, that you really want to watch out for though.

RTP & Volatility in Mega Moolah Slot

In a casino game such as Mega Moolah, RTP (Return To Player) percentage refers to the amount of money that a theoretical player would get back over an infinite number of playing sessions.

This number will always be below 100% for slots, but that doesn't mean that every player ultimately loses on slots. In fact, the big wins associated with these games are what bring this figure down. Officially, the Mega Moolah RTP stands at 88.12%.

We should point out, however, that this doesn't take the game's progressive jackpots into account. When you factor these in, the game's RTP jumps to around 96%, which is roughly the average for most online slots.

If you're unfamiliar with the concept of volatility, you can think of a game's volatility as referring to the level of risk associated with it. For example, a game with high volatility is 'riskier' to play than a low volatility game. In general, games with a lower RTP% have higher volatility.

As expected, playing a Mega Moolah online slot has quite a high volatility when you take into account how rarely the game pays out its large progressive jackpots. Surprisingly, volatility during standard play is fairly low and you can expect quite a few wins. For most players, it's this and the lure of a huge payout that makes it worth sticking with the game.

How Does Mega Moolah Winnings Compare to Other Slot Games?

Mega Moolah holds two spots on the list of the top five biggest online slot jackpots ever paid out, and one of them is the number one spot. It's fair to say that the Mega Moolah slot is unparalleled when it comes to big payouts, with only NetEnt's Mega Fortune coming close to touching it.

Mega Moolah Mobile Slots

As potentially Microgaming's most popular title, it makes perfect sense that they would offer Mega Moolah for use on mobile devices like iPhone and Android handsets. Launched almost 15 years ago, the game has since been tinkered with by Microgaming to port it for use on smartphones and tablets.

The game's age is, in some ways, a huge blessing because it means that even older devices can run it comfortably and smoothly without any issues. Whether you're accessing Mega Moolah mobile through a casino app or responsive site, you'll still be eligible to play for the big progressive jackpots.

Mega Moolah Jackpot Bonus

Mega Moolah's standard bonus round, which features 15 free spins and a 3x multiplier, can actually be pretty lucrative. That might come as a surprise when you consider the enormity of its progressive jackpot offerings.

While a round of Mega Moolah free spins can't compare with the Mega Jackpot, we're sure you'll be more than happy to sit back and enjoy them.

If you're really lucky, you might find yourself faced with a random appearance of the Mega Moolah jackpot bonus wheel. Once you've composed yourself, spin the wheel to win a Mini, Minor, Major or Mega jackpot.

Starting at $10, $100, $10,000 and $1,000,000 respectively, there's no doubt that your fingers should be crossed for the Major or Mega jackpot. However, any one of them can help to pad your bankroll or give you a nice little payout.

Mega Moolah Free Play

In most reviews, this is where we would recommend that you try playing a Mega Moolah free online game before you start wagering real money. Unfortunately, we can't do that in this case because it's not possible to play Mega Moolah for free.

The reason behind this is that, because the game's jackpot is progressive, free players can not actively contribute to that jackpot, so are excluded. The good news, however, is that the game offers some very low minimum bets so you can take it for a spin without hurting your bankroll too much.

If you're really not confident playing for money straight away, in lieu of a Mega Moolah free online game, you could always check out other free online slots.

Other Mega Moolah Slots to Play Online

The African safari theme is one that might seem a bit tired in the online slots space, with lions and their friends appearing in various games released by assorted developers.

We should point out, however, that the Mega Moolah slot machine was among the first wave of casino games to use this theme. It's no understatement to say that the game was revolutionary when it was released.

Since then, the game has spawned numerous sequels with their own themes and twists on the gameplay of the original. Many of these, such as Mega Moolah Isis, have proven so popular that they've developed cult followings of their own.

Whether it's due to superstition or a love of the familiar, however, many players refuse to stray from the original game (and its enormous progressive jackpot) that started it all.

For whatever reason, there might be something about Mega Moolah that doesn't really work for you. If that's the case, you might like to try one of these instead.