Mega Moolah (Microgaming): Overview

If you play online slots and still haven’t come across Mega Moolah, you’ve definitely missed a major title. This Microgaming release is among the developer’s most famous games, and arguably the best-known. A big part of that reputation comes from its four separate progressive jackpots, which have also produced some of the largest payouts ever seen. The concept of Mega Moolah drops you into an African safari setting across the plains. It’s also one of the older Microgaming slots, yet it continues to hold its place as a fan favorite and has created plenty of headline-making winners over the years.

Mega Moolah uses a classic video slot layout with 5 reels and 3 rows. Alongside this, you get 25 adjustable paylines, letting you choose how many lines you want active on each spin. With stakes ranging from 0.01 to €/$6.25 per spin, it includes a free spins round that comes with a triple multiplier. Still, that’s not what most players are here for—the randomly triggered bonus wheel is the real adrenaline kicker. One important warning, though: the RTP is extremely low at just 88.12%. Even with low variance, it can still steadily chip away at your bankroll.

Visually, Mega Moolah isn’t the flashiest slot around, but it’s worth remembering its release date—2006. Back then, the graphics were cutting-edge, and even now they don’t look terribly outdated. The reels include standard playing card symbols from 10 through A. After those, the safari animals appear: the impala, the zebra, the giraffe, the bison, and finally the elephant The elephant is the top regular payer, awarding 30 times your stake for five across a full payline. The lion acts as the wild, replacing all symbols except the scatter. It also doubles your payout when it helps form a winning line, and it pays 600 times your stake for landing five of a kind.

Mega Moolah (Microgaming): Features

Even though the jackpots are the main attraction in Mega Moolah, the Free Spins feature still offers decent upside. You can activate it by landing 3 or more of the shaman-like character anywhere on the screen, which awards 15 free spins. Any wins you hit during this bonus are also tripled. Another key point is that free spins can be triggered again while the feature is running. To make that happen, you must land 3 or more scatters while free spins is active.

Naturally, the Progressive Jackpots are the standout element and can’t be ignored. Unlike some progressive slots where you must land specific symbols to enter the jackpot round, that’s not how it works here. In Mega Moolah, the progressive jackpot bonus can randomly activate at any time during normal play. That said, the bigger your bet, the greater your chance of setting it off. When it does trigger, your only job is to spin the wheel that appears on the screen. The wheel can award the Mini, Minor, Major or Mega progressive jackpot, and the current amounts for each are shown above the reels.

Mega Moolah has delivered numerous progressive jackpot payouts to different players throughout its lifetime. As an example, the latest major win on the slot happened in May of 2019, when a player collected $5,543,986.99 from it. Before that, another player landed a massive CAD 8,162,217, and in March of 2019, a different gamer won $12,945,668 .

Mega Moolah (Microgaming): Verdict

There’s no question that a slot like Mega Moolah will stay hugely popular with players, despite its limitations and older presentation. The reason is simple: it has produced some of the biggest progressive jackpots in online gambling history. Still, it’s fair to say you’d be mad to play it for anything other than the jackpots. The RTP is dreadful and, while the free spins feature can pay as much as 1,800x, consistently finishing ahead is uncommon.

When you stack it up against other major progressives like Mega Fortune and Mega Fortune Dreams, you’re also far less likely to see the bonus wheel here. If it weren’t for the fact that it continues to hand out record-breaking jackpots, Mega Moolah would likely have faded away long ago.