How and Where to Play Mega Moolah Online

Microgaming launched the Mega Moolah progressive slot game in 2006. Since then, Mega Moolah has become one of the most recognized online slot machine games in history.

Several top-rated online casinos have Mega Moolah slots. Here are some of our favorites.

TonyBet logoIvibet logoHell Spin Casino logo
ReviewTonyBet ReviewIvibet ReviewHell Spin Casino Review
AvailabilityCanadaCanadaCanada + Australia
Welcome Bonus100% up to $1000100% up to $300100% up to $300
Deposit OptionsVisa, Mastercard, Discover, Neteller, Skrill, Bitcoin, +moreVisa, Mastercard, Interac, Paysafecard, Interac eTransfer, Bitcoin, +moreVisa, Mastercard, Neteller, Skrill, Neosurf, Bitcoin, +more
Minimum Deposit$15$20$15

Why is Mega Moolah one of the most famous online slot machines in the world? Because it holds the Guinness World Record for the highest online jackpot payout.

Everyone wants a chance to spin the Mega Moolah jackpot wheel, but the base game also offers plenty of opportunities to win.

We’ll tell you all about them in this Mega Moolah slot review. We’ll also explain how to play Mega Moolah, the features we love, and some alternatives to the game.

About the Mega Moolah Online Slot Game

Mega Moolah

The original Mega Moolah slot machine has an African safari theme. Today, there are dozens of games with an African safari theme, but Mega Moolah was the first.

Microgaming has recently released sister games with other themes that are still connected to the Mega Moolah progressive jackpots. We will introduce you to some of those later.

One thing that is so surprising about the Mega Moolah online slot machine is its simplicity. It is a straightforward slot machine game that doesn’t have any unnecessary frills.

The Mega Moolah slot game has five reels, three rows, and twenty-five pay lines. You can adjust the number of coins and how many pay lines you want to pay for.

But, Mega Moolah does not have 3D graphics or a gamble feature. The original version didn’t even have an auto-play feature, although that was added in a later version.

Mega Moolah Key Details
Software ProviderMicrogamingNumber of Reels5Number of Rows3Number of Pay Lines25Minimum Bet.01Maximum Bet6.25Coin Values0.01, 0.02, or 0.05Free Spins FeatureYes, with a 3x multiplierProgressive JackpotYesMaximum Payout for Base Game75,000 coinsRTP Without Jackpot88.12%RTP With Jackpot96%Mobile-FriendlyYes

Why the Mega Moolah Slot is So Popular

Despite its simplicity, Mega Moolah remains incredibly popular. The reason is that you can win life-changing jackpots without spending much money in the process.

The minimum bet is one coin per pay line, and you can choose the value of your coins from 0.01, 0.02, or 0.05. You can play up to five coins per pay line.

If you bet the maximum number of five coins, at the maximum value of 0.05, on all twenty-five pay lines, your overall bet would be 6.25 per spin.

Soldier Wins £13.2 Million with 25p

When John Heywood won his record-breaking jackpot in 2015, he had just signed up for an account on an online casino site with Mega Moolah 25 minutes before.

He was only betting one penny per pay line, for a total bet of twenty-five pence. Even though he played with such a small stake, he was still awarded the highest online slot payout yet!

Mega Moolah is not a game for high-rollers that want to spend $100 per spin.

That’s one of the reasons why we wanted to write this Mega Moolah slot machine review. It is a straightforward game that most gamblers can afford to play.

Now that you know a little bit about what makes this game unique, let’s look at how to play Mega Moolah.

How To Play Mega Moolah at Online Casinos

When you are ready to play, all you need to do is find a Mega Moolah online casino and make a deposit. Choose the number of coins and pay lines you want to play, and press spin! It can be as simple as that.

You may want to know about the different symbols, the paytable, and how to win a Mega Moolah jackpot before you start playing, though.

That way, you can pay attention to the symbols that will offer the highest payouts.

We provide all this information in our Mega Moolah review.

Mega Moolah Paytable

Mega Moolah paytable

The Mega Moolah online slot machine features animals that you might encounter on an African safari, such as a lion, monkey, zebra, and giraffe, as well as a less-recognizable kudu.

You can remember which symbols pay better by thinking of the animal’s size. The larger and tougher the animal, the larger the potential payout.

It also includes the ordinary ace through ten-card symbols as the lower-paying symbols.

Two symbols have built-in bonus features that you will want to know about. The lion acts as a wild that can be combined with other symbols. Any win that includes a lion also receives a 2x multiplier!

You can earn up to 75,000 coins (15,000 x 5 coins) for five lions in a row.

That amount is not as exciting as the life-changing jackpots that are also available. But, it is a significant win for the base game, especially considering the low-stakes you can bet to get it.

Scatter and Free Spins

Mega Moolah monkey symbol

The monkey symbol is the scatter symbol in Mega Moolah. It pays 2x-100x your stake when you get two or more anywhere on the reels.

If you are lucky enough to get three or more monkeys, it will automatically launch fifteen free spins with a 3x multiplier that applies to any winnings during the free spins.

During your free spins, you could get five lion symbols in a row. With the free spins multiplier, that would mean winning 225,000 coins!

You would have to be incredibly lucky to get three scatters and five lions. But there are 25 different paylines to shoot for, so it’s definitely a possibility.

Mega Moolah Jackpot Rules

The possibility of winning 225,000 coins is appealing. But that is nothing compared to the Mega jackpots that are available.

Mega Moolah slots have a built-in progressive jackpot that can be triggered during the base game. The jackpot wheel shows up entirely at random. You can even get a jackpot after a losing spin!

The Mega Moolah jackpot wheel.

If you are betting the max number of coins, you will have a better chance of getting to spin the wheel for the jackpot bonus. The wheel appears more often for players who bet the max number of coins. 

There are four possibilities on the Mega Moolah jackpot wheel, signified by colors and animal footprints. Your payout will depend on which section the jackpot wheel lands on. 

Each of the sections on the jackpot wheel has a minimum guaranteed payout.

  • Mini jackpots start at £10, and there are eight chances to win.
  • Minor jackpots have a minimum payout of £100, and there are four chances to win.
  • Major jackpots guarantee at least £10,000, but there are only two chances to win.
  • Mega jackpots are the most exciting, with a £1,000,000 minimum payout, but there is only one mega jackpot section on the wheel.

According to the progressive jackpot rules from Microgaming, all jackpots must be paid immediately in one lump sum. It doesn’t matter which top-rated Mega Moolah casino you join – you won’t have to worry about collecting your jackpot in installments.

Because Mega Moolah is a progressive slot, it takes a portion of each bet played to add to the jackpot. That includes thousands of different players from around the world.

The jackpots are always growing until someone happens to win. Because those mega jackpots are so rare, they can accumulate several million before someone wins.

Currency Exchange for Mega Moolah Jackpots

The worldwide popularity of Mega Moolah makes the progressive system a little complicated. Mega Moolah jackpots are based on GBP (British pounds).

But the game will display the jackpot amount in your local currency. If you win a jackpot, you will win the amount in your local currency as well.

For example, in April 2020, a Canadian player won C$16,469,347.95. In British pounds, that equaled £9,485,898.88

Mega Moolah payout conversion example (UK vs CA)

If the jackpot winner is in the UK, the jackpot will reset to its £1,000,000 guaranteed payout.

When the winner is paid out in a different currency, the amount leftover after converting the payout will be added to the next jackpot’s seed money.

Players in the UK do not have to pay taxes on their winnings. Microgaming will always pay out the full amount of the jackpot, but some payouts may be subject to tax laws in various countries.

No matter what country you live in, a Mega Moolah Mega Jackpot is always going to be a life-changing amount of money!

Mega Moolah Slot Game Variations

Mega Moolah slot variations

Because the Mega Moolah slot is such an impressively popular game, Microgaming decided to create multiple variations.

All of these games are connected to the same progressive jackpot network. So, you can play any of the new variations, and you have the potential of winning the same jackpot as if you were playing the original.

These Mega Moolah slot machine variations are fun because they have different themes and bonus features for the base game.

The African safari theme was original in 2006, but now there are dozens of other slots games with the same concept. Microgaming had to create new themes to keep players interested in playing Mega Moolah for real money.

When you want to play Mega Moolah, but you also want to experience something different, give one of these variations a try.

  • Mega Moolah Five-Reel Drive is a slot game based on a classic American diner, with symbols like hamburgers, French fries, and a piece of pie. It is the same as Mega Moolah, except that the scatter symbol has a 5x multiplier with only ten free spins.
  • Mega Moolah Isis is an Egyptian-themed game with mummies, the eye of Horus, and Cleopatra instead of the lion. This variation is unique because it has a gamble feature that lets you double, triple, or quadruple your winnings. It also offers 30 free spins with a 6x multiplier! These features make it a more exciting game for gamblers that are not afraid to take some risks.
  • Mega Moolah Summertime is a more simplified version of the game with only nine pay lines. It has a beachy theme, but the symbols are all classic fruit machine symbols instead of the ace through ten cards. You can also play a card-based mini-game to gamble your winnings.
  • Mega Moolah Atlantean Treasures is an underwater-themed slot machine with seahorse, starfish, and an anemone. The mermaid is the expanding wild symbol that will take over the reel and trigger a respin feature.
  • Mega Moolah Absolootly Mad is the newest Mega Moolah game. It was released in 2020 and has a fun Alice in Wonderland Mad Hatter theme. This game is different from earlier versions of Mega Moolah because it has 243 ways to win on the base game and features a cascading reels/respin feature.

Each of these variations has something unique to offer. They change the theme, the base game symbols, the base game’s bonus features, and the free spins options.

But, the jackpot wheel is the same for all Mega Moolah variations. It has the same prize network, the same guaranteed payouts, and the same number of sections for the mini, minor, major, and mega jackpots.

Microgaming has found a fun way to add some variation to one of their classic games while still offering the incredible jackpots that Mega Moolah is famous for.

Alternatives to Mega Moolah

Microgaming only allows casino sites in certain regulated markets to use its software.

If you live in countries where Microgaming casinos are not available, you have no way of winning the Mega Moolah jackpots.

You can’t even access the free demo games if your I.P. address is not in an approved country.

But there are some fun alternatives. Here are a few other progressive slot machine games you might want to try if you can’t access Mega Moolah online.

GameManufacturerThemeRTP
MegasaurRealTime GamingDinosaurs96%
Cleopatra’s GoldRealTime GamingAncient Egypt96.37%
Hall of GodsNetEntVikings/Norse Mythology95.3%

Largest Mega Moolah Jackpots

Mega Moolah is one of the only online slots that is a household name. That is because it is famous for paying out life-changing jackpots that make headlines around the world.

Here are a few of the largest Mega Moolah real money payouts.

WinnerAmountLocationTime & Date
John Orchard£5,883,044UKDecember 2012
Jon Heywood£13.2 MillionUKOctober 2015
Anonymous winnerNZ$10,144,395.82New ZealandJune 2016
Anonymous winnerCAD 3,688,145.24CanadaJanuary 2018
Anonymous winnerCAD 7,453,168.03CanadaFebruary 2018
Anonymous winnerGPP 4,365,843.63UKMarch 2018
Anonymous winnerUSD 5,691,921.42Canada siteApril 2018
Anonymous winnerGBP 1,778,226.80UKApril 2018
Anonymous winner$12.9 MillionUnknownMarch 2019
Anonymous winnerC$16,469,347.95CanadaApril 2020

Mega Moolah FAQ

Can I Play Mega Moolah on My Mobile Device?
AYes, you can play Mega Moolah on your smartphone or table. You can play Mega Moolah through a mobile casino site or through real money slots apps.
Can I Play Mega Moolah for Free?
AMicrogaming does not allow casino sites to offer a free version of Mega Moolah because of the progressive jackpot. You can access a demo version from Microgaming’s website, but that is only available for players in certain jurisdictions.
Can I Win the Mega Moolah Jackpot During the Free Spins Round?
AThe Mega Moolah jackpot bonus is only available during the base game. You cannot win a jackpot during a free spin because the game software prevents the bonus wheel from appearing during free spins.
Can I Win a Mega Moolah Jackpot With Bonus Funds?
AMicrogaming has strict rules that every progressive jackpot winner must be paid in full as soon as their jackpot gets approved. If you are playing Mega Moolah with bonus funds, you will win the full jackpot amount, regardless of wagering requirements and other terms and conditions.
What is the Best Mega Moolah Strategy?
AMega Moolah is a game of chance that is based on a random number generator (RNG). There is no way to predict when it will trigger the jackpot bonus. However, the best strategy is to bet the highest amount you can afford when you play Mega Moolah. The higher you bet per spin, the greater the chance of hitting the jackpot bonus. Just remember that it is never worth risking money you can’t afford to lose.