A number of players have asked this since I’ve been in the slot community, but oddly the answer isn’t anywhere obvious that I’ve found, so I figured it’s a good place to address it here.
What’s the difference between Aristocrat’s Lightning Cash, and Lightning Link?
First off, it helps to understand why the question pops up. The games look nearly identical – same themes, same maker, and so on. Sometimes both types of games can appear in the same casino, so it’s also not market specific.
The reason for the difference is actually pretty straightforward. Lightning Link machines, by the nature of the name, have a linked Grand Progressive Jackpot across some number of machines in the casino. It could be one bank, or multiple banks.
That means that whenever a wager is made on any of the machines in the bank, that wager contributes to the linked Grand Progressive Jackpot.
Lightning Cash, on the other hand, is an unlinked machine. The Grand Progressive Jackpot is self-contained. In practice, that usually means the Grand starts at a lower number, as it only has one machine to push the wagers in and fuel the progressive, instead of a full bank.
This same scenario is why you may see different top prizes on the same game in different parts of the same casino – if a game is linked, and to how many machines, may help determine what sort of a top prize can become available.
Aside from that difference , the games are identical in design or function, so there’s no worries about one playing differently from another.
