The four jackpots at a glance
| Jackpot | What it is | What's confirmed |
|---|---|---|
| Grand | The top prize, shared by a bank of machines. Won by filling all 15 spots in Hold & Spin. | Aristocrat: “a linked progressive”. Venue start-ups from $10,000. |
| Major | The biggest prize an orb can carry; climbs as the machine is played. | Shown with cents ($500.01) on the Autumn Moon screen, the mark of a progressive. |
| Minor | A mid-sized prize on an orb. | $50.00 on the Autumn Moon screen at a 50c bet. |
| Mini | The smallest jackpot on an orb. | $10.00 on the same screen. |
The regulator's view matches. The ACT approved every Dragon Link title as "1 Link + 1 iSAP": one linked progressive shared across machines, and one progressive inside the machine itself. Aristocrat puts it this way: "Dragon Link's grand jackpot is a linked progressive, while standalone jackpots give players a chance to win smaller-sized progressives more quickly and more often."
How a jackpot is actually won
Jackpots on Dragon Link come out of Hold & Spin. Aristocrat describes the feature as one "with the opportunity to collect credit prizes, bonus prizes and Jackpots". During the respins, orbs land and lock; some carry a credit amount, some are labelled MINI, MINOR or MAJOR. When the respins run out, each orb pays what's on it.
The Grand works differently. It isn't printed on an orb. By player and review accounts, you win it by filling every one of the 15 spots before the respins run out — at which point the feature ends and the Grand is paid on top of the orbs. Aristocrat doesn't publish those counts online, which is why the help screen on the machine is worth a minute of your time.
How to win the Major — the honest version
It's the most-asked Dragon Link question, and the answer is short: you win the Major by landing a Major orb during Hold & Spin. That's all a player can do.
Nothing you do changes how often that orb appears. Not the time of day, not how long since the last Major, not stopping the reels, not changing machines. The random number generator decides each spin when you press the button. One thing is worth checking before you play, though: how the machine ties the jackpots to your bet. Aristocrat doesn't publish it, and descriptions online disagree, so we won't guess — the help screen of each machine sets it out. More on what your bet does and doesn't change is on the strategy page.
What venues set the Grand at
The Grand's start-up is a setting, chosen from the jackpot settings the regulator approved. A few venues publish theirs:
- Club Burleigh (Gold Coast): starts at $10,000 and reaches a maximum of $23,500, shared by 20 machines.
- Eagle Tavern (Eagleby): $20,000 to $33,500, across 13 machines.
- Transcontinental Hotel (Brisbane City): a $20,000 start-up.
- Lasseters (Alice Springs): two Dragon Link meters on its website on 29 September 2026 — "Dragon Link XS 2" at $62,026.30 and "Dragon Link Q $20K" at $22,550.20.
A range like Club Burleigh's means that Grand won't climb past $23,500. Casinos run larger links: The Star Gold Coast's archived Dragon Link Zone advertised a $50,000 Grand on the main floor and $100,000 in its high-limit area.
The biggest Dragon Link wins on record here
The Star Sydney publishes a monthly table of its Dragon Link jackpots. In July 2026 they paid $1,722,813.19 across ten wins in three gaming areas; the largest was $1,132,012.64 on 22 July, on a link its table calls "Dragon Link SAS SR 1M". That's a casino high-limit product, not the machine in the corner of your local.
Overseas, Aristocrat has built Dragon Link links far bigger than any club's: a high-volatility version in 2020 with jackpots of $50,000 to $500,000 and denominations up to $25, a $2 Million Dragon Link in 2024, and in 2026 a $1 Million Dragon Link with a $5 minimum and $1,000 maximum bet. Those are US dollars and US casinos.
The odds nobody publishes
Aristocrat doesn't publish the chance of any jackpot, and neither do the regulators' approval documents or the venues. Any page that gives you "1 in N" for the Grand is guessing. What is published is the minimum return a machine must pay over time — 85% to 90% depending on the state — and that's an average across the whole game, jackpots included, over a very long run.
Tax on a jackpot
Recreational gambling winnings aren't taxed in Australia (ATO ruling IT 2655), so a Grand you win at the club is yours. The exception is a person who gambles as a business, which the ATO treats differently.
