RTP Slot Payout Percentages Explained
The return to player (RTP) ratio is the percentage of all money wagered on a slot game that is paid back out to players. The higher the RTP, the more often the slot pays out on average. So, if a game has an RTP of 96%, it will theoretically pay out 96% of all wagers over the course of its lifetime.
However, RTP is very rarely reflected in a typical play session. The average is calculated based on the wagers all players put into a game over hundreds of thousands to millions of spins. This means you can easily be winning back more or less than the RTP at any one time.
For this reason, it’s best to use the RTP as a rough indicator of how a slot will play out, and you shouldn’t be surprised if your actual returns are some way off.
Another way to think of RTP is in terms of the house edge, which refers to the advantage the casino has over the player in any casino game. This is a necessary feature if the casino is going to make a profit.
The house edge percentage is simply what’s leftover from the RTP, so the house edge for a 96% RTP slots game would be 4%.
RTP Rates: Slots vs Other Casino Games
Typical RTP rates for online slots are somewhere between 95-97%; the higher the figure, the more cash players can expect to win over time. But be careful before drawing conclusions as simple as this: RTP percentages are gathered by collating massive data sets, so don’t reflect what you might win in any individual gaming session.
Standard RTP rates of slots are a little lower than other casino games. A single deck version of blackjack, for example, has the highest RTP of all casino games at 99.75%. This figure decreases with every extra deck that comes into circulation, since with more cards in play, it becomes harder to hit a blackjack.
When it comes to roulette, RTP rates alter with each variant. European roulette, with just the single zero pocket, has an RTP of 97.3%. American roulette, with its additional double zero pocket, has a smaller RTP of 94.74%, which is below most online slots. French roulette, with its player-friendly rules, has the best RTP of the classic variants: 98.65%.