Guide – Return to Player (RTP)

When deciding which casino games they would like to play, players are often swayed by a game’s reputation, imaginative themes and artwork, bonus features and overall entertainment level.

While making sure the games you play are exciting and fun should always be one of your priorities, if you want to maximize your chances of winning there is one very important factor you will also want to take into account: The game’s Return to Player (RTP) percentage.

One of the features most often overlooked by players, casino payout percentages are one of the most determining factors on whether you will come out ahead or leave the game empty handed.

What Does RTP (Return to Player) Mean

Casino payout percentages are the measure of how much return you should realistically expect from any given game in the long run. With every single casino game having its own dynamics, rules, and features, reviewing the RTP of games can help you see right away which games should pay you out the most, and based on that you should pick the best paying online casinos.

For example, on a video slot with an RTP of 97% you can expect that for every 100 coins you put in, the machine should pay you out an average of 97 coins back in the long run. Since casino games are random and offer plenty of variance, a high return rate like this one will give you plenty of chances of coming out ahead.

While on games like Blackjack or Video Poker RTP will depend on you playing with optimal strategy, on games where your only decisions are how much to bet – such as video slots – the RTP will remain constant throughout.

How RTP is calculated

A game’s return-to-player (RTP) is a built in amount that has been programmed by the game developer, giving back to the player the stipulated percentage of the total amount of money which goes into it.

The RTP is calculated by adding up the total amount a game pays out to players over a certain amount of rounds, and dividing that sum by the total amount of action. The resulting number will tell you what percentage of the amount you invest in the game you should expect the game to pay back on average.

The more paylines and bonus features a game contains, the harder it will be to calculate a game’s RTP, as these factors greatly increase a game’s volatility. However, over a long enough period of time, the correct RTP percentage should become evident.

With this in mind, RTP is generally calculated over a minimum of 1 million hands/spins – with it often calculated using ever higher amounts – in order to ensure its accuracy and take variance out of the equation.

RTP for common casino games

Game	RTP
Aces and Faces Video Poker	99.26%
American Roulette	94.74%
European Roulette	97.30%
Baccarat	98.99%
Blackjack	99.54%
Blood Suckers Slot	98%
Jacks or Better Video Poker	99.54%
Jurassic Park Slot	96.67%
Three Card Poker	98.24%

How will I know the payouts are fair in online casinos?

Casino game developers will advertise what a game’s RTP is on the game notes, and many casinos will also make sure to pass that information along to their players.

But how can you be sure that every game pays what it is promising?

If you are playing at an unlicensed casino, the answer is you can’t. However, if you choose an online casino licensed by a trusted gambling jurisdiction, you can rest assured that every game is functioning exactly as advertised.

Licensed online casinos must publish their monthly average and per game pay out in their site percentage in order to continue to operate. These numbers are then certified routinely by reliable independent auditors like eCOGRA, Price Waterhouse Coopers, iTech Labs, and others, ensuring the RTP numbers are accurate at all times.

For this reason and many, many more, gamblers-united only recommends that you play at reputable licensed casinos, as it’s the only way to guarantee you are treated fairly at all times.

Last Updated: March 27, 2021