Slot RTP Explained

Anyone who plays at online casinos has at least once come across or heard the abbreviation RTP. If not in that exact spelling, then every slot fan definitely knows about a machine’s “return percentage”. Essentially, it’s a simple mathematical indicator of the theoretical return to the player from lost money. But despite that, a lot of myths circulate about RTP, which creates even more misconceptions. So let’s sort it out.

🔧🎰 How does RTP really work?

Theoretically, if the RTP is 98% then after 100 bets of 1 ruble the player gets 98 rubles back as winnings. 🧐 Sounds good, but in practice it’s completely different! 😕

Practically every player will confidently 📑 state that while playing a 🎰 slot you can make a large number of 🔄 spins and the balance will only 📉decrease. And here RTP might be no more than 30%, even though the developer may claim 96%.

Right now we can confidently say that  the calculated number of spins is more than a million!  Although, of course, we can’t confirm that with hard evidence. ❗ BUT using 💪 accumulated playing experience, 🔢 basic math and 🔤 plain logic, this claim is more than ✔ realistic.

🎰 RTP in a real example

So! It’s obvious that RTP in a slot over a short period will not always match the manufacturer’s declared value.

As an example, let’s run a simple experiment: make 100 spins of 10 rubles in the game Starburst. Repeat the experiment five times. As a result our RTP will range from 68 to 110%. The company NetEnt (the slot’s developer) guarantees a return of 96.1%.

The logical question:  How can this be? Why can RTP be lower and even higher?! 

Exactly because of what we said earlier: the number of calculated spins is several million. And during the whole “distance” the figure will fluctuate. But in the end it will equal the stated value.

Let’s explain ❔ why RTP can be higher or lower ❔.

At the same time several hundred or even thousands of players from all over the world play the same slot. So someone loses and someone wins.

Consider a VERY rough and simplified example:

As you can see, if you scale this example globally,  RTP can reach 140% . These numbers are confirmed by casino operators themselves, who can view statistics for every slot.

Conclusion: RTP is a variable figure that constantly trends toward its declared value.

☝ Which RTP is best when choosing a slot in an online casino?

There’s no definitive answer 🤔. Any game at any moment can significantly 🔼 exceed the developer’s RTP or significantly 🔽 fall below it. For example, a player made just 🔂 one spin in the video slot Rise of Olympus (company Play’n GO, RTP 96.5%) and got a 🏆 win worth more than 350 times his stake. If you focus on that case, the RTP looks off the charts.

Conclusion: RTP shows the player their approximate chances of winning. Of course, the higher the value, the more “stable” the gameplay tends to be. So with RTP at 98% a slot can more confidently hold the balance. But that’s all in the 📔 theory. In practice everything is very 💰🔀👦🏻 unpredictable. Sometimes you do a couple of spins and hit a 🎆 huge win, other times you make hundreds of spins in the same game and 🕸️ lose.