If you’re serious about gambling online, particularly playing online slots, then there is a lot that you need to understand about the games that you play. We’re not just talking about the features here. We’re talking about the stats behind the game. The stats that determine whether you win or not. There are two main stats – volatility and return to player (RTP). We’re going to focus on the latter. This is a guide to knowing exactly what RTP means when using online casinos.

What is RTP?

Return to Player, or RTP for short, does pretty much what it says on the tin. It is an indicator of how much cash gambled on a machine goes into a player’s pocket, and how much is given to the house.

So, for example, if you’ve got a slot machine with an RTP of 96%, it means that for every £100 gambled on that slot, 96% is returned to the players, and 4% is given to the house. The 4% represents the ‘house edge’ i.e. the profit that the online casino and the game developer make each time you play their game.

It is important to understand what the RTP of an online casino game is because it indicates what the likelihood of you winning that game is. The higher the RTP, the more chance you have of getting some of your cash back when you play. Although, other factors impact the payout rates of an online casino game. We’ll discuss that part in a short while.

Working Out the RTP

Luckily, this will be dead simple. You don’t need to work out the RTP yourself. In the vast majority of gambling jurisdictions, online casinos are legally obligated to display the RTP, or the house edge, for their games. It will often be displayed prominently on any game that you play. If you can’t find the RTP, then any decent online casino review website will tell you what the RTP is.

We want to take this time to point out that RTP can vary between online casinos, although this is rarer nowadays. Some online casino games (notably slot machines) have a modifiable RTP, and the online casino is free to select what the RTP is from a few options. This means that certain games may vary slightly by 1-2% RTP when you gamble. Although, as we said, this is very rare nowadays. The vast majority of games, at least from the top casino game developers, will have the same RTP no matter where you choose to gamble.

Is High RTP Always a Good Thing?

Most of the time, yes. If you browse through a list of the best RTP slots, then chances are you’ll be browsing through a list of games that pay out the most frequently i.e. the ones where you’re much more likely to win on each spin of the reel. If you’re playing a standard casino game, then the RTP will tell you the same thing there too, this means the chances you’ll win on each deal/play. However, the RTP won’t quite tell the whole story.

The RTP, as we said, indicates how much cash a game returns to the player. But it doesn’t state how much a particular player gets back. For example, you could be playing a slot machine with an RTP of 99.9%. To most people, this would mean that for every £100 you gamble, you get £99.90 back. That’s not the case. Yes. The game does give back £99.90 per £100 gambled, but not to the same player. It will be spread out among players. For example, let’s say 2 people gambled £200 on a 99.9% RTP slot. Statistically, £199.80 of that would be returned to the players. But, one person could win $199.80, and the other person could win nothing. So, don’t just look at that RTP and expect to be given loads of your cash back. It rarely works like that. Instead, use it as a guide.

There is one more metric that goes alongside RTP when playing slots, but it is hidden. That leads us neatly to the next section.

RTP Isn’t the ‘Be-All and End-All’ Stat

There is a ‘hidden’ stat on slot machines. Unlike RTP, casino game developers are not required to share this stat. So, most people will read through casino game reviews to understand the stat or, after a bit of experience, work it out themselves. This is known as volatility.

Volatility is, essentially, the frequency and size of the winnings that a game pays out. So, if you have a game that is ‘low volatility’, it means that you’ll get loads of very small wins from the slot machine. They might come every spin or two, but you will rarely get the big mind-blowing numbers from your wins. Instead, these games allow you to stretch your bankroll a little bit further. A high volatility slot, for instance, may give you massive wins, but they won’t come in with a great deal of frequency. So, unless you’ve got a massive bankroll, you probably won’t see any cash from a high volatility slot, even if the RTP is high. A medium volatility slot sits somewhere in the middle of things.

So, always look at the slot volatility and weigh it up against the RTP of a game. A low volatility slot with an RTP of 95% will likely pay out more frequently than a high volatility slot with an RTP of 99%, you’ll just ‘enjoy’ smaller wins.

Final Thoughts

RTP is an important metric when playing online casino games, particularly slots. The RTP indicates both the house edge for a game, plus how much the game pays back to the players. Generally speaking, the higher the house edge, the better it is for players. However, you will likely need to look into hidden metrics, such as volatility, to know how often you can expect to win from your selected slot.