What Is RTP and Why Is It Important?

What Is RTP

If you’re looking for RTP live slot games, there are plenty to choose from. But if you’re a beginner looking to find out what RTP actually means and why it’s important to your gambling game, this article will answer your questions.

What is RTP?

RTP refers to the Return to Player percentage, or, the average amount that you can expect a machine to pay out per play. As such, the RTP of a game will tell you the likelihood of winning at a slot. It’s typically calculated as a percentage or ratio, and you should be able to locate the RTP for any slot machine on the paytable. 

Each slot that you play will have its own RTP, and every casino will also have a different RTP for all of the games it offers. You can gauge the trustworthiness of an online or land-based casinos by the frequency and clarity with which they post their RTPs. Sites and institutions which are transparent about the RTP are best to go for, as they’re likely to have a higher integrity, which makes it easier for you, the player, to calculate your chance of winning over time.

Whilst you may enjoy hitting the slots in locations like Vegas, online slot machines tend to offer the best RTP, because they don’t have to account for the overheads of a brick-and-mortar casino.

Why is RTP important for players?

If you’re a keen player, the RTP is vital, as it will improve your chance of winning. As a general rule, you can expect that a higher RTP translates to a higher chance of winning. An RTP of 95% is generally considered the best average.

That said, you need to remember that this number is calculated as an average over anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 games (depending on the type of slot machine you’re playing and whether it’s a random machine or compensated machine). The UK Government’s Gambling Commission defines the percentage RTP as ‘an average achieved over a significant number of game plays and not each time the gaming machine is player’. What this means in real terms is that the RTP tells you the percentage of bets that you can expect to win back from the specific slot you’re playing on. 

For example, if you put in £1 to a machine with a 90% RTP, you will not necessarily receive 90p in return, because the 90% RTP rate has been calculated over thousands of plays. Money lost by one player will go towards another player’s win, as generated by the slot machine’s random number generator.

In fact, some casino games with higher RTP percentages could have fewer payouts than those with lower RTP percentages. You have to play for a seriously lengthy period (and put in a lot of money) in order to gauge the true RTP. 

Although this may sound like a drawback, people tend to play at slot machines for the thrill of it. If that’s taken away, the overall excitement and fun of the experience is tarnished. 

That said, if you’re in the slot machine game for the long haul, a general formula that’s used to calculate the RTP of a game is the amount of money returned to players divided by the amount of money gambled by players. If you’re playing complicated card games like blackjack or poker, this requires serious math skills – but it’s easier for slot games. 

Now that you understand more about RTP and how it works, go forth and enjoy slots to your heart’s content.