Return to player (RTP) is very important in regard to the long-term chances of winning with slots. RTP (a.k.a. payback) refers to how much slot machines are programmed to pay out in the long run.
Best Rtp Slot Machines In Vegas
NetEnt ’s Mega Joker has an RTP of 98.90%, closely followed by its Jackpot 6000 with an RTP of 98.75%. These two are the best paying slot machines you can find in NetEnt’s offer. Other slots with a higher payout are Monopoly Big Event and Ohh Ahh Dracula, with 99%. The best paying slot machines in Nevada are found on the Boulder Strip, with Off-Strip casinos in Las Vegas coming in a close second. Not surprisingly, the penny slots are the worst of all. The best paying slots are the ones that feature a high RTP because that translates to a small house edge such as NetEnt’s Jack Hammer 2 slot or Simsalabim, with a return to player percentage of over 97%. ✍ How do I choose a good slot machine? The classic Slot Jackpot 6000 from NetEnt is not only by far the most popular slot in Norway, but can also impress us with an RTP that still scratches at 99%. Jackpot 6000 is the classic online slot machine with 3 reels and 3 rows of symbols. In this game there are 5 fixed paylines. However, savvy gamblers are drawn towards the slots with the highest RTP. Let’s take a look at slots with the lowest house edge, highest RTP, and best payout machines. Source: parxcasino.com. RTP or Return-to-player percentage is the average amount that the player stands to win compared to the amount player put in.
Higher payback means that a game gives you a stronger chance of winning. Therefore, you’ll do well to know the RTP behind any game that you play.
You’ll discover that it’s really easy to find payout percentages for online slot machine games. A simple Google search will produce the RTP for most internet games.
Unfortunately, you’ll have a much tougher time figuring out the RTP of land-based machines. In fact, this information is rarely available.
Is there still a way for you to determine payout percentages for slot machines in brick-and-mortar casinos? I’ll answer this question by covering more on the difficulties of finding RTP for land-based slots and if it’s ultimately possible.
Why Isn’t RTP Available for Land-Based Slots?
Unlike with many online slots, you can’t just find the RTP for land-based slot machines through Google. Your efforts will turn up little to no results.
The problem with slots in brick-and-mortar casinos is that they don’t have uniform payback across every casino. Instead, game developers allow casinos to select payout percentages based on a list of options.
Here’s an example on how this works:
- WMS is offering Monopoly Party Train slot to Vegas casinos.
- They feature the following RTP options: 92.5%, 93.5%, and 94.5%.
- Caesars Palace orders this game at 93.5% payback.
- The Venetian orders Monopoly Party Train at 92.5% RTP.
- Treasure Island orders this slot at 94.5% RTP.
You can see the obvious challenge in trying to provide payback numbers for such games. A website could list Monopoly Party Train at 93.5% RTP, which is middle ground.
Most online slot providers differ because they offer their games at a uniform RTP across every casino. For example, Rival Gaming will feature Spy Game with 95.1% payback at each online casino it serves.
Some exceptions do exist in the online gambling world. RealTime Gaming (RTG), for instance, allows its casino clients to choose 91.5%, 95%, or 97.5% RTP for a given game.
You can’t find payout percentages for RTG games either. Nevertheless, you can still learn the payback for the vast majority of internet slots.
How Can You Figure Out the RTP?
You won’t be able to find the exact payout percentages for most land-based slot machines. But you can at least get a good idea on the matter through a few different methods. Here are some ways to learn the RTP for brick-and-mortar casino slots.
Make General Guesses Based on Coin Denominations
Casinos like to reward gamblers who are willing to risk more money per bet. Therefore, they order higher RTP for games with larger coin denominations.
Here’s an example on how this works:
- Penny slot machines = 88% to 90% RTP
- Nickel slot machines = 91% to 94% RTP
- Quarter slot machines = 93% to 95% RTP
- Dollar slot machines = 94% to 96% RTP
- $5 slot machines = 95% to 97% RTP
Penny slot machines are almost always the worst games with regard to payout percentages. Larger denominations ranging from a nickel to $5 are all closer in terms of payback.
Your theoretical losses will be higher on nickel games and up just because you’re betting more per spin. Nevertheless, you can still get more value per dollar wagered with the higher-denomination machines.
Read State Gaming Reports
Rather than making generalizations about coin sizes, you can always check out state gaming reports. These reports show the average payout percentages (or house edges) for each coin denomination within a given state’s casinos.
For example, you might look at a Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC) release and see that dollar slot machines are offering 94.79% RTP on average.
Interestingly enough, the NGC reports specific payout information for Megabucks. This IGT product is the most popular slot in all the popular Las Vegas casinos and warrants more detailed info.
Best Rtp Slot Machine
You won’t find the exact payout percentage for an individual game, but you’ll at least have a better guideline with these reports.
Email a Casino and Ask
One more option involves emailing a casino directly and asking them about their RTP for a specific slot machine.
The problem here is that customer service will often state that they don’t have this information available. But in certain cases, you may actually receive a real answer.
You shouldn’t count on this method majority of the time. It’s at least worth trying, though, if you’re desperate to find out the RTP for certain slots.
What to Avoid When Searching for Land-Based Slots Payback
You can see that there are a few different options for determining the payback for land-based slot machines. But there are also measures that you want to avoid on your payback-finding quest, including the following.
Relying on Signs Inside of Casinos
Many casinos hang signs above a bank of slot machines that will read something like, “Pays up to 99%.”
These signs are very effective at drawing players to slot machines. After all, who wouldn’t want to play a slot that only has a 1% house edge?
Unfortunately, these signs are also very misleading. Only one of the machines within the section has to offer 99% RTP.
The rest could pay as low as 90% RTP and still make the sign valid. Therefore, you can’t rely on much information that the casino supplies you with.
Using One Good Session to Determine Quality Payback
Slots are extremely volatile games that may pay a lot one session, then offer very few prizes for the next five sessions. Therefore, you can never use any single outing to judge how a game pays.
Many gamblers still make this very mistake. They’ll have one hot session with a game and believe that it offers a high payout percentage.
It would be great if finding RTP for land-based slot machines was really this simple. The reality, though, is that it’s anything but.
Blindly Believing Ads for the “Loosest Slots”
I’ve seen plenty of ads for loose slot machines when driving on the interstate. These billboards suggest that a given casino features slots with high RTP or frequent payouts.
However, “loose” is a broad term that doesn’t really mean anything. State gaming laws don’t put parameters on what constitutes a loose game.
Casinos can make this claim, regardless of whether it’s true or not. That said, you should take any such advertisement with a grain of salt.
Conclusion
You may think negatively about land-based casinos upon being unable to find RTP for their slots. After all, you don’t have to spend much time at all finding payback for online slots.
However, providers are the ones who choose whether to or not to release payout percentages. They can’t accurately do this with slot machines at brick and mortar casinos, because providers feature different RTP options.
One casino may order a slot at 93% payback, while the next orders it at 95% RTP. Developers are therefore unable to offer a uniform payout percentage for each slot.
The good news, though, is that you don’t have to give up hope. Instead, you have a few options for finding general RTP figures.
The easiest method is to make generalizations based on coin denominations. Simply put, the higher coin denominations usually offer better payback.
You can also read state gaming reports. These releases show the average amount that each coin denomination pays out within a given state’s gambling venues.
Finally, you can always email a casino directly and ask about a specific game. You won’t get the desired answer most of the time, but it’s worth trying.
In summary, finding the RTP for an individual land-based slot is impossible in most cases. But you’ll still have a general idea on how much these slots pay by following the previously covered tips.
Return to player (RTP) provides an indication on how much money you’ll win over time with a given slot. You stand a better chance of winning by continually playing slots with high payout percentages.
Unfortunately, the RTP isn’t always so transparent with online slots. In some cases, it can be downright deceiving and cause you to face lower payback than what you’re expecting.
The following post discusses three different times when payout percentages can be tricky. It also covers other stats that you should think about when choosing a slot.
1 – When the Operator Has Options
Some online slots developers offer uniform payout percentages for their games. If you’re playing Rival Gaming’sDiamond Temple, then the RTP will be the same no matter which casino you choose.
Certain other developers, meanwhile, give casino operators the ability to pick from multiple RTP options. Play’n GO, for instance, usually features options ranging from 96.3% to 94.1%.
Another example is Real Time Gaming, which offers options of 97.5%, 95%, and 91% RTP. Real-time doesn’t even list payback in its info screens because of these multiple options.
You may be misled when searching for a game’s RTP and expecting the listed percentage. If you look up Betsoft’s Greedy Goblins and see 97.2%, for example, then this is the payback that you’re expecting.
If you choose Play’n GO’s Book of Dead at two different casinos, for instance, then you should visit the info section each time. This way, you won’t get duped if one casino operator picks a lower payout percentage.
2 – When Feature Buy Changes RTP
Feature buy allows you to trigger a bonus (usually free spins) immediately. For example, you might have to spend 100x your stake to get three triggering scatter symbols on the next spin.
This option is great for when you don’t feel like waiting around for the bonus to occur naturally. After all, some slots only offer the bonus on one out of every 300 spins on average.
Of course, bonus buy is an expensive choice that requires heavy consideration before using. It also normally changes the RTP.
The good news is that feature buys usually increase the payback. After all, many bonuses have lucrative modifiers that boost your payouts.
However, I’ve seen instances where bonus buy lowers the payback. For instance, this option might drop the payout percentage from 96.5% to 96.2%.
Why a developer would punish you for spending so much to trigger free spins, I don’t know. But this scenario does happen, which is why you should carefully scrutinize the info section before buying a feature.
3 – When the Volatility Rating Is Off the Charts
High Paying Slot Machines
You might find a slot with 98% RTP or higher and think that you’ve got a great chance of winning. However, you also need to take the volatility into account.
A game with a 9/10 or 10/10 volatility rating will feature wild short-term results. Furthermore, the payouts you receive probably won’t be anywhere close to the stated RTP—for better or worse.
If you play the same game for millions of spins, then your winnings will fall somewhere in the neighborhood of the given payback. However, you’re highly unlikely to play any single game for this long.
Your results for any given session are rarely going to reflect the stated payout percentage. However, the results will be even more skewed when the volatility is crazy.
Why Knowing the RTP Is Crucial
You may not obsess over payback when playing online slots. However, you should at least make it a point to learn payout percentages for the following reasons.
Know Your Long Term Chances of Winning
If you’re a non-gambler who only plays slots once in an eon, you don’t really need to consider RTP too much. Again, the payout percentage isn’t going to have a huge impact on your winnings for one or two sessions.
Assuming you’re somebody who frequently plays slots, though, then you can look forward to more winnings over time with high RTP.
That said, it pays to know the payout percentages. By knowing this information, you can continually choose games that pay more.
Avoid Getting Ripped Off
A half percent here or there won’t make or break your slots session. For example, you probably won’t freak out if the RTP is 96.3% versus the 96.5% you’re expecting.
However, you certainly don’t want to walk into a situation where you feel ripped off. If you believe that you’re playing a game with 96.5% payback and are actually on one with 94% RTP, then you’ll feel slighted.
Studying payout percentages is the easiest way to dodge this scenario. You may not always choose games with 97% or 98% payback. But you’ll least avoid the ones with 94% RTP or less, thanks to research.
Plan Your Bankroll Accordingly
Bankroll management helps in a variety of ways when gambling. First off, it sets forth a clear plan so that you’re less apt to risk too much money.
You can go through your finances and figure out what kind of funds are available to gamble with. If you determine this amount to be $300, then you’re less likely to risk any more than this.
The next step involves breaking your bankroll down into units so that you have an easy way to keep track of your funds. Here’s an example on doing so:
- You have $150 for an online slots bankroll
- You spend $0.50 on average per spin
- 150 / 0.5 = 300
- You have 300 units for your bankroll
You might also set a stop-loss limit, at which point you’ll quit a session after losing so many units. If your stop loss was 60 units in the example above, then you’d be guaranteed at least five sessions (300 / 60).
Other Important Stats Behind Online Slots
While RTP is incredibly important to slots success, it’s not the only stat that you should consider. Here are some other numbers to think about when playing mobile slot machines.
Volatility
As covered earlier, volatility has a large impact on your short-term winnings. If you’re dealing with a small bankroll, then you want to pay special attention to this factor. Low or mid volatility improves your chances of lasting longer with a small bankroll.
Hit Rate
Hit frequency is closely correlated with volatility. It determines the probability of you scoring at least one payout in a given spin.
Slots with a 30% hit rate, for example, will see you win on three out of every ten spins on average. Many slots feature a hit rate ranging from 25% to 35%. However, some games go above or below this range.
Bonus Frequency
The bonus frequency determines how often you’ll see the bonus round. In the best-case scenario, a game will deliver the bonus on one out of every 50 spins.
Other games are much stingier in this regard. The worst offenders may only offer free spins—or whatever the bonus may be—on one out of every 400 rounds.
Again, some developers provide feature buy. You might consider exercising this option sometimes if you get tired of the main game. Be careful, though, because it costs quite a bit to use.
Conclusion
Online slots RTP is usually as it appears on the help screen. As discussed throughout this post, though, the stated payback can change for one reason or another.
Varying RTP options and feature buys alter payout percentages. Meanwhile, extreme volatility can make a slot feel like it has a different RTP than what’s listed.
Provided you know the factors that affect payback, then you can check to ensure that you’re indeed dealing with the stated RTP.
When playing online slots, you should focus on games with at least 96% RTP. Anything lower than this is unfair according to industry standards.