“Payout percentage” is also called “return-to-player” (RTP). It’s the average amount that players get back in the form of winnings compared to how much they wagered. It’s represented as a percentage and calculated from gameplay over a long time, with 100 being an even-money game and having no house edge.
Essentially, RTP is the opposite calculation to “house edge,” a casino’s mathematical advantage. In other words, slots with higher RTP (usually between 97% to 99.5%) lower the house edge, which then increases your winning odds.
The question is: how to find slots with high RTP%? We’ve got you covered! Here are some tips for finding payout slot machines.
Method #1: Navigate The Casino’s Website
One of the best features of online casinos is that they have websites. Unlike land-based casinos, you don’t have to roam around the establishment and ask other people where the payout slot machines are. Online casino websites literally scream, “The RTPs are over here!”
Site’s Footer
RTPs are usually on a list in a casino website’s footer, next to the other informational pages. Finding them might confuse others since almost all sites may have a different term for their RTP listings.
For example, RTP listings may go by the names:
● RTP
● Return to player
● Game payouts
● System fairness
On a positive note, most RTP lists display the same information: extensive lists with all the slots available on the site, usually with their payout percentages. Try to look for these details when scanning for the RTPs on a site.
Hidden Links
If RTP lists are really hard to find, they might be within other sections. Consider checking an online casino’s fair general terms and conditions or gaming and bonus policy parts. Try finding suitable contexts involving games, bonuses, and fairness to find the link more easily.
Game’s Specifications
In most jurisdictions, any licensed casino is required by law to display their games’ RTP publicly. For example, in the United Kingdom (UK), the United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC) mandates their licensed casinos to publicize their games’ RTP% somewhere on their websites.
While most casinos follow this rule, others don’t list their games’ RTPs. If this is the case, instead of finding RTPs in a list, look for them separately. RTPs of a specific game are usually found in the following:
1. Within the info tab/infobox – looks like a small icon on a game’s tab that contains a game’s RTP and other helpful information like the number of reels and paylines or the minimum/maximum bets; and
2. Inside the game session – usually found in the ‘Help’ or ‘Rules’ buttons located inside the session. Note that it may take a lot of scrolls through a few sections to find them.
Method #2: Consult Third-Party Organisations/Websites
Other countries have strict online gambling regulations. For example, some won’t allow customers to access a game without creating an account and verifying it first. If this may sound too much for you, consider consulting other organizations and websites online first.
Many reports, statistics, and sites from reliable gaming jurisdictions and relevant gambling-focused websites are available over the Internet. Several casino news websites, whose niches are online casino games, have entire sections dedicated to the RTP% of the online slot games they review.
Above all, the easiest way is to perform a quick Google search. Simply enter “[SLOT GAME]+RTP” on the search bar of Google (or your desired search engine). Then, with just a blink of an eye, thousands of results, including online gambling pages and mentions of the game’s RTP you’ve inputted, will show up.
Method 3: Calculate It Yourself
If there are no other ways of finding a game’s RTP (which is close to impossible), the last resort could be to calculate it based on your own gameplay by yourself. In calculating a theoretical RTP, you must consider the following factors first:
● A standard value for each spin;
● A chosen number of spins per hour;
● Set playing time;
● Set budget; and
● Monitored total winnings.
Let’s say you decided to have 500 spins per hour, where each spin has a standard cost of $.25. This means you’re betting around $125 per hour. If you plan to play for five hours, you’ll likely spend around $640. At the end of your gameplay, your yields equal $575, which means your average loss is $13 per hour.
To calculate the RTP, simply divide the total amount returned to players (or your winnings) by the total amount gambled by players (or your staked amount). Your winnings are $575, and your total staked amount is $640. Divide these two numbers, then multiply the outcome by 100. The result is the approximate RTP.
However, calculating it by yourself comes with a few downsides. First, you may spend significant money to get an RTP as close to the accurate one as possible. Second, RTP on online slots doesn’t usually tell how often you can expect to win so it can be misleading. That’s why many experts don’t recommend regularly using this method.
Final Thoughts
In general, the bigger the sample size on a particular slot machine’s spins, the closer the results will be to the RTP. However, note that RTP% is only a statistical average. It doesn’t guarantee results. Still, opting for slots with high RTP has always been the smartest move.
