Every game you sit down to play has a number built right into it – a payout percentage. It’s basically the game telling you how much money flows back to players over time, and how much the casino pockets.
Get your head around this one number, and you’re already making sharper decisions than most people at the table.
And yet? Most players completely ignore it. Or worse, they get it totally wrong.
Payout Percentage Explained in Plain Terms
OK, so a payout percentage – you’ll also see it called RTP (Return to Player) – is just the chunk of all wagered money that a game kicks back to players over tons of rounds.
Quick example. Say you’re playing a slot with 96% RTP. You feed it $100 over time, and theoretically, $96 comes back to you. The casino keeps $4. That $4 is what they call the house edge.
Before we go deeper, two important things:
It’s a long-term average
The 96% doesn’t mean you’ll walk away with $96 from a $100 session. You could win $500. You could lose the whole thing. The percentage only really holds up across hundreds of thousands – sometimes millions – of spins.
It applies to total wagers, not deposits
Here’s where people get confused. You put in $100, you play 200 spins at a buck each. That’s $200 in total wagers (you’re recycling your winnings as you go). The RTP applies to that full $200, not the $100 you originally deposited. Big difference.
RTP vs. House Edge: Two Sides of the Same Coin
These two are basically mirror images – pun intended. Game has 96% RTP? House edge is 4%. RTP of 99%? House edge drops to just 1%.
The math is dead simple:
RTP is calculated by dividing the money returned by the money wagered; 96% means 96 cents back per dollar wagered over time. The house edge is 100% minus the RTP, so a 96% RTP game has a 4% casino edge.
You’ll notice table games typically list the house edge, while slots go with RTP. Two ways of saying the same thing, really.
Naturally, a smaller house edge means more of your cash staying where it belongs – with you. So how do the popular games compare? We’ve put together a quick rundown:
| Game RTP | Expected Return | Expected Loss |
|---|---|---|
| 99% | $9,900 | $100 |
| 96% | $9,600 | $400 |
| 94% | $9,400 | $600 |
| 90% | $9,000 | $1,000 |
| 85% | $8,500 | $1,500 |
Now spot the gap between European and American Roulette. That extra green zero on the American wheel tacks on 2.6% more house edge. One extra pocket on the wheel, and suddenly you’re losing nearly twice as fast. Makes you think, doesn’t it?
How Payout Percentages Work in Slots
Slots take up the biggest slice of any casino’s game collection, and their RTPs? All over the place. We’ve personally come across everything from 88% up to 99%, though the highest payout slots tend to cluster in the 96% to 97% zone.
Theoretical vs. Actual RTP
Here’s the thing – that published RTP number is theoretical. It comes from running the game’s math model through millions upon millions of simulated spins. Your actual Tuesday night session? It could look completely different.
Here’s an easy way to picture it. A coin flip should be 50/50 for heads, right? But try ten flips and you could easily get seven heads. Do ten million flips? You’ll land ridiculously close to 50%. Same principle with slot RTP. Over a single session, anything can happen.
Volatility Changes the Feel
Two slots can have identical 96% RTPs but feel completely different to play. The reason: volatility (also called variance).
- Low volatility – Frequent small wins. Your bankroll stays relatively stable. You’ll rarely hit a huge payout, but you won’t burn through $100 in five minutes either. Good for longer sessions on a tight budget.
- High volatility – Long dry spells followed by big wins. You might spin 100 times without a meaningful hit, then land a 500x payout. These games eat bankrolls fast but offer the biggest potential returns.
- Medium volatility – A mix. Balanced enough for most players.
Take Starburst (NetEnt) – it runs at 96.09% RTP with low volatility. Dead or Alive 2 (also NetEnt) sits at 96.8% RTP with extreme volatility. Starburst pays small amounts often. Dead or Alive 2 might drain your balance before dropping a massive win. Same general RTP range – totally different experience.
Where to Find a Slot’s RTP
Usually, it’s hiding inside the game somewhere. Tap the little “i” icon, click the gear, or look for “help” and you’ll probably find the RTP listed in the paytable or info section.
No luck there? Go straight to the provider’s website. Companies like NetEnt, Pragmatic Play, and Play’n GO post RTP numbers for every title they release.
And this is something not enough people know about: certain casinos will take the same slot and actually run it at a lower RTP than the developer set as default. Providers sometimes build multiple configurations into a game – one version might sit at 96.5% while another runs at 94.0%. The casino decides which config goes live. So if you can’t track it down yourself, just message support and ask. Any properly licensed casino has to tell you.
Payout Percentages for Table Games
Here’s where things get interesting. Table games give you way more control over the house edge than slots do, because your decisions actually affect outcomes.
Blackjack
Blackjack gives you one of the best RTPs around – roughly 99.5% if you play basic strategy. But that’s a big “if.” Hit when you should’ve stood, split at the wrong moment, and suddenly your actual house edge climbs way higher than it needs to be.
What about card counting? On paper, sure it can work. But casinos have gotten wise to it – they use multiple decks and automatic shufflers to shut that strategy down pretty effectively.
And keep an eye on rule variations. If you see 6:5 payouts on blackjack instead of the standard 3:2, that’s about 1.4% extra going to the house. Not small. Check the posted rules before you commit any chips.
Roulette
With European Roulette (one zero), you’re looking at 97.3% RTP. Switch to American Roulette (two zeros) and it tanks to 94.74%. That second green pocket really hurts. Some European tables throw in the “la partage” rule too – if zero hits, you get half your even-money bet back, which pushes things above 98%.
Our recommendation? Always grab the single-zero wheel. Every single time. If the casino only runs American Roulette, your bankroll’s shrinking faster by design and there’s nothing you can do about it.
Baccarat
Baccarat’s dead simple and the RTPs are solid. Banker bet sits at 98.94%.
Player bet comes in at 98.76%. The tie bet? About 85.56%. Just… don’t bet on the tie. Seriously. Never.
Video Poker
If you play it right, full-pay Jacks or Better gives you 99.54% back. That’s incredibly hard to beat anywhere in the casino. The catch is finding a full-pay machine in the first place. Casinos love tweaking pay tables – swapping the 9/6 payout for full houses and flushes down to 8/5, which knocks the RTP under 98%.
Bottom line: check that pay table. Always. The difference between a 9/6 and 8/5 version of Jacks or Better is about 2.5% in RTP. Over hundreds of hands, that’s real money walking out the door.
Why Payout Percentages Matter for Your Wallet
Numbers make this clearer.
Say you wager $10,000 over a weekend (total bets, not just your deposit). Look at how different RTPs hit your wallet:
| Game RTP | Expected Return | Expected Loss |
|---|---|---|
| 99% | $9,900 | $100 |
| 96% | $9,600 | $400 |
| 94% | $9,400 | $600 |
| 90% | $9,000 | $1,000 |
| 85% | $8,500 | $1,500 |
A 5% difference in RTP costs you an extra $500 on $10,000 in wagers. That adds up fast for regular players. A few percentage points separate a reasonable entertainment cost from burning cash.
How Casinos Report Payout Data
Land-based casinos in certain places actually publish monthly payout reports. Nevada’s a good example – casinos there send aggregate slot payout data to the Nevada Gaming Control Board, and you can look it up by region and coin denomination. It’s all publicly available.
For online casinos, the ones holding MGA or UKGC licenses will usually put out monthly RTP reports. Independent auditors like eCOGRA, iTech Labs, or GLI go through the numbers and verify them. You get a breakdown of actual payouts for slots, table games, and poker.
Finding these reports takes some digging. Try the very bottom of the casino’s homepage – look for links like “Fair Gaming” or “Responsible Gambling.” No luck, and the casino gives you the runaround when you ask directly? Walk away. Or better yet, stick to our recommended best payout online casinos that are fully transparent about their RTP data.
Quick Tips for Using Payout Data
- Favor slots above 95% RTP – Anything below 94% gives the house a steep edge. You’ll find plenty of quality games above 96%.
- Check RTP before every new slot – Don’t assume. Different casinos can run different RTP versions of the same game.
- Learn basic strategy for table games – A 99.5% RTP in blackjack only applies if you play correctly. Print out a basic strategy card or use an app. Casinos allow it.
- Avoid sucker bets – Tie bets in baccarat, insurance in blackjack, five-number bets in roulette – these carry inflated house edges. Skip them.
- Don’t confuse RTP with winning chances – A 96% RTP doesn’t mean you’ll win 96% of sessions. It means the math model returns 96 cents per dollar wagered across millions of bets. Short sessions are unpredictable by design.
What This Means for You
Most players never bother looking at payout percentages, even though it’s hands-down the single most useful number in all of gambling. It won’t tell you what happens on your next spin – nothing can. But it will tell you which are the best payout casino games to play, and which ones are quietly eating through your bankroll when you’re not paying attention.
So do yourself a favor. Compare RTPs before you sit down. Pick the games that give you the best mathematical shot. The casino’s always going to keep an edge – that’s just how the business works. But you get to choose how big that edge is. And from what we’ve seen, that choice makes all the difference.
