RTP
RTP (return to player) is the share of total stakes a game pays back over the long run. Here is how to read it, and what it doesn't promise you.
RTP, short for return to player, is the percentage of all staked money a game is designed to pay back to players on average over a very long run of play.
It is the mirror image of the house edge. A slot with a 96% RTP is built to return about 96 units for every 100 staked over time, keeping roughly 4 as the house edge. Because it is a long-run average measured across enormous numbers of spins, RTP tells you almost nothing about a single session. You can lose quickly on a high-RTP game or win big on a low-RTP one; the figure only describes the underlying design.
RTP is usually published by the game’s maker, and some titles ship in several RTP versions, so the same game can run at a different percentage from one casino to another. It is worth checking the actual configured RTP rather than assuming a value.
For example, if you stake 1 unit per spin on a 96% RTP slot for 1,000 spins, the theory says you would get back around 960 units on average, for a modelled loss of 40. Real results scatter widely around that average, which is where volatility comes in.
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