What is return to player and why does it affect your winnings

RTP – Return to Player – is perhaps one of the most interesting concepts to analyze at an online casino. You can gather that many players ignore it. How many of those reading this have seen a new game arrive online and started playing without checking the RTP? It’s likely to be a large majority. But it’s an important concept for all online casino games, and it’s something that probably shouldn’t be ignored.

But is RTP something to worry about? It depends on your perspective. The first thing to say is that when you play at licensed Canadian casinos online, you shouldn’t be worried about RTP in the sense that those platforms will have their games audited by independent bodies for veracity. If you are playing at an unlicensed site, well, all we can say is that you are taking a bit of a risk.

RTP focus

Nonetheless, let’s ask – what is RTP? In the simplest terms, it is the percentage of money that a casino game will pay back over time, in relation to how much the game has earned from wagering. This is not decided by the casino, but by the developer of the game. For example, Starburst slot – one of the most popular online casino games in history – has an RTP of 96.1%. This means that the developer, NetEnt, has programmed the game to pay $96.1 on average for every $100 taken in. “On average” is very important here because it will be calculated over millions of spins. 96.1% does not mean you’ll lose $3.90 every time you play.

Most slots have an RTP somewhere in the range of 94-97%. And, you can find players out there who choose games simply because they have a high RTP. Many of us don’t pay attention to it, however, and play without checking. You might think those in the former group are more discerning, but it does not tell the full story. For instance, Mega Moolah – a slot that arguably rivals Starburst in popularity – has a low RTP of roughly 94%. But some of the profits of that game go to fund the Mega Moolah Jackpots, which can be worth millions of dollars. It’s a classic case of risk versus reward.

Variance is important

Secondly, we should say that RTP’s importance should also be viewed in the context of variance, sometimes known as volatility. If a slot is high variance, then RTP is less important. Why? Because it is volatile, giving out big wins but paying (smaller wins) less frequently than a low variance this way. You can look at it this way: Many national lotteries give away around 50% of the ticket sales as prize money. So, we could say that such games have an RTP of 50% (much lower than all casino games). But because lottery prizes can run into millions of dollars, it does not stop us from playing.

Finally, we should point out something that will lead us back to one of our original points. While RTP refers to the payback rates of individual casino games, it can also be used to measure the payback rates of a casino as a whole. By that, we mean casinos can be audited to provide details of how much profit and loss they made from the games they hold. If you look around online, you can find this information as it works similarly to other businesses making financial reporting. Again, we stress, this is another reason to use a licensed platform only. Look at the about section of the casino for more information on this.

To Conclude

In conclusion, then, RTP is important, but only up to a point. You can literally play the percentages by hunting for games with a high RTP, but some players believe it does not really matter. Whatever you do, though, only play at “honest casinos”, those that use games from credible developers and who are themselves audited to make sure that the payouts are what they say they are.