Compared Slot Payout Percentages in Online and Land-Based Casinos

In slots, you don’t have that luxury. But you can still choose which slot game you are going to play and where you will play it. This choice also matters as different slot games have different RTP rates.

RTP, or Return-to-Player rate, is an indicator of the percentage of money paid out since the game was active in a casino. Slots that payout more generally have a higher RTP. So, gamblers usually gravitate towards those titles and actively search for those games. The easy way to find them is to look for the best paying pokies on onlinepokiesmates Australia and see if the casino you want to play in hosts those titles. It’s also worth pointing out that RTP in online casinos tends to be higher than RTP in retail casinos. Let’s see why it is so.

Slots use pre-programmed RNG software that constantly works in the background at an incredible speed. When you press “Spin,” you instruct the software to stop and generate the combination based on the number that was displayed. Throughout thousands or millions of spins, you’ll get an array of hits, misses, small wins, big wins, and even massive wins or jackpots.

RTP is a statistical estimate based on long-term simulated performance, not live player behaviour. The average RTP is between 82%-99%, and it is determined through extensive testing that simulates millions of spins. You can usually find the RTP of a slot by visiting its developer’s official website and finding it there. In some instances, RTP is found within the product specification or game rules that you can see while playing in demo mode, or it can be included in the certification document from the 3rd party auditor. The certificate is typically displayed at the bottom of the casino website, but it will likely include the RTP range of all slot games that are hosted on that site.

Although the generated numbers are mapped to the outcomes that either hit or miss, they don’t necessarily affect how the miss combination will be displayed. So, in many cases, outcomes that don’t award any money may look like you were an inch away from a big win. This creates an illusion that you almost won big. This is by design, and a similar mechanic is used in lootboxes for video games like Counter-Strike, when it looks like you were about to get a valuable skin, only to land on something else.

Online slots tend to have an RTP between 92% and 99%, but the standard is between 95% and 96%. The returns are also regulated by the local gambling comission, and the game gets a certificate if it meets these regulatory requirements.

We should point out that online casinos don’t make these games; they simply host them. The companies that make these games are software studios like NetEnt, Pragmatic Play, Playtech, etc. These studios or their games are audited and tested for fairness and RTP by independent auditors. They also have agreements with hundreds of casino brands, so you will likely see the same games across different operators in different countries.

Now, the games may come from the same studio or are on the same server, but the data is usually segmented in a way that shows how much revenue comes from a single operator. Also, regulations for online casinos aren’t identical, and some regulators have stricter RTP requirements. In other words, the same game can have a different RTP depending on the region where it is hosted. The version that is hosted in a certain region must meet that region’s RTP requirements.

In retail casinos RTP is lower, and players are playing on a physical slot machine. Once again, there are local regulations that pertain to RTP, and when the machine is installed, that RTP is adjusted to comply with local laws. The reason why casino owners get to keep more money is to cover the higher operating costs (e.g., staff wages, maintenance, electricity, etc.). The machine takes up physical space rather than server space, so the number of machines that can be placed within a single location is limited.

However, players who are in retail casinos are privy to certain perks that usually make up for lower RTP. For starters, playing in a casino is a more social experience, and games on arcade machines are more immersive. Additionally, if you play for a long time, the casino will often give you free drinks (depending on the policy), which you definitely won’t get if you play online.

There are several reasons why RTP in online casinos is higher:

● Lower operating costs

● Greater accessibility

● Lower cost of implementation and no recurring maintenance costs

● Machines take up physical space and consume electricity

This doesn’t affect how much you can bet and how much you win when you hit a winning combo. But it does affect how frequently those winning combinations are likely to occur.

For casual players, the difference between the two is virtually non-existent. However, if a casual player always plays the same online game or plays on a single machine in a casino, they will notice a difference. They can even use the transaction history to track how much they deposited overall and how much they won. But big spenders who play for hours will notice that hit frequency is off.