How To Find The Rtp On A Slot Machine

Slot RTP Finder. Slot RTP Finder – see return to player (RTP) percentages for the online slots games from all major developers. Microgaming, IGT, Netent, Big Time Gaming, WMS, Yggdrasil, Quickspin, Nextgen, Thunderkick and numerous other slot providers. Return to Player is the long-term percentage each slot.

Therefore, let’s find out a couple of things about a slot machine RTP. What is an RTP and how it works? The RTP acronym stands for Return To Player. This term refers to the balance between the total bet amount on a certain slot machine and the total paid back amount. RTP stands for “return to player” and is a theoretical percentage that a slot game will payout following a particular number of spins over a prolonged period of time. An RTP is used to show what percentage of a wager will payout over this period of time.

Introduction: Finding the RTP for Land-Based Slot Machines

The RTP for land-based slot machines is going be very helpful if you’re going to be playing the slot machines at the casino. But why? Well, it’s very important to have some idea of the Return to Player (RTP) as this is the number that lets you know exactly how much the slot will payout in the long run. A higher RTP gives you a greater chance of winning. To that end, it’s always good to know the RTP before you start to play if simply to see your payout possibilities.

If you’re playing online, then a simple Google search for the particular machine you’re playing will bring up the RTP. But when it comes to land-based casinos, then it’s a much tougher job, as they don’t tend to list this information anywhere. So is there a means of discovering the RTP for land-based casinos? Let’s first look into the whole business of RTP.

Why Isn’t RTP Available for Land-Based Slots?

If you do a Google Search for the RTP of any land-based casino games, you’ll turn up zero information. One of the biggest problems with trying to find these numbers is that different games have different RTP’s depending on the individual casino. The best jackpot game providers allow each casino to select the RTP they wish to play with. To give you an example on how this works:

WMS is offering Monopoly Party Train slot to Vegas casinos.
They feature the following RTP options: 92.5%, 93.5%, and 94.5%.
Caesars Palace orders this game at 93.5% payback.
The Venetian orders Monopoly Party Train at 92.5% RTP.
Treasure Island orders this slot at 94.5% RTP.

With these numbers all over the place, it’s easy to see how difficult it would be to pin down a single number, though you could go for the averages. Though a figure may be true for one establishment, it may be a completely different number at another. Now, most online slot providers will offer their games in a uniform RTP across all customers. For example, Rival Gaming has the game, “Spy Game” listed as 95.1% payback across all the casinos who stock the game. It’s true that there are some exceptions for online casinos. An example would be RealTime Gaming’s RTP, which gives the casinos a choice between 91.5%, 95%, or 97.5% RTP for a given game. Also, this company hides the RTP for all it’s games across the board. But RealTime Gaming is an outlier within the gaming industry.

How Can You Figure out the RTP?

In truth, you will not be able to find the exact numbers as far as the percentage payouts are concerned for land-based casinos. But there are a number of methods that can help you come to a pretty close estimate of the actual figures. Below we’ve listed some of the means which help you get as close as possible to the real RTP.

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Make General Guesses Based on Coin Denominations

As you know, casinos like to award players who are willing to risk more. So there’s actually a pecking order of the RTP’s depending on the size of the denominations that are fed into the actual slot machine. Here’s an example of how this works:

Penny slot machines = 88% to 90% RTP
Nickel slot machines = 91% to 94% RTP
Quarter slot machines = 93% to 95% RTP
Dollar slot machines = 94% to 96% RTP
$5 slot machines = 95% to 97% RTP

When it comes to payout, you can guarantee that penny slots are going to be by far the worse. But with larger denominations, like $1 – $5, these will be closer to the payouts listed. Keep in mind that the higher the denomination you’re feeding into the slot, the greater will be your losses. Simply because you’re betting more per spin. Having said that, you may get better value per dollar by wagering with a higher denomination due to better RTP.

RTP for Land-Based Slot Machines: Read State Gaming Reports

As you can see, making generalizations about the coin size helps us only so far. So another method to see the RTP is to browse through the State Gaming Reports. These are submitted to the various Gaming Commissions and they’ll show the average payout percentage (or house edge) for each coin denomination within that particular state casinos. An example would be if you took a look at the Nevada Gaming Commission’s release and you’ll see that $1 slot machines offer an RTP of 94.79% on average, throughout the state. Yes, this is still an average. But with some games, the Gaming Commissions actually do state the real RTP. But it’s rare to find such specific information. These reports are helpful in bring us yet closer to a real figure, but still, deal in generalizations. So though you will not find an exact RTP, the numbers given can be useful.

Email a Casino and Ask

This might sound desperate, but calling the casino directly, or even sending them an Email, might elicit a response. But the issue here is that customer support will state, more often than not, that they don’t have that information. Though we wouldn’t count on this method, it’s probably still worth a try. You never know, you could actually receive an answer.

What to Avoid When Searching for Land-Based Slots Payback

So these are the methods of trying to determine the RTP of land-based casinos. But there are some measures we suggest that you avoid in your quest to find the machine payback. Let’s have a quick look at them.

RTP for Land-Based Slot Machines: Relying on Signs Inside of Casinos

You’ll often see a sign hanging above a jackpot slot machine with the claim that “Pays up to 99%”. Obviously these signs are there as a means of drawing players to the slot machine. A sign like that promising a mere 1% house edge, is a very attractive machine. But take care, as many of these signs are put up in such a way as to be misleading. A sign like the one above would probably mean that just 1 machine in the section offers such a low house edge. All the other machines could be as high as 90%….and the sign would still be valid. We wouldn’t rely on any information you’ll find at the casino too much. With the above scenario, there’s no way that the casino would point out which machine is paying out a particular sum.

The only way to find out would be to play all the machines over a long period of time to see the real RTP.

Using One Good Session to Determine Quality Payback

This cannot work simply because slots are by their very nature, very volatile games. You could have a few large payouts from a single session and then nothing for any number of preceding sessions. So a single round on a slot can never give you accurate information. We should point out that this is a common mistake that many gamblers make. They experience one “hot session” with a slot machine and then automatically assume that that particular machine offers a higher RTP. It would be amazing if that was the simple ingredient to finding casino based slot machine RTP.

Blindly Believing Ads for the “Loosest Slots”

If you’re driving along the Interstate, you’ll see a lot of these ads. Placed in prominent positions designed to capture the eye and the imagination of would-be casino customers. These billboards suggest that this or that casino offers high RTP and frequent payouts. But you should always keep in mind that a term like “loose” is both relative and undefined. Gambling Commissions don’t say what should constitute “loose”, leaving it up to the individual casinos to make claims. These don’t even have to be truthful. So, take any such ads with a large pinch of salt.

Conclusion: Finding RTP for Land-Based Slot Machines

It probably seems strange that online casinos are happy to provide the RTP’s for their games, and yet land-based casinos don’t. But the bottom line is that these jackpot slots actually are programmed by a third-party provider and have little input from the actual casino itself. Yes, the casino can choose the RTP percentage from a fixed menu. And that’s why it’s difficult to trace RTP by game offered. One casino may take the option for an RTP of 95% and yet another casino will opt for 99%.

The problem with trying to find out the real RTP of a casino based game is that the casino doesn’t want you to know it. And that’s because slots are a bad choice as far as payback goes. So the only means is to take a guess based on the information we’ve provided.

You don’t need any special skills to play a slot machine. All you do is select the spin button and wait for results.

But this isn’t to say that you can’t do certain things to improve your chances of winning in slots. One of the easiest ways to boost your odds is by playing slot machines with high payback percentages.

Much like any other casino game, winning back more money gives you better odds of beating the casino.

But how do you find the highest-paying slot machines? And is this made easier with popular slots?

Find out as I cover different methods of finding payback for popular slot machines in both land-based and online casinos. But first, I’m going to discuss exactly what payback is for those who know little about this concept.

What Is Payback Percentage and Return to Player?

Two terms that you’ll often see in the slots world include payback percentages and return to player.

Payback percentages and return to player (RTP) are the same thing, and they refer to how much money a slot machine pays over the long term.

Here’s an example.

  • A slot machine has 94% RTP
  • You bet $100 on this game
  • 100 x 0.94 = $94
  • This slot machine will theoretically pay you $94 for every $100 wagered

I stress the word “theoretically,” because slot machines don’t hit their intended payback percentage in the short run. Instead, these are volatile games that only realize their RTP after hundreds of thousands or even millions of spins.

Land Casino Rtp Slots

You might think that this diminishes the value of finding RTP. But if you continually play slot machines with high payback, then you’ll have the best chance to win money.

Finding Payback for Popular Land-Based Slot Machines

The land-based casino industry features plenty of famous slot machines, including IGT’s Ellen, Aristocrat’s Game of Thrones, Bally’s Hot Shot, IGT’s Megabucks, and IGT’s Wheel of Fortune.

Given how these machines take millions of dollars in collective bets every day, you’d think that it would be easy to find RTP for each one. But the truth is that it’s really hard to get info on land-based slot machines.

Note:

One problem is that casinos can order different payback for the same game. If IGT offers 10 different RTP options for their Ellen slot machine, then many casinos will to choose differently from each other.

Another problem is that there’s just not much information out there on land-based slot machine payback. You can google different terms again and again and still not find RTP for the most popular slots.

But as impossible as finding brick-and-mortar slots payback may seem, there are a few different avenues you can take.

Look at State Gaming Reports

One of the most reliable ways to find RTP data on slot machines is by looking at reports from gaming jurisdictions.

These records contain general information on what payback you can expect from different casinos. You may even get lucky and find payback percentages on the popular games.

This 2017 report from the Nevada Gaming Control Board shows the state’s average win from various coin denominations, as well as Megabucks.

  • Penny Slots = 90.17% payback (9.83% house take)
  • Nickel Slots = 94.54% payback (5.46% house take)
  • Quarter Slots = 93.06% payback (6.94% house take)
  • Dollar Slots = 93.94% payback (6.06% house take)
  • $5 Slots = 94.16% payback (5.82% house take)
  • $25 Slots = 95.03% payback (4.97% house take)
  • $100 Slots = 93.21% payback (6.79% house take)
  • Megabucks = 87.93% payback (12.07% house take)

Megabucks is arguably the world’s most famous slot machine. This game has paid out many of the biggest slots jackpots in history, including the largest one at $39.7 million.

This is why the Megabucks slot machine is the only one that regularly appears on the Nevada Gaming Control Board’s monthly/annual reports.

The data above shows that Megabucks only paid back 87.93% throughout 2017. This game doesn’t even match payback from Vegas penny slot machines (90.17%), which are notorious for being tight.

But it’s worth adding that the 87.93% payback refers to what Megabucks starts at after IGT seeds the initial jackpot.

Given that this is a progressive game, the jackpot grows with every bet. And Megabucks’ payback can be much higher than the 87.93% listed value.

Many famous slot machines with big progressive jackpots start around 88% payback, including Wheel of Fortune. You can then use the jackpot size to make an educated guess on how high the RTP has grown.

Be sure to look at your state’s gaming report to see what you can dig up on slot machine payback.

Odds are that you won’t find data on specific games, like with Megabucks in Nevada’s report. But you’ll at least get an idea of the casinos and coin denominations that are paying well.

Make General RTP Assumptions About Coin Denominations

Generally speaking, slot machines with higher coin denominations pay more money.

Of course, the statistics don’t always show this. A good example can be seen in the 2017 Nevada report discussed above, where everything from nickel to $100 slots are relatively even.

But also keep in mind that the $25 slot machines had the highest payback (95.03%). As for the $100 slots only paying 93.21%, this can be chalked up to a smaller sample size.

Only a small percentage of gamblers can actually afford to bet $100 per spin. This means that the $100 slot machines’ statistics will be more volatile than other denominations.

We can look at payback for coin denominations at Connecticut’s Foxwoods for evidence of this.

  • Penny Slots = 89.88% payback (10.12% house take)
  • Nickel Slots = 90.58% payback (9.42% house take)
  • Quarter Slots = 91.95% payback (8.05% house take)
  • Dollar Slots = 93.45% payback (6.55% house take)
  • $5 Slots = 94.08% payback (5.92% house take)
  • $25 Slots = 96.16% payback (4.84% house take)
  • $100 Slots = 96.76% payback (3.24% house take)

You can see here that payback progressively increases when moving from penny to $100 slots. The biggest separation is seen when moving from the $5 slots (94.08% RTP) to $100 games (96.76%).

Making generalizations about slots payback percentages based on games’ coin size isn’t a guaranteed plan. But it’s a solid method to use when you don’t have any other information.

Be careful when seeking out higher-denomination slots just for the payback, though. You’re still going to lose more money on high-denomination slots overall, even with the increased RTP.

Here’s a comparison using the Foxwoods’ data to illustrate this point.

  • I play a penny slot machine with 89.88% payback
  • I make 100 spins on this game, which has a $0.50 minimum bet
  • 0.50 x 100 x 0.1012 house edge = $5.06 in losses
  • I play a $5 slot machine with 94.08% payback
  • I play 100 spins on this game, which has a $5 minimum bet
  • 5 x 100 x 0.0592 house edge = $29.60 in losses

If you really want to play the higher-denomination games, then by all means, do so. But don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you’ll win more money this way.

Look at Overall Slots Payback for Casinos

You won’t have much luck finding RTP for individual slot machines, but you can at least develop a composite average by looking at overall payback among casinos.

State gaming reports, like the ones discussed before, are good for doing this. Here’s an example from Ohio that shows the average 2017 slots RTP for their casinos.

  • JACK Cleveland = 92.34% payback (7.66% house take)
  • Hollywood Columbus = 92.17% payback (7.83% house take)
  • JACK Cincinnati = 91.56% payback (8.44% house take)
  • Miami Valley = 91.24% payback (8.76% house take)
  • Hollywood Toledo = 90.95% payback (8.95% house take)
  • Belterra Park = 91.08% payback (9.92% house take)
  • Hard Rock Rocksino = 91.06% payback (8.94% house take)
  • Scioto Downs = 90.96% payback (9.04% house take)
  • JACK Thistledown = 90.87% payback (9.13% house take)
  • Dayton Raceway = 90.47% payback (9.53% house take)
  • Hollywood Mahoning Valley = 90.09% payback (9.91% house take)

These figures show what you can expect in terms of all slot machines at these casinos.

The best deal was offered at JACK Cleveland, where players earned an average of 92.34% payback. The lowest overall RTP is seen at Hollywood Mahoning Valley, where players faced 90.09% payback on average.

Of course, there are no guarantees when you go off of composite averages. You can sit down to a random slot machine at JACK Cleveland that pays less than games at Hollywood Mahoning.

But the key is that you at least have a better chance by choosing casinos with superior payback.

Google Different Slots Payback/RTP Terms

How To Find The Rtp On A Slot Machine

One final way that you can look for land-based payback percentages is simply by googling terms. You can choose specific terms such as “Ellen slot RTP” or “IGT Wheel of Fortune RTP.”

But I caution you that merely searching Google doesn’t turn up much information

I’ve spent a good deal of time searching for various terms regarding land-based slot machine payback. Unfortunately, most of these efforts have turned up little-to-no information.

If your initial searches don’t produce anything worthwhile, you can always switch things up. For example, google “Hot Shot slot payback” instead of “Hot Shot slot RTP.”

But again, information is scarce on payback for individual slots. The best you’ll normally do is finding general info like state gaming reports and articles.

Finding Payback for Popular Online Slot Machines

Looking for online slots RTP is a much easier task compared to doing the same for land-based machines. The main reason why is due to the nature of how the internet slots industry works.

Online gaming providers produce games and normally offer a uniform payback percentage across all casinos. This differs from the land-based industry, where the casinos have options in terms of RTP.

The end result is that the same slot machine you find at one online casino has identical payback in another casino.

On another note, you can expect higher RTP from online slots. The reason why is because internet casinos can run these games cheaper due to less overhead costs.

They don’t have to pay for big slot machine cabinets or people to maintain the games. Instead, everything runs through internet software.

Now I’m going to look at a few different ways that you can find RTP for online slot machines.

How To Find The Rtp On A Slot Machine

Search for Individual Games and Their Payback Percentage

If you already have a specific online slot in mind, then you can quickly find payback by searching for it. Here’s an example:

  • You want to know payback for NetEnt’s Blood Suckers
  • You google “Blood Suckers slot RTP”
  • A number of available results show that it offers 98.0% payback

The good news is that you don’t even need to select one of the search results in most cases. You can instead read the description snippets under each link to spot the payback percentage.

In the case of my search for Blood Suckers’ RTP, I only had to scroll down to the second result’s description to find the answer. Of course, you should start clicking website links if you don’t find what you’re looking for in the descriptions.

Looking at the individual games works great if you already have favorite slots and want to know their RTP.

Look at an Online Slot Machine’s Help Screen

Much like land-based slot machines, older online slots fail to list their RTP. But most of the new online slot machines do offer this information.

All you need to do is visit an internet slot machine’s help screen to check for the payback. Here’s an example.

  • I’m playing Thunderkick’s Esqueleto Explosivo
  • I select the help screen
  • I scroll down and quickly see that this game offers 96.0% RTP

Sometimes you’ll play games that have multiple pages on the help screen. In this case, all you need to do is keep scrolling until you find the payback percentage.

You’ll notice that certain online slots makers always put the RTP in the help screens of their newer games. Examples include NetEnt, Quickspin, and Thunderkick.

Google Individual Online Slots Makers

What I’ve discussed so far works well for finding payback percentages on popular online slot machines. But if you like a certain slots maker’s style, then you can look for RTP on all of their games.

This is nice because it gives you a complete list of a specific provider’s slot machines. You can then use this info to choose the highest-paying games.

Here’s an example on finding RTP for RealTime Gaming (RTP) slots.

  • I google “RTG slots payback”
  • I select multiple websites
  • These sites collectively offer RTP on many RealTime slots

Sometimes the info you need will be dispersed throughout several search results. Other times you’ll find a neat list that covers every slot machine.

Slot Machine Return To Player

Don’t Forget About Slots Volatility

I covered the importance of payback percentages earlier. But it’s also important to consider how volatility affects your returns.

Volatility refers to how much your short-term results will fluctuate when playing slot machines. This means that you might not win much money in the short term even if a game has good RTP.

High-volatility slot machines have more unpredictable results than low-volatility games. If you’re trying to stretch out a small bankroll, then you want to avoid games with high volatility.

Some online slots developers actually give a volatility rating for their slot machines. Pragmatic Play is one example, and they use between one and five lightning bolts to indicate volatility.

But the vast majority of internet slot machines still don’t offer this information. That means you need to look at the jackpot size and the pay table to make a rough guess on a game’s volatility.

Generally speaking, volatile slot machines have big jackpots and few small payouts. Therefore, you want to look for the opposite of this to make your bankroll last longer.

How Progressive Jackpots Affect Payback

Several of the most popular online slot machines are linked to huge progressive jackpots. These include Microgaming’s Mega Moolah, NetEnt’s Mega Fortune, Playtech’s Jackpot Giant, and Random Logic’s Millionaire Genie.

These games are just like Megabucks and Wheel of Fortune in how they start with low payback. But the RTP steadily grows as more players pour money into these games.

For Example

Mega Moolah starts off with 88.12% payback. This figure quickly grows as the Mega Moolah jackpot adds millions of dollars in value.

Unfortunately, calculating exactly how much a progressive jackpot affects RTP is next to impossible. The reason why is because slots games don’t list the exact odds behind every payout.

This is different from video poker, where we can always figure out payback percentages based on the odds of getting certain hands.

Nevertheless, you can make educated guesses based on where a jackpot value begins up to its current point. If Mega Fortune is seeded at $500,000 and grows to $5 million, you know that RTP has also increased by a significant amount.

Of course, the odds are very slim that you’ll win the progressive jackpot. This means that you’ll be dealing with the base payback figures.

If you’re not comfortable dealing with between 88% and 90% payback, then I suggest choosing popular online slots that don’t have big progressive jackpots. These games will pay back money on a more consistent basis.

But if you like to dream big, then, by all means, play the bigger progressive slot machines. Just wait until the jackpot grows, though, so that you theoretically get higher expected value from your wagers.

Always Read the Help Screen to Ensure You Earn Max Payback

One more point I’d like to stress is how you should always check out the help screen to learn all the rules.

I already discussed how this is a good way to figure out a game’s RTP. But the help screen also explains the different stipulations behind earning max payback.

For Example

You may have to use all of the pay lines or bet a certain coin size to qualify for the highest RTP. Furthermore, the progressive jackpot and/or bonus features may only be available for max bettors.

The aforementioned Game of Thrones slot machine requires a 100-credit wager to trigger the Fire & Blood bonus. If you don’t have a chance to unlock this bonus, then you’re not playing for the highest payback.

The last thing you want to do is play a slot machine under the guise that you’re earning a certain payback percentage, only to find out that you’re not. Check out a game’s help screen and learn the rules before you start betting real money.

Conclusion

Finding payback percentages is far easier with online slots thanks to all of the available information.

You can find this info either by googling popular games or even the slots providers themselves. The latter is great for when you like a certain slots maker and want to know which of their games offer the best RTP.

In contrast, land-based slot machines offer very little payback info. Megabucks is one of the few popular slots with an actual payback figure listed online.

This leaves you having to sift through state gaming reports and making guesses based on coin denominations and progressive jackpot sizes. It’s not an exact science, but this at least gives you some clue.

In summary, use the methods that I’ve covered here to find payback percentages for popular slot machines. Consistently doing so ensures that you’ll win more money back as you continue playing slots.