Can Online Casinos Change RTP?

Casinos talk of RTP – Return to Player – when marketing their games to give a player a good feel of how much they could make or lose for their wagers. Here’s an easy RTP casino definition: it is a percentage of how much a slot returns to a play. Most slots return 91-96% depending on the type, bet sizes, and developers, although a 2018 report showed the average returns for slots to be 93.15%. RTP is not a feature you want to ignore as a player, as it determines how much you will get in return for your time and money.

Who Determines the RTP for Casino Games?

Contrary to what some players believe, Return to Player is not set by the Swiss casino online but by the game developer.  If a game’s RTP is 96%, it could yield $96 out of each $100 wagered, but winning that would be based on a few variables, top of them, incredible luck and great strategy. Game volatility will also matter as, being the measure of risk in a game, it determines its predictability. Usually, games with lower RTPs are more volatile, so players go through long spells of small or no wins and substantial wins when they finally hit the jackpot. Progressive jackpots have low to medium volatility and, subsequently, high RTPs because of costs.

Casinos can tweak RTPs in this sense and style: traditionally, slot machines came with fixed Returns-to-Player, so 97% meant exactly that. The modern online casino slots online are different as their percentages are ranges instead of fixed rates, although a few still operate the old-fashioned way. When you have 94-95.7% as the range, you can tweak the numbers within this range to manipulate the game as a casino.

If the demand is too high for one game and it is exhausting returns since players are winning too much, the house may regulate one game to shift that attention to a less attractive one to balance the books. It will lower the RTP of a game to increase its volatility and attract players looking for high returns in the long run, but it will work within the ranges provided by the developer. What the casino would not do, as it would go against the rules of provable fairness, is change the RTP entirely to suit its books.

Can you know a game’s RTP before playing? Yes, because most modern sites display that information on the terms, and they are bound by the law to stick to the information they display or be in breach. You want to have this information from the jump as it determines how much you can potentially win – or lose – for playing any game at online or land-based casinos.