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RTP Meaning: Everything You Need to Know About RTP Slots

When looking at the available slot machines, how do you decide which game has the best payout odds? You could choose based on the graphics, theme, location in the casino, or many other factors. But the best way to decide is to base it on the slot machines RTP and hit frequency.

In this article, you learn the hit frequency and RTP meaning. And, why it can help you win more jackpots at the slot machine. Find out how RTP is calculated, and, why it is important to your odds for winning on online slot machines.

RTP Meaning: Everything You Need to Know About RTP Slots

RTP stands for Return to Player. It is the percentage chance of winning on any pull of the lever.

Each game or slot has a different RTP, which makes some machines more profitable to play on than others.

The return to player percentage takes into account an average over thousands of games and thousands of players. The slots with the best Return to Player afford the most bonuses and most free spins.

So, reason dictates that the slots with a better RTP carry a better chance of winning.

RTP Explained

Online gambling is rapidly increasing how much money is changing hands over the internet. In America, online gambling is only legal in a few states, but in the United Kingdom online gamblings gross yield is over 14 billion pounds for 2018.

The more competition that exists for online casinos, the better the RTP is for slot games overall.

Return to Player is a measurement for slots on online betting platforms. It is the average percentage of money bet that returns to the player over the extent of time playing on that slot.

The RTP measures the long-term expectation of winning. The percentage averages a minimum of 1,000 of the last bets. But, like any gambling activity or casino game, short-term odds are volatile.

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The statistics of winning on a slot machine differs from state to state. Online slots are regulated by the state which is home to the casino company, but the way in which RTP is calculated is universal.

In an online casino, the RTP represents the percent chance of getting back what you put in. So, if you bet $100 and the RTP is 95 percent, you should get $95 back.

Of course, this is not a science, and online slot machines operate from algorithms that afford an advantage to the house at opportune times.

For a casino, every penny that they keep is money in their pocket. So, an average RTP of 90 percent means that the casino takes 10 percent of all players money.

In essence, it represents your percent margin of error. A 90 percent RTP indicates that you should average a 10 percent loss.

Online Slot Regulation

In some countries, like the United Kingdom, every slot machine must show the RTP percentage. In the United States, many casinos display a jackpot odds percentage on the slot machines to indicate the RTP.

Scratch off ticket machines and video table games carry different rules and regulations than that of online slot machines.

In states where gambling is illegal, like Indiana, casino slots are not technically classified as slot machines. Instead, they circumvent legal statute by classifying as video scratch tickets.

So, unless the online gambling establishment signifies a machine as online slots, it does not have to display the machines RTP. Only true slots have to make clearly available an RTP percentage on every virtual machine.

Hit Frequency

The RTP of a slot is directly related to the slots hit frequency. The hit frequency is a measurement of how often a slot machine stops on a winning number. It is different than the RTP because it takes into account wins on free spins and bonuses.

So a hit frequency of 10 percent means that the slot is hitting an average of 10 out of every 100 spins. As you increase the number of lines on which you bet, the hit frequency seems to increase, but may, in fact, be decreasing.

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The more betting lines, the more losing lines, which affects the machine hit frequency negatively. Slots often have a much lower hit frequency than other video games, like video poker.

Slots hover around a 3 to 5 percent hit frequency average, whereas video poker can average a hit frequency of nearly 50 percent.

Though it might seem like video poker offers the best odds of winning, the hit frequency measures win of any size. Many of the winning bets that the measurement takes into account are for the initial amount bet.

The money is made when a high hit frequency yields a jackpot win.

The term, “tight” often refers to a slot machine or video poker machine with a low hit frequency. But the wins on tight machines average a larger pot. When a machine is “loose” it has a higher hit frequency with many wins amounting to a push.

The hit frequency is the percent chance of hitting a winning combination, whereas the RTP meaning is in the total return over the long-term of betting. To have the best chance of hitting a jackpot, look for a machine with a high hit frequency and a high Return to Player average.

Final Thoughts

If luck is in your favor then bet big. And it doesn’t hurt to give luck a little push by choosing a slot with a high RTP.

But, always remember that slots are the bread and butter for casinos. If everybody wins, they have to lose. And casinos are very motivated to make you lose more money than you win.

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