What’s RTP?

There are thousands of games online available to players and all of them offer various percentages that enable players to win. We’ve all heard of the house edge, where the casino will win out over the long term, with games usually favouring the casino rather than the player. So, how can New Zealand players see which games are offering better winning chances than others? This is where the return to player rate or RTP comes in. Each game has to show the RTP available as this is part of proving that the games are fair for both players and casinos. This means players can select the higher RTP giving them a better chance. But what exactly is it? Keep reading to find out.

What is RTP?

RTP is the term that’s used to describe how much-wagered money is likely to be paid back to a player over the time period they play the game. As we mentioned, this means that you should be looking for games with high RTPs. For instance, a game with a 90% RTP, will give you $90 back for every $100 you have spent. In contrast, a game that’s got an RTP of 97.62% is going to give you an even higher return, demonstrating that it’s more likely to payout. The house edge is the remaining percentage that makes it to 100, so an RTP of 90% gives a house edge of 10% indicating again, that you’re not likely to be winning much. However, it’s important to remember that all of these percentages are calculated over the long term, often after thousands of spins. This means that players should be aware of this and know that it’s simply a theoretical RTP. Players can get lucky, scoring a higher RTP in a shorter period of time, but should always bear in mind only spending money you can afford to lose.

Variance and RTP

Sometimes RTP is confused with variance, but in fact, though these two are quite closely related, they’re actually different things. Variance is the way that the RTP of a game is realised. Low variance games are ones where you will earn regular, but small wins over time. These games help to keep the bankroll ticking over so that you can play a lot longer without going broke. High variance games will have the RTP situated in bonus features and can give some really big wins, but these won’t come very often at all. What this means is that games with high RTPs aren’t always so good on your bankroll. However, for the most part, we will always recommend choosing a game with a high RTP over a game with a low one. However, if you find that your game is highly volatile, you made find that you will spin a lot without actually ever getting close to the RTP that the game has stated it offers and that’s simply because you haven’t landed the bonuses or big wins.

Games with the best RTP

With thousands of games to choose from, it makes sense to pick the games with the best RTP so you have a fighting chance at a win. While pokies are the games we usually look to for RTP, all casino games have them. In fact, some of the table games have the best RTPs out there. Blackjack, for instance, has a top theoretical RTP of 99.54%, which makes it one of the best games to play. Poker games, on the other hand, tend to have much lower RTPs and dependant on the type of poker game, can be as low as 97%. Video poker games though, offer some truly stunning RTPs and can even offer RTPs past the 100% mark, which really goes to show you how much you can potentially score from these games. Pokies have a much wider range of options and we generally recommend not selecting a game unless it’s got an RTP of over 95%. For some top choices, Mega Joker has an RTP of 99%, Starmania and 97.87% and Big Bad Wolf is at 97.4%.

Truths about RTP

So there you have it, that’s really all there is to know about RTPs. However, we’re just going to clear up some of the myths that seem to surface about RTPs and what they can do. One of the common misconceptions is that online casinos can manipulate the RTP of their games. This is untrue as the casinos are not the owners of the games they offer, rather these games come from providers who are fully vetted and checked for fairness. The casino has no access to the software or inner workings of these games to even be able to tamper with them. Another common thought is that the RTP is irrelevant for a single round of play. This is both correct and incorrect. A lot can happen in a single session and it’s probable that the given RTP is unlikely to be reached no matter if you play one spin or many. Essentially you can win or lose either way. One point that is important to note, however, is that the progressive jackpot can indeed influence the real RTP of a pokie game. RTPs on progressive games, take into account the jackpot in it’s RTP calculation, which means that unless you win that top prize, you will be playing the game at a much lower RTP the entire time.