Rating of top NetEnt slots by RTP - return percentage (the most rewarding slots). Return percentage in slot machines Choose not only a high percentage, but also a slot to your liking

Most users who visit online gambling establishments count not only on relaxation and an interesting time spent. Their main goal is to make a profit. At the same time, when choosing entertainment, players are guided by such an indicator as the return percentage. Let's look at what this means and how it affects the outcome of the game.

What is the return percentage

If you analyze the data on the number of bets and winnings in a particular slot machine, you can see that the amount that the user deposits is slightly more than he can get back. Part of the contributions remains in the casino and constitutes the income of the establishment. In reviews of many online slot machines you can find references to the following concepts: “theoretical return”, “payout percentage” or “RTP (return to player)”. All these phrases have the same meaning and mean how many percent of bets made can be returned by the machine in the form of winnings.

The return percentage is the ratio of the total amount of payments to the amount of bets in the gaming machine for a certain period of time.

In online machines, the percentage of return to the player on bets made ranges from 82 to 98 percent. The higher the percentage, the more profitable the online slot machine is for the player, and, conversely, the lower the percentage, the greater the profit the casino will receive. For example, a slot has a return of 96%, which means that over a long period of time from the total amount of bets, the player will return 96% of the deposited funds, and the casino will receive 4% in the form of income. This metric is called the house edge or retention percentage. As a result of, say, 1,000,000 spins worth $1, players will get 960,000, and the online establishment will have $40,000.

The percentage of return to the player is set for a long period; it can be tens of millions of spins. This means that over the course of several rounds, the user can get a random result from 0 to the maximum score. So, if a large sum was won in a particular machine, then the payout percentage should be restored in the near future. If the slot has not paid out large sums for some time, the player can get a substantial jackpot. This is where the interest of online slots lies, because if you know in advance how much the machine will return, the meaning of gambling is lost.

Types of online slots depending on the return percentage

The most profitable and generous are considered to be online machines that are characterized by a high return of 95-99%. In gambling circles, such machines are called “loose machines”. The average and most common indicator of games in virtual casinos is 85-95%. A percentage below 80 is typical for slots with the lowest payout and is typical for the so-called “greedy” machines. Slot machines with the highest return rates are produced by such world-famous companies as NetEnt, Playtech, Novomatic, Igrosoft, Microgaming and others.

There are two types of RTP indicator:

  • fixed – typical for the majority of online machines, for example 97.6%,
  • ranged – the manufacturer allows online casinos to set their percentage within certain limits, for example, 95-97% or RTP may change depending on the size of the bets.

The return percentage in land-based casinos is traditionally lower than in virtual establishments. Since maintaining an online casino requires much less costs than a real one.

Who sets the payout percentage to players?

Return to player is installed by the developer of the gaming machine and is specified in the technical documentation of the device. Without such data in the device’s passport, it is prohibited to use it in an online casino.

Each player, when choosing a simulator, focuses on the payout percentage in order to get the greatest profit. Most often, this information is kept in the strictest confidence so that the casino does not lose its advantage and receives income. However, if the characteristics indicate a high percentage, some establishments prefer to use it to attract customers by putting the indicator on the first pages.

Is it possible to change the RTP of online devices?

Changing the percentage of payouts in a gaming machine after the start of operation is possible only with the help of an update software. This procedure is quite labor-intensive and is regulated by a number of regulations. The gaming software is located on the developers’ servers and casino specialists cannot change the machine settings on their own. Except in cases where the opportunity to set the return within certain limits is provided by the manufacturer. In some countries, flashing of devices occurs only with permission and under the supervision of special regulatory commissions.

There are many independent auditing organizations that ensure that casinos are using authorized and licensed software. Such companies analyze the statistics of bets and winnings of each game. In reputable online establishments, machines are checked monthly, and the results are posted on the website. Any user can view the reports; they allow one to judge the reliability of the casino and software. A discrepancy between the actual return percentage will result in penalties, including the closure of the establishment.

To exclude the possibility of using gaming machines with illegally “twisted” results, preference should be given to large casinos with high ratings. You can find many forums online where real players share their experiences, discuss problems and leave reviews about virtual establishments and games.

How to determine your return percentage yourself

To determine the percentage of payments in gambling special programs are used that monitor the game process and record the results. However, this method is not applicable to online slots m, since a lot of data should be taken into account: the number and type of symbols that will appear on the reels, the lines involved, the presence of winning combinations, special symbols and bonuses.

You can calculate the payout percentage yourself using automatic play. To do this, select a bet and set the maximum allowed number of spins. Having received the result and knowing the initial bankroll, the contribution amount and the number of spins, you can determine the average payout percentage. To carry out such manipulations, it is better to use the free game mode.

The figure obtained as a result of such experiments will be approximate, since even several thousand spins will not be enough to determine the exact percentage. In addition, before settlements are made, the gaming machine may pay a large sum to another player or, on the contrary, not give out winnings for a long time.

To select an online slot with a high payout percentage, it is better to use the published testing results of independent auditors.

The influence of the slot machine return percentage on winnings

The return percentage is a very important indicator that will allow you to get a big win, but not the only one. Along with the payout percentage, the slot's volatility or dispersion also affects the final result of the game. Machines with a high level of dispersion are characterized by rare, but big winnings. A low level means that winning combinations will appear frequently with small payouts.

RTP and dispersion have the same effect on the profitability of an online slot, and these two indicators must be considered together. Thus, simulators with high volatility and interest can bring good income, as well as low-dispersion devices with low returns. In addition, in all online slot machines There is a built-in random number generator that determines which elements appear on the reels and in what order.

How to increase your returns

Any user can independently influence the outcome of the game by choosing the right strategy. Playing at low stakes will bring small winnings. While high bets can bring big payouts. To get a positive result of the game, you must also adhere to several rules:

  • balance your capabilities with the amount of funds deposited,
  • do not play rounds with minimum bets, choose medium or high values,
  • choose the maximum number of paylines,
  • Be sure to read the rules and payout table in free mode.

And the most important rule is to choose a proven and reliable online casino that uses licensed products from well-known developers.

RTP (return to player), literally “return of money to the player.” The software manufacturer indicates the return of the slot machine in the range from 92 to 97%.

To an inexperienced player, it seems that the higher the return, the better. And it would seem that a slot with a return of 98% should at least be very generous and give money back. That's not really how things work. Even the difference between 92 and 98% return is a cosmic distance.

Let’s take as an example a slot with a return of 95%. Where does the remaining 5% go? This is our fee for the game; for each spin made, we lose this percentage to the house. Example: bet $1, from each spin 5 cents go to the casino, after making 200 spins we will lose the entire amount. If we make 10 spins of $10 each and we are unlucky, we will lose all the money, and the casino will earn $5 of it, the rest goes into the pool for players, that is, for payouts.

The casino will never be in the red, it will always take its percentage. So the idea is simple, the more time a player plays, the more likely he destroys the money pool. It seems to me that it is profitable for the casino for the player to play longer and at a small bet, just like in online poker. It looks like a rake. Rake is a commission fee charged by a casino or poker club for each pot played.

Imagine, a pool of money has accumulated, and you need to distribute a little bit of it to everyone, but one high roller comes and takes the entire pot at a bet of $200. The rest of the players suck and save up the bank again, and at the same time shout - fuck your mother, where is the return of 98%?

In fact, those who roll big on a special casino account are profitable and valued. And here the fact of casino turnover comes into play. The more people and money turnover, the less such a $200 major is harmful environment, when he takes the entire pool, and if he is a seasoned gambler, then on the contrary, he makes a good return in the casino for other players. Therefore, I am not a supporter of playing in newly opened casinos, this also includes poorly promoted ones.

All my big wins, as well as those of most of the players I know, confirm the theory that you can never make a good profit from small things. Only when playing at higher limits are slots given away.

A few words about the pool and my game. I lost $45,000, the last $3,000 gave me a bonus of exactly $45,000. Further, in another casino, having lost $30k in an evening, two bonuses returned my deposits in the amount of exactly $30k. Moreover, you make 10 deposits, and on the last one you excuse yourself and receive the amount of all the money deposited over the last 24 hours. Why? And this is not a coincidence, the software keeps you within the limits of your deposits, compensating for the costs of 5% per spin from the general money pool.

Why is there no return?

The casino pool principle is like Winnie the Pooh: in order to sell something, you need to buy something. The casino does not give away money from its own pocket; the bank is created by the players. And what does the return percentage have to do with it? slot machines?

I noticed that many players did not care about this percentage. Imagine, they go to play the most “giving” slot, but it doesn’t give. Miracles) TTR posted screenshots from the casino admin panel. There the RTP in fact was 30 percent and 150.

Dispersion is a deviation from the mathematical expectation. The manufacturer does not indicate the variance of the slot, only the RTP percentages, which in fact do not say anything. Two completely different slots with the same payout percentages will play differently: one with low variance, the other with high variance. Only the player doesn’t know about this and it’s not written anywhere. It is also silent at what distance the return percentages will be maintained. Maybe on 100,000 spins, but more likely on millions) The software developer keeps this secret, but figures are known that the RTP is observed on several billion spins made by all players.

The main idea is that we don’t look at the payout percentage of the slot machine, it means nothing and does not provide any advantages when playing. Each slot has its own character, its own return, which will be observed for the reasons written above, rather than by RTP numbers. And the variance can be found out indirectly by looking at the table of the slot’s winning lines. The more you pay for a max line or combination, the higher the dispersion, which means there will be rare matches in the game, and a lot of idle, empty spins.

In fact, everything here is simple and clear; once you get used to it a little, you can intuitively determine the properties of a slot. Variance can be small, low, medium, high, very high. Accordingly, the behavior model of the slot itself will be different. But in any case, all this mathematics does not work when there is simply nothing to pay with) This means that the first place is to choose a normal establishment with turnover, and then a slot to suit your mood and your budget.

Any player sooner or later wonders about the fairness of the game, fearing that the owners of a casino or slot machine hall may manipulate the chances of winning. When searching for information on the Internet, a player often falls for the intriguing headlines “I’ll sell the secret toy N for $10” or “How to cheat a slot machine?” In the vast majority of cases, this is a scam of a naive amateur player.

The integrity of slot machines is controlled by special gaming laboratories: international (GLI, BMM, etc.) and national (in Belarus these are BelGISS and Baytis). Every serious manufacturer of gambling equipment, including Belatra, has these certificates. To obtain a certificate of conformity, manufacturers must provide the laboratory with all necessary equipment and software. The laboratory, among other things, tests two main things: a random number generator and undeclared capabilities.

1. Cornerstone: Random Number Generator

Experienced players know that initially, when developing mathematics for a game, a certain percentage of the game’s return is laid down, or, in other words, the percentage of invested money that the player will receive back over a certain period of time. As a rule, the value of this indicator is about 90-95%. The percentage of return in European countries is established in accordance with the law and cannot be lower than 75-80%; in Belarus, according to the law, the percentage of return cannot be lower than 90%.

This does not mean that if the percentage is 90, then after playing 100 games for 1 ruble, you will get 90 rubles back. The given percentage will be ensured on a large number of games in accordance with the theory of probability and statistics.

The main key component in this matter is the so-called random number generator - RNG. As famous mathematician Robert Cavue joked: “Random number generation is too important to be left to chance.”

RNG is an algorithm that generates completely random numbers, independent of each other. When a player presses the Start button to begin the game, the random number generator produces a combination of numbers within the specified range. We see this combination as the rotation of the reels and the appearance of certain symbols. The game program compares the resulting combination with the winning one and, depending on the rules, awards points.

Laboratories verify the quality of RNG using an extensive set of tests. By studying the illustrations below, you can visually feel the difference between random and non-random distribution, the presence and absence of RNG periodicity (illustrations taken from the Internet).

2. Hidden threat: undeclared capabilities

Undeclared features are capabilities of devices or software that are not reflected in the documentation. Sometimes they are included by developers for the purpose of testing, further expanding functionality, or ensuring compatibility. Sometimes these undeclared features are the result of side effects not taken into account by the developers, or, simply put, programmer errors. In programming slang, such errors are called “holes” or “bugs.” Most often, such errors are discovered by accident. There are professional players who search for such holes and find action algorithms to “milk” gaming machines.

So, in 2009, John Kane and his friend Andre Nestor robbed a Las Vegas casino of $400 thousand, using a bug in the software of the Draw Poker slot machine from IGT. A special key combination gave access to previous wins and the jackpot payout. Kane and Nestor presented themselves as tough players, asked the casino staff to turn on the “Double Up” option on the machines they needed and, raising the bets at the right moment, “took off” the machine.

Kane and Nestor were accused of stealing ill-gotten gains. Defending himself at trial, Nestor compared what he was doing to counting cards in blackjack:

I was arrested for winning at a slot machine. Show everyone the CCTV footage! All I did was press buttons on the machine in the casino. Is it illegal to win? I didn't use any devices or counterfeit money, I just counted and analyzed - there's nothing illegal about it. It’s not my fault that the machine’s settings allowed players to win at will, whenever they wanted.

To eliminate such situations, laboratories check the software for undeclared capabilities. In addition, on each machine you can see a warning message: “An error or technical failure will void the game and winnings in it.”

Gamblers who prefer to play on different slots often pay attention to their payout ratio. This information is provided by all well-known manufacturers of slot machines and online casino software. If we take the average return rate of slot machines, it is 95%. Some companies produce slots with a return rate of 93%, and some of them produce machines with a return rate of 97%-98%. Of course, such numbers make players happy, but not everything is so simple. Manufacturers indicate only the percentage of return, but never write at what distance the slot machines were tested, what this percentage shows. Agree that after investing 100 dollars, not every player will receive a return of 93-98 rubles, if you rely on the return rate. This is due to the fact that slot machines are tested over quite long distances, and are unlikely to show the return rate specified by the manufacturer when spinning the reels 100-200 times.

The integrity of slot machines and their returns in online casinos are checked by national auditing companies and international organizations. The most well-known casino verification organization is eCOGRA (e-Commerce Online Gambling Regulation and Assurance). This organization checks online casinos according to several criteria:

  1. honesty, reliability, confidentiality, security (certificate issued)
  2. RNG verification within 6 months (a certificate is issued)
  3. report on winnings received from slot machines, poker games and board games(published on the eCOGRA website).

If an online casino has certifications from this organization, then players can be sure that the payout ratio of the games specified by the casino is correct.

It publishes information on different slot machines every day, and players can find out the frequency of winnings in percentage terms, maximum wins and profits.

Currently, some companies developing software for online casinos make a separate tab in slot machines, where players can see the theoretical return rate (RTP) and the real one (RMP). But it should not be confused with the payout table.

The return coefficient directly depends on the RNG (Generator Random Numbers), developed by manufacturing companies, and tested by special organizations. In the diagram you can see an RNG without periodicity, that is, one that produces random results, and an RNG with periodicity, that is, one that can be calculated. Naturally, online casinos contain RNGs of the first type.

There is one more “BUT” that not all players know about. Surely, few players know about the undocumented features.

Undocumented features are features of slot machines or software that are not described by the manufacturer in the documentation. These features may be designed specifically to further expand the capabilities of the software, or they may be programmer errors, in other words, “bugs.” Such mistakes are often found by professional players.

For reference

In 2009, in a Las Vegas casino, two advanced Draw Poker slot machine players won more than four hundred thousand dollars using a software error.

Now on slot machines you can see the inscription “A technical failure or error during the game will void the results of winnings.”

You can win on slot machines, but mostly relying on luck and a high payout percentage. Other options are most likely illegal and should not be used.

It’s safe to say that not all players understand the concept of payout percentage in slot machines. The definition offered by gambling sites does not sufficiently clarify the situation. Therefore, it is worth understanding this term in order to understand its true meaning and benefits for the player.

So, the payout percentage, according to the casino, is a figure that reflects the ratio of total bets to the amount of winnings, multiplied by one hundred percent. In this case, bonuses are not taken into account.

In simple terms, the payout percentage is the portion of your deposited funds for spins that you may be able to get back. That is, you spent 100 coins on a slot with a return of 96 percent. This means that you simply give 4 coins to the establishment, and theoretically you can win the rest.

If you look at this parameter literally, then each spin should cost you minus 4%. It is not difficult to calculate that with a hundred spins you will lose 400 coins! And the longer the session lasts, the greater the disadvantages you will have to plunge into. However, such mathematics looks unprofitable only at first glance. Let's not forget that in gambling a lot is decided by chance. And it depends on him how much you end up spending and how much you earn. Moreover, the only winnings may be an order of magnitude greater than your monthly deposit!

How to make payout percentage work for the player

This figure itself only speaks of your capabilities, but you need to use them wisely. Let's say you deposited $500 into your gaming account, but you play for half or one dollar per bet. Such savings are considered unprofitable. In your case, the optimal rate should be approximately $3-5, and from time to time it should be increased to $10-20, and then returned to the previous level. It’s better to check how justified this strategy is in demo mode for free, and then use it in a session for money.

This method will help increase volatility, and the frequency, as well as the magnitude, of winnings will increase significantly.

But it must be said that small bets can also work, for example, in high-variance slot machines. But why wait for the weather from the sea if you can independently bring the happy moments of receiving prizes closer?

To summarize the above, it turns out that the more you stretch the process, the more money you lose. On the other hand, no one canceled luck, so thousands of players can argue that they are quite able to rise with small bets.

Much depends on your goals - the game for fun, of course, should be as long as possible. But if you intend to win regularly, you will have to experiment with bets and look for your “golden” size.