Slot Machine Returns (aka RTP)

Last update: September 4, 2024

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What are slot returns

Slots are designed to return most of the money that's played to the player, and to keep a small portion as the casino's profit.  The percentage that's designed to be paid back to the player is called the “Return to Player”, or “RTP” for short, or just “the return”.  Most slots in land casinos are set to pay back 91-93% of the money played, vs. about 96% for online slots like the ones at Bovada.

How the RTP is calculated

The RTP is figured from the total paid out for all the winning combinations.  We'll use an old three-reel slot to make the example easy.  Let's say there are 64 stops on each reel.  There are therefore 64³ = 262,144 total combinations.   If we played through every combination exactly once, on our hypothetical machine we'd win 249,038 coins.  So 249,038 ÷ 262,144 = 95%.  Ta-da.  Here's a more detailed analysis of how the return on a machine is calculated.

Machines don't get looser & tighter to meet the RTP

A common misunderstanding is that if a slot pays a jackpot, or lots of small wins, it'll then tighten up in order to hit the specified RTP.  That is absolutely not how it works.  (And I know, because I program them.)  The reels always land on a random combination, and it's the frequency of the symbols on the reels, married to the paytable, which determines the return of the machine.  Every spin is completely random, and that randomness creates the specified long-term return. (more...)

RTPs are secret at U.S. land casinos

Land casinos in the U.S. almost never tell you the return of any machine.  Which is ridiculous.  We know the odds for games like blackjack, craps, and roulette, because we can see all elements of the game and can analyze them.  But for slot machines, you'll be flying blind, because that's the way the casinos like it (for no good reason, the secrecy doesn't help them), and no regulatory body in the U.S. has bothered to require transparency.

Slots-A-Fun casino, seemingly in the 1970s.  From Twitter, original source unknown

I know of only two casinos in Vegas which tell you the RTP of any of their machines.  The first are some machines at Slots-A-Fun, which pay 97.4%, and I think they're $1 to $5.  Incidentally, those are also the only slots on the Strip which accept and pay in coins.  There are 25¢ coin games at Slots-A-Fun, but I don't think those are 97.4%.  The coin slots started out at Slots-A-Fun, were moved to the parent casino Circus Circus, and then moved back to Slots-A-Fun circa March 2024.

The second casino which discloses the RTP of any of their slots is El Cortez, which reportedly has some slots made by U1 such as Northern Lights, which disclose the return on the screen, which is 97.3% on at least one of the slots according to a YouTube video. (source) 

The Strat and Riviera used to have a bank of $1 slots labeled 98%, but no more.  Harrah's has (or had) slots labeled "up to 98%", which is so vague as to be meaningless; that means that one of the machines pays 98%, they're not telling you which one, and the others are all crap.  If you know of a land casino which advertises specific returns without the “up to” qualifier, please let me know and send me a picture!

Online, it's much different.  Some online casinos, like VideoSlots, publish both the RTP and the actual returns for their machines.  (Unfortunately, VideoSlots doesn't take U.S. players, and Bovada, which does take U.S. players, doesn't publish RTPs or paybacks.)  VideoSlots was probably the first to publish returns, and now other online casinos are forced to follow suit in order to compete.  As more and more casinos are disclosing their slot returns, players are coming to expect it, and the websites that rank and rate online casinos are starting to include RTP-disclosure in their rating criteria.

In the U.K., casinos are required by law to publish the RTPs on their machines.  Who wants to send me a picture of the label?

Games with the same name come in a variety of RTPs

When a slot maker makes a game, say Money Storm, they offer it in a variety of RTPs, because some casinos want their slots to be looser or tighter than those in other casinos.  (And again, there's no way for you, as the player, to know the RTP of a game in U.S. land casinos, though some online casinos are more transparent with their players.)  As an example, the Phantom of the Opera slot comes in eight different RTPs: 85%, 87.5%, 90%, 92.%, 94%, 95%, 97.4%, and 98%. (source) 

It used to be that changing the RTP of a machine required physically opening the machine and swapping out a chip.  But new regulations have seemed to open the door to slots that can be configured more easily by the casino, so that casinos don't have to specify the RTP when they order the machine.  The RTPs can be set remotely over the network, without having to screw around with the insides.  Even so, there's no reason to believe that casinos constantly tinker with the odds, tightening them up during busy times.  See Slot Machine Myths for more.

Las Vegas slot returns

Vegas casinos have to report their slot payouts to the state Gaming Commission.  The state doesn't report each casino separately (rats!), they report by area of town.  Also, be aware that they lump all video gaming (including video poker, video keno, etc.) together for the "slot" figures.  Finally, note that these figures are the actual amounts the machines paid out, not (designed) RTP, which is why I call them "payouts" and not returns.

Some takeaways from the Vegas figures:

1. Denomination depends on location.  On the Strip, the best payouts are with the dollar machines (but that makes you bet more than you would on a 1¢, 5¢, or 25¢ machine, you'll lose more money, despite the higher return).  Everywhere else, 5¢, 25¢, and $1 machines are pretty much the same.
2. The strip has the worst payouts.  Downtown is a little better, but not by much.  The Boulder Strip and North Las Vegas casinos have the best payouts.
3. The bigger separation between the Wizard's slots-only survey and reported payouts for the Strip vs. Downtown is probably because the strip has a higher mix of slots and downtown has a higher mix of video poker (which tends to pay better than slots).

Slot payouts across the U.S.

Just like in Vegas, casinos are required by law to report their slot payouts to the government, so that information is public.  The exception is casinos in tribal lands, which don't report.  Below are the slot payouts I researched across the U.S., for 2017 and/or 2018, with some caveats:

1. Most jurisdictions lump in video poker, video blackjack, etc. in with the "slots" figures.  For areas that offer video poker (not all do), I'd subtract a percentage point from the figures to more closely approximate the payout for just slots.
2. My figures are the average for all denominations, but lower-denomination games tend to pay worse and higher-denomination tend to pay better.  So expect to get worse odds than what's listed below when playing pennies or nickels, even after you've subtracted a point for VP being lumped in.

Some areas report the payouts for each individual casino separately.  (Nevada isn't one of them.)  For those areas, you can see the individual casino payouts at American Casino Guide.  However, even when payouts are broken out for individual casinos, it's cold comfort, because they all suck.

Most states also prescribe minimum RTPs for the machines.  I also included those in the table so you can see that they're all but irrelevant; most casinos blow way past the mandated minimum.

As I write this, this is the only such table-ized data available anywhere on the whole Internet.  You sure came to the right place, didn't you?

TV, movie, and celebrity-themed slots pay worse

A former slot director notes, "TV, movie, and celebrity themed games...cost the casino more in revenue sharing (they also cant be purchased), so the hold is always higher."(source)  A VP at a slot maker suggests that these slots pay about 2% points less than non-themed slots. (LV Sun) 

Online slot returns

Online casinos offer much better slot returns than land casinos, because they have much lower overhead.  (No physical machines, no luxury resort to make mortgage payments on, fewer employees, etc.)  Slot returns in land casinos are around 91% (see above) but online it's about 96% (which is my estimate for my advertiser, Bovada Online Casino).

This is a big deal:  At 91% RTP you're losing 9% of your money, and at 96% RTP you're losing 4% of your money.  So, by switching from land casinos to online, your money will last twice as long (with the catch being that you could lose more online if the easy access to online gambling causes you to play more).

While it's nearly impossible to find the RTP for specific machines in land casinos, there are a number of online slot publishers and casinos which publish that data.  I tabulated the data from one online publisher (NetEnt) and here are the results:

• 89% of their slots are in the range 96-96.99%.
• 96.33% Median
• 96.37% Average
• 99% High (Mega Joker)
• 92.96 Low (Super Lucky Frog)
  Data collected 2/14/23

I estimate the slot RTP for my advertiser, Bovada, to be around 96%.  I've been able to see reports for millions of dollars of casino play at Bovada for 2022, with an RTP of 97.27%, but this includes table games which can have a higher RTP (like blackjack, which is around 99.5% with proper play).  So an RTP of 96% for slots seems reasonable.

Cruise ship slot returns

A Wizard of Vegas member who says that he used to run casinos on cruise ships, says the RTPs were set to 84%. (WoV) 

How much of the RTP comes from the jackpot

Most of the RTP on a typical slot comes from the small pays, not from the jackpot.  In fact, the jackpot usually comprises less than 1% of the total return.  The main exception are the huge progressive slots like Megabucks, where the jackpot is a huge part of the amount paid out.  Here's what portion of the total return is comprised of the jackpot for various machines.  And by the way, as I write this, this is the most complete list of such data anywhere on the Internet.  Are you seeing a trend?

How the RTP affects your bottom line

With the RTP, we've been talking in terms of how much you get back.  The flip side is how much the casino keeps as its profit.  If the return is 95%, then the house edge is 5%.  Here's why that's important:  One machine might have a return of 94% and another 97%.  Those might look pretty similar, and 94% might seem fairly decent.  But flip it, and the house edge (how much you lose) is 6% and 3% respectively.  So, on the 94% machine, you'll lose twice as much money as you would on the 97% machine!

Here's my average loss calculator, which shows slot losses compared to losses at other games.

You can calculate your average hourly loss yourself pretty easily:

Bet per spin x spins per hour x house edge = average hourly loss

For example, let's say you're betting $1.50 per spin, playing at a rate of 600 spins per hour, on a 93% machine (7% house edge).  Your average hourly loss will be $1.50 x 600 x 7% = $63/hour.

That's a long-term average.  In the short term, your loss will likely be a little higher, because you'll probably have to play for a long time before you hit the jackpot.  For more on this, see my separate article on average loss.

Understand that your average loss is based on how much money you play, not how much money you take with you.  For example, you might think, "Okay, I'm bringing $500, and the slots take an average of 8%, so I should lose about $40."  Not even.  You'll probably go through that $500 about half an hour if you play $1.50 per spin, and lose an average of $40 on that.  But then when you play the $460 or so that you got out of the machine, you'll expect to lose 8% of that, etc.  Losing a bit every time you replay your bankroll is called the grind.  The casino grinds you down.  It doesn't matter whether your return is 90% or 99%, if you play long enough at any game you'll eventually lose all your money.

Figuring out the RTP from the slot points

Steve Bourie came up with a clever way to figure a machine's payback based on how many slot points are earned for a certain amount of play.  This works only at casinos which award points based on the exact RTP of a machine; casinos usually give points based on how much money is run through the machine, regardless of what its RTP is.

Play slots online

I suggest you play something other than slots because slot odds are so bad.  You could also play online with fake money, because then it doesn't matter if you lose.  A good casino for free-play is Bovada, since it requires no download and no registration.  (If you see a registration box, you can close it and continue without registering.)  You can play with real money too, though I hope you won't (or at least won't bet more than you can comfortably afford to lose). (advertisement)

All my slot machine articles

• Slot machine basics.  How much it costs to play, how much you can win, expected loss, why they're a bad bet, why they're popular, how you can limit your losses, speed of play
• How to play slot machines
• Slot returns.  How much they pay back.
• The Randomness Principle.  Slots don't continually get looser and tighter as they're played.  They don't have to.
• How they work. Explains the randomness principle, and runs through the math to show how a game returns a particular payback percentage.  There's a companion page on Par sheets.
• Strategies. Tips for increasing your chances of winning, and saving money.
• Slot Jackpots.  Odds of hitting the jackpot, progressive jackpots, and other jackpot topics.
• Bonus Rounds (all about them)
• How to Beat Slot Machines, aka Advantage Play (AP).  It's not what you think: it's not easy, and for the most part, not lucrative.
• Slot Machine malfunctions. How and why slot machines screw up, causing players to think they've won the jackpot when they really haven't.
• Slot Machine Myths
• Slot Machine B.S.  Wrong info that's published elsewhere.
• Biggest Jackpots.  The largest slot and table game jackpot wins in Vegas.
• Skill-Based Slots.  The scoop on the new games in which your results aren't entirely determined by chance.
• Slot Machine Simulator.  I programmed an exact replica of the Blazing 7s slot (odds-wise).  Click it to play thousands of spins in one second and see how you do.
• Slot name Generator.  Randomly creates a slot machine name using common slot words.  Hilarious!