RTP / House Edge Calculator

What RTP actually measures

Return to Player (RTP) is a theoretical, long-run average: the percentage of all money wagered on a game that gets paid back to players, calculated across a huge number of simulated or real spins/hands — typically millions, run by the game’s developer during testing, not observed live at any single casino. A game with 96.5% RTP is mathematically designed so that, over enough play, €96.50 is returned for every €100 wagered on average. It says nothing about what happens in any short session — RTP is a property of the game’s long-run math, not a promise about your next hour of play.

From RTP to house edge to expected loss

House edge is simply 100% minus RTP — the average share of every wagered amount the game keeps for the house. A 96.5% RTP game has a 3.5% house edge. That edge applies to turnover (total amount wagered, including money that gets bet, won, and re-bet across a session), not to your starting bankroll, which is exactly why it compounds faster than most players intuitively expect. Wagering €5,000 in total volume during a session — easily possible from a much smaller starting bankroll, since winnings get re-wagered — against a 3.5% house edge implies an average expected loss of €175 over that volume, even though your starting balance might only have been €200.

This turnover effect is also exactly why wagering requirements on bonuses are so consequential: a wagering requirement forces a specific amount of turnover, and that turnover — multiplied by the house edge — is what our Bonus Wagering Calculator uses to estimate a bonus’s real expected cost. RTP and house edge are the mathematical foundation underneath that calculation, and underneath any estimate of expected loss from casino play generally.

RTP is not the same as volatility

Two games can share an identical RTP and still feel completely different to play, because RTP says nothing about volatility (also called variance) — how the payouts are distributed on the way to that long-run average. A low-volatility game pays out frequent, small wins that track close to the RTP over a relatively short session. A high-volatility game pays out rarely, but with much larger wins when it hits, meaning a typical short session looks like a long losing streak punctuated by occasional large spikes — even though, over enough play, both games settle toward the same stated RTP. Players who dislike long dry spells generally prefer lower-volatility games regardless of RTP; players chasing large single wins often prefer higher volatility, again regardless of RTP.

Where published RTP figures come from

A game’s RTP is set by its developer as part of the game’s design and verified by independent testing labs before a casino can offer it — it isn’t something an individual operator can quietly adjust after the fact for a given game. Some games do ship with multiple selectable RTP configurations (a developer choice, sometimes toggled by the operator when licensing the game), which is why the exact same game can occasionally show a slightly different published RTP at two different casinos. When in doubt about a specific game’s actual RTP, its in-game information/help screen — often labeled "Game Rules" or an "i" icon — is the authoritative source, not general assumptions based on the game’s type or publisher.

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