RTP in casino games: how it works and how it feels for the player?
Bonjour les amis, Bogdan is here and let's discuss the topic of RTP today. It's a hot topic and we want to look at it from a different angle.
RTP is not directly understood by the player
First of all, let me say that RTP, return to player, is not directly understood by the player. So in the random games it would take several or maybe several hundred game sessions to understand what kind of return to player the game has.
Let's take a simple example. Say coin or dice. 📍 If you're playing dice, you probably have to play it 50, maybe 100 times to understand that it's a kind of square. You win, you lose, you win. And that is, it obviously takes time. In a more complex game like a slot machine, it will take even more time.
So that brings us to the following question.
How does RTP actually work?
📍In other words, why it's important in the first place and how RTP actually works. Look. Return to Player works like this. Every time you play, that is, every time you spin in a slot machine game, you lose a certain amount of your money, let's say 5% on average, depending on the slot machine, to a casino that has an edge over you, which is called the Casino Edge, the opposite of RTP.
So it means... that 📍 the central task of a casino is to keep you playing for more sessions. And this is how they actually realise the gaming age on you and create the capital. So the practical outcome or practical question here is that 📍 How exactly does RTP feel? For the casino to manipulate in their favour.
What does RTP feel like to a player?
📍 So RTP feels like you have more or less playing time with your budget. Let's have a look.
Let us say you have a budget of 100 Euros and you want to play sorting machines. So you have two of them, one with RTP of 96% and the other with RTP of 92%. The difference between the RTPs of the two machines is only 4%, but in practical terms, that's actually 📍 twice as short a playing session with that 4% difference in RTP.
See how it works. For example, the house age in the first case is six 4%. This means that in order to lose your 100 euros, you'd need to play 2,500 spins. But in a case of 92 slots RTP, this is a house edge of 8%, it will statistically take 1,250 spins to lose your money.
4% drop in RTP halves your playing time
That is to say that📍 a relatively small difference in RTP will result in a gaming experience that is twice as low in terms of playing time. But there's another dimension to this. So when we talk about halving the RTP, when we say that a small decrease in RTP results in half or almost half a total playing time, we have to say that RTP is divided into small, medium, large and very large wins.
So by saying that RTP is divided into several amounts of wins, we are saying that the return to the player is actually paid back in small portions, like one, two euro winnings, medium, like 20 euro winnings or high or very high winnings exceeding 100 times your bet and so on.
And so,📍 So it really affects both the excitement of the game as well as the playing time. Let's take an example.
Example of how halving the percentage of very high wins affects the overall RTP of the slot.
If the RTP is 96, the very high ance accounts for 1% of the total payout. So then the halving effect of the decrease in RTP would also be in place, uh, where the percentage of very high aces is, for example, 6%. So it means that practically the player would, uh, have a slot machine with 95 or 90 RTP. So it, the more glaring, the bigger the differences, the more obvious it is to play. 📍 So obviously we found out that the RTP of the slot machine affects the playing time and also, due to the structure of this RTP, it affects the payout in such a way that the more RTP is allocated to high and very high wins, the more the slot machine is what we call volatile. 📍 So let's have recall a discussion about high volatility slots too.
Recap of key findings on RTP
So we found out that RTP, a Return to player, affects the portion of winnings that are paid back as a result of each and every game in a session, that is, free spins or spins of the dice or whatever. And we practically know that it affects things like player time, how long you can play with your budget.
And also things like the thrill of the game. Because the higher the RTP is for high or very high wins, the more exciting the game is. So we've come to what's called volatility. So we have to say that obviously high volatility slots are very popular these days. There is a special group of players who like them. Because even if you play for, say, 100 spins without winning, if you win once, it will make up for all your losses. But the thrill, you know, the thrill is there...
