What Are Your Odds When Playing Slots?

What are your odds when playing slots? It’s a good question and one that varies tremendously. The odds of players winning a game of slots and are typically known as what the developers of casino game software refer to as RTP, meaning ‘The return to player rate’.

When searching different online casino sites to determine what the different odds, expect to see phrases such as ‘Expected RTP 95%’, or ‘House Edge 5%’. These two odds effectively mean the same. One is representing the amount a slot machine is likely to give its players and the other is referring to the amount of money a machine will give back to the mobile casinos.

To simplify, think of this scenario – for each pound coin you place into a slot machine, the machine will give 95 pence back to you. However, that would eliminate the whole point of playing to gamble as what you would effectively be doing would be paying 5 pence to play a game of slots!

This statistic is generated by the fact this is the amount of RTP calculated throughout the machine’s entire lifetime, which equates to millions of games and spins. It is working out the average, including the money given to the winners and the money the machine has taken each time a game has been played.

Choose machines with a high RTP

As we mentioned earlier, the odds of winning varies significantly when playing slots and to improve your chances of winning it stands to reason that you should look for a machine with a high return to player rate.

So what is a good RTP?

Generally speaking you should be looking for machines with an RTP of at least 95%. Anything over 95% is even better. If the slots machine is offering a rate lower than 95%, you would be wise to avoid it (like the plague!)

Consider variance

Though the RTP isn’t the only feature you should be aware of and look for. The ‘variance’ lays an important role in the frequency of a slot machine paying out. For example, a machine might have an RTP of 97% but a low variance, meaning you might have more opportunities of winning but if you do, it will be very little. By contrast, a machine will an RTP of, for example, 94% might make less frequent pay-outs, but when they do, you are likely to win a much more handsome sum of money.

And then there’s volatility

Volatility essentially describes the ratio between how much and how often a particular slot machine pays out. Put simply, a machine with a low volatility is a low risk and one with a high volatility is of a higher risk. Consequently, it is not uncommon for the providers of casino slot games to avoid publishing the volatility information about its machines.

With this is mind it pays to carry out sufficient research on different slot machine and what their winning odds are like prior to committing to a certain machine.