The RTP for Land-Based Slot Machines
Introduction: Finding the RTP for Land-Based Slot Machines
The RTP for land-based slot machines is going be very helpful if you’re going to be playing the slot machines at the casino. But why? Well, it’s very important to have some idea of the Return to Player (RTP) as this is the number that lets you know exactly how much the slot will payout in the long run. A higher RTP gives you a greater chance of winning. To that end, it’s always good to know the RTP before you start to play if simply to see your payout possibilities.
If you’re playing online, then a simple Google search for the particular machine you’re playing will bring up the RTP. But when it comes to land-based casinos, then it’s a much tougher job, as they don’t tend to list this information anywhere. So is there a means of discovering the RTP for land-based casinos? Let’s first look into the whole business of RTP.
Why Isn’t RTP Available for Land-Based Slots?
If you do a Google Search for the RTP of any land-based casino games, you’ll turn up zero information. One of the biggest problems with trying to find these numbers is that different games have different RTP’s depending on the individual casino. The best jackpot game providers allow each casino to select the RTP they wish to play with. To give you an example on how this works:
WMS is offering Monopoly Party Train slot to Vegas casinos.
They feature the following RTP options: 92.5%, 93.5%, and 94.5%.
Caesars Palace orders this game at 93.5% payback.
The Venetian orders Monopoly Party Train at 92.5% RTP.
Treasure Island orders this slot at 94.5% RTP.
With these numbers all over the place, it’s easy to see how difficult it would be to pin down a single number, though you could go for the averages. Though a figure may be true for one establishment, it may be a completely different number at another. Now, most online slot providers will offer their games in a uniform RTP across all customers. For example, Rival Gaming has the game, “Spy Game” listed as 95.1% payback across all the casinos who stock the game. It’s true that there are some exceptions for online casinos. An example would be RealTime Gaming’s RTP, which gives the casinos a choice between 91.5%, 95%, or 97.5% RTP for a given game. Also, this company hides the RTP for all it’s games across the board. But RealTime Gaming is an outlier within the gaming industry.
How Can You Figure out the RTP?
In truth, you will not be able to find the exact numbers as far as the percentage payouts are concerned for land-based casinos. But there are a number of methods that can help you come to a pretty close estimate of the actual figures. Below we’ve listed some of the means which help you get as close as possible to the real RTP.
Make General Guesses Based on Coin Denominations
As you know, casinos like to award players who are willing to risk more. So there’s actually a pecking order of the RTP’s depending on the size of the denominations that are fed into the actual slot machine. Here’s an example of how this works:
Penny slot machines = 88% to 90% RTP
Nickel slot machines = 91% to 94% RTP
Quarter slot machines = 93% to 95% RTP
Dollar slot machines = 94% to 96% RTP
$5 slot machines = 95% to 97% RTP
When it comes to payout, you can guarantee that penny slots are going to be by far the worse. But with larger denominations, like $1 – $5, these will be closer to the payouts listed. Keep in mind that the higher the denomination you’re feeding into the slot, the greater will be your losses. Simply because you’re betting more per spin. Having said that, you may get better value per dollar by wagering with a higher denomination due to better RTP.
RTP for Land-Based Slot Machines: Read State Gaming Reports
As you can see, making generalizations about the coin size helps us only so far. So another method to see the RTP is to browse through the State Gaming Reports. These are submitted to the various Gaming Commissions and they’ll show the average payout percentage (or house edge) for each coin denomination within that particular state casinos. An example would be if you took a look at the Nevada Gaming Commission’s release and you’ll see that $1 slot machines offer an RTP of 94.79% on average, throughout the state. Yes, this is still an average. But with some games, the Gaming Commissions actually do state the real RTP. But it’s rare to find such specific information. These reports are helpful in bring us yet closer to a real figure, but still, deal in generalizations. So though you will not find an exact RTP, the numbers given can be useful.
Email a Casino and Ask
This might sound desperate, but calling the casino directly, or even sending them an Email, might elicit a response. But the issue here is that customer support will state, more often than not, that they don’t have that information. Though we wouldn’t count on this method, it’s probably still worth a try. You never know, you could actually receive an answer.
What to Avoid When Searching for Land-Based Slots Payback
So these are the methods of trying to determine the RTP of land-based casinos. But there are some measures we suggest that you avoid in your quest to find the machine payback. Let’s have a quick look at them.
RTP for Land-Based Slot Machines: Relying on Signs Inside of Casinos
You’ll often see a sign hanging above a jackpot slot machine with the claim that “Pays up to 99%”. Obviously these signs are there as a means of drawing players to the slot machine. A sign like that promising a mere 1% house edge, is a very attractive machine. But take care, as many of these signs are put up in such a way as to be misleading. A sign like the one above would probably mean that just 1 machine in the section offers such a low house edge. All the other machines could be as high as 90%….and the sign would still be valid. We wouldn’t rely on any information you’ll find at the casino too much. With the above scenario, there’s no way that the casino would point out which machine is paying out a particular sum.
The only way to find out would be to play all the machines over a long period of time to see the real RTP.
Using One Good Session to Determine Quality Payback
This cannot work simply because slots are by their very nature, very volatile games. You could have a few large payouts from a single session and then nothing for any number of preceding sessions. So a single round on a slot can never give you accurate information. We should point out that this is a common mistake that many gamblers make. They experience one “hot session” with a slot machine and then automatically assume that that particular machine offers a higher RTP. It would be amazing if that was the simple ingredient to finding casino based slot machine RTP.
Blindly Believing Ads for the “Loosest Slots”
If you’re driving along the Interstate, you’ll see a lot of these ads. Placed in prominent positions designed to capture the eye and the imagination of would-be casino customers. These billboards suggest that this or that casino offers high RTP and frequent payouts. But you should always keep in mind that a term like “loose” is both relative and undefined. Gambling Commissions don’t say what should constitute “loose”, leaving it up to the individual casinos to make claims. These don’t even have to be truthful. So, take any such ads with a large pinch of salt.
Conclusion: Finding RTP for Land-Based Slot Machines
It probably seems strange that online casinos are happy to provide the RTP’s for their games, and yet land-based casinos don’t. But the bottom line is that these jackpot slots actually are programmed by a third-party provider and have little input from the actual casino itself. Yes, the casino can choose the RTP percentage from a fixed menu. And that’s why it’s difficult to trace RTP by game offered. One casino may take the option for an RTP of 95% and yet another casino will opt for 99%.
The problem with trying to find out the real RTP of a casino based game is that the casino doesn’t want you to know it. And that’s because slots are a bad choice as far as payback goes. So the only means is to take a guess based on the information we’ve provided.
