RTP, or return to player, is the percentage of all money staked on a game that it is designed to pay back as winnings over a very large number of plays. A 96% RTP game is built to return £96 for every £100 staked in the long run, keeping £4. It is an average, not a promise: in any single session, results can be far higher or lower.
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What RTP means
The Gambling Commission in Great Britain describes percentage return to player as the part of the money paid to play that is given back to players as prizes1.
So if a game has an RTP of 96%, it is designed so that, across all players and a very large number of plays, 96% of the money staked comes back as winnings. The remaining 4% is the operator's margin.
The published figure is the theoretical RTP: the return the game is designed to deliver. The Commission's guidance notes that this is also the RTP advertised to players in the game rules2.
How RTP is calculated
There are two ways to arrive at an RTP figure, and they answer different questions.
Theoretical RTP
Theoretical RTP comes from the game's design: its paytable, rules and the probability of each outcome. Providers run computer simulations that replay millions or even billions of spins to estimate the average return, and in regulated markets those results are reviewed by regulators and independent testing labs4.
Actual RTP
Actual RTP is what a game really paid out over a period. It is calculated by dividing total wins by total turnover3. Turnover means every stake placed, including winnings that were staked again2.
The Commission's own example shows a game with a theoretical RTP of 91.68% whose measured RTP over one period was 90.42%3. The two figures move closer together as the volume of play increases3.
RTP is a long-term average
This is the most important point about RTP. The Commission states that the figure is an average achieved over a significant number of plays, not each time a game is played1.
Its example is direct: a machine showing an 85% RTP does not mean you should expect to win back an average of 85p for every £1 you stake during a session1.
For operators monitoring games, the Commission advises that measuring a game with only a small amount of play is pointless, because the natural range of results is too wide to be meaningful5. A single player's session is a very small amount of play.
Worked example (hypothetical)
The figures below are invented to show the arithmetic. They do not describe any real game or result.
Imagine a slot with a 96% RTP and a £1 stake. Over 500 spins, total turnover is £500.
- Theoretical return: £500 × 96% = £480
- Theoretical cost of play: £500 − £480 = £20
That £20 is an average across an enormous number of imaginary 500-spin sessions. Some of those sessions would lose the whole balance; a few would finish well ahead. RTP tells you where the average sits, not where your session will land.
How small RTP differences add up
Because RTP applies to every pound staked, small percentage gaps matter over time. This table is calculated directly from the percentages.
| RTP | Average returned per £100 staked | Average cost per £100 staked |
|---|---|---|
| 97% | £97 | £3 |
| 96% | £96 | £4 |
| 94% | £94 | £6 |
| 92% | £92 | £8 |
| 88% | £88 | £12 |
Moving from a 96% version to a 94% version of the same game increases the average cost of play by half.
RTP and house edge
RTP and house edge describe the same thing from opposite sides. House edge is the ratio of the average loss to the initial bet10, so for a game with a single, fixed RTP, house edge equals 100% minus RTP.
European single-zero roulette, for example, has a house edge of 2.70%11, which corresponds to an RTP of 97.30%. Our house edge guide shows how these figures are derived.
RTP and volatility are different measures
RTP says how much a game is built to return over the long run. Volatility describes the pattern of wins: how often payouts appear and how large they can be4. Hit frequency, the rate at which spins produce any win, is a separate statistic again4.
Two games can share the same RTP and feel completely different to play. Our guide to slot volatility explains why.
Why the same game can have different RTPs
Many players assume a game has one RTP. Often it does not.
Providers frequently release several RTP versions of the same game, and the casino chooses which one to run based on margin targets or commercial terms4. As one example, Hacksaw Gaming's page for Wanted Dead or a Wild lists four RTP options: 96.38%, 94.55%, 92.33% and 88.42%6.
The game looks identical in every version. Only the maths behind it changes.
Where to check the RTP in use
The game's own rules or information screen is the place to look. In Great Britain, information that helps customers judge their chances of winning, including the average theoretical RTP, must be easily available before they commit to gamble7.
Other jurisdictions set their own requirements. The RTP in the KiraBet game database is the figure the provider publishes, with other versions noted where the provider lists them.
Who checks RTP
In regulated markets, simulation results are reviewed by regulators and independent testing labs4. In Great Britain, licensees must ensure new products have been adequately tested by an approved test house before release and supply the test report to the Gambling Commission8.
The random number generators behind games are also regulated there. Their output must be unpredictable, and games must be implemented fairly and in line with the rules and payouts described to customers9.
These checks confirm that a game behaves as designed. They do not change the fact that the design returns less than is staked.
What RTP cannot tell you
- It cannot predict a session. Results over a few hundred spins can sit far from the published figure.
- It does not say when a win will come. Nothing in the figure indicates that a game is "due" to pay after a losing run.
- It is not a measure of safety or fairness of the website. A correct RTP says nothing about how an operator handles withdrawals or personal data. See how to spot unsafe gambling sites.
- It does not remove risk. Any RTP below 100% means players as a group lose money over time.
- RTP
- RTP (return to player) is the percentage of all money staked on a game that it is designed to pay back as winnings, averaged over a very large number of plays. It does not predict the result of any single session.
- House edge
- The average loss on a bet expressed as a percentage of the stake, representing the casino's built-in mathematical advantage. For a game with a fixed return, house edge equals 100% minus RTP.
- Volatility
- A measure of how widely a game's results vary around its average return, commonly represented by the standard deviation. High-volatility games pay larger wins less often; low-volatility games pay smaller wins more often.
- Hit frequency
- How often a game produces a win of any size, expressed as a percentage of plays or as one win in a given number of plays. It is separate from RTP, and a counted win can be smaller than the stake.
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