What exactly does Return to Play (RTP) and Hit Frequency? RETURN to the PLAYER (RTP). Return to Player (RTP) is the term used by casinos for describing the percentage of all the wagered money that a slot machine returns to players over time. return to player rate is possible to earn roughly $90 if placing 100 $1 bets in machines that have an RTP of 90. RTP and the house advantage can be calculated over a long period of time. There is a lot that can occur in the short term (see Short Term Volatility versus Long Term Predictability) Therefore, you should only ever bet with the money that you're willing to lose. RTP is the reverse side of the house advantage which you may have noticed. A machine that has 20 percent house advantage is likely to have an average RTP of 80%. That means the machine will keep around 20% of the money and return the rest to the players as they win. Hit Frequency Hit frequency refers to the amount of times a machine will stop once it has a winning combination. A hit frequency of 8 percent means that the machine will cease when it has a winning combination approximately 88% of the time. It's important to know that a lot of slots as well as VLTs allow players to bet on multiple lines on each spin. That means that a player can win one or more winning combinations, as well as many losing combinations in one spin. To the player, it might seem like he's winning more often, however, as with every other game it is the case that over time, losing combinations will far outnumber those that win. For VLTs and slot machines, there can be great variations in hit frequency. While some slots might have a hit rate of 3%, others such as video poker might have a rate of almost 45%. Although the frequency of hits in video poker may sound appealing be aware that nearly half of those hits result in the player winning his original bet. A machine with an average hit rate of 3% could sound rather uninteresting, however, it could offer players the chance of winning huge jackpots. (Machines that offer large progressive jackpots typically have a lower hit frequency and higher jackpots.) Many players perceive games that have lower hit frequency as tight because they are more challenging to win. Games that have high frequency of hits are viewed as being looser because they are filled with small wins. Keep in mind that hit frequency is how often (on average) an winning combination is likely to come up. Return-to-player refers to the percent or the amount that a machine will return over time.
return to player rate