Welcome to Casino-RTP

What is RTP at a casino?

RTP is a common term in online casinos, and many, especially new slot players, often wonder what it means.

In short, it stands for "Return to Player", which is also referred to as the "payback percentage" or simply the "payout". In Canada, people will often refer to it as which the "best paying" casino or slot is.

RTP is simply the average proportion of the bet size that is returned to slot players as winnings when they play a slot.

If a game at a casino has a 96% payout, it means, on average over a large amount of spins, that 96% of the players' bets are paid back as winnings to players (e.g. $96 out of $100 total bet). The casino itself, therefore, keeps 4%. By looking at this number, you can find out which the best paying casino is.

The video below explains how RTP works on slots.

Each casino chooses its own RTP payout

Unfortunately, most casino players don’t know that there are several different RTP versions for each slot.

Nor do they know that every casino actually chooses which version they want to offer to their customers!

A casino can, for example, choose to offer their slots with a 92% payback level instead of 96%, which means the casino doubles its profits (!) at the expense of the slot players.

With 96%, the casino would keep a 4% margin (100-96 = 4) on all bets, but with 92% RTP, they keep 8% (100–92 = 8), thus doubling their own profit - a 100% profit increase.

What value do we provide to our users?

Casino-RTP.com was started to give slot players transparency over which the best paying casinos and slots are. That's why we scan and document the RTP of hundreds of slots at every casino, to reveal their true configured settings.

We investigate and report on which Canadian casinos and which slots give players the best chance at winning over time, by comparing casinos with the highest and lowest return to player settings.

The information on our website is presented in a simple, user-friendly way, so you can make an informed decision about where to play slots.

What makes us unique?

There are a large number of sites that write about payout percentages at casinos. These sites have invested too little time in their research for the information to be truly useful. There are three problems with these other websites, which we aim to solve. The problems can be summarized as follows:

1. Other sites only report the highest RTP level

Many websites only report the highest payout level available for a slot but don’t take the time needed to see which level each specific casino has actually chosen to offer.

For example, Book of Dead can have RTP levels of 96.21%, 94.25%, 91.25%, and 84.18%. Most sites will report the slot RTP as 96.21%, the highest level, but many casinos instead offer the 94.25% or even the 91.25% version of the game.

This is very misleading for slot players, who will believe the 96% version is available everywhere. Therefore we take the time to reveal which game version is live at each site.

2. Other sites don’t check enough slots

Of the extremely few sites that actually check the RTP level, too few slots are reviewed. Usually, only 10 slots are checked per casino, and statistically, this is far too small a sample.

Most casinos have thousands of games, and in Canada many have over 10,000 games, which means that 10 examined games is only a fraction of the total. We compare hundreds of slots instead and always include the ones that are most popular with Canadian players.

3. Other sites don’t update the data

Checking payback levels takes a long time, and it’s not the most fun job. We’ve noticed that the few sites that have actually checked some RTP levels do not update their information continuously; in most cases, the data is years old. Other information on the site may be updated, but not the payout level itself.

Every casino can update the payout level for a game at any time, so if a comparison site does not re-check and update its data, it quickly becomes useless.

casino-rtp.com wants to change the game

We’ve set out on a mission to shift the power from the casinos to the players! To do this, we have created this website that shows the RTP for different slots and casinos, making sure not to repeat the same three mistakes as other sites have done. To sum up our website:

• We check the RTP ourselves at each casino.

• We check hundreds of casino games.

• We store the info in a database and display it in simple tables around our site.

• We update the RTP information continuously.

Users can trust our information.

We who run the site have over a decade of full-time working experience at real online casinos, in several different senior jobs and roles. The knowledge we provide and share comes from both our professional careers and our genuine interest in gaming.

All the data we collect is stored in a database, and our website is updated automatically from this data. We also always specify when the payout information for a game or casino has been updated - not just when something else on the page changes.

Comparing numbers between many slots can be tiring to the eyes, so we round all numbers to one decimal instead of two, as the last decimal has an almost non-existent effect on the gaming experience.

Why RTP is important

If you play at 96% RTP, have a starting budget of $200, and bet $1 per spin, you theoretically lose about $0.04 per spin (i.e. $1 x 4% loss).

To work out how many spins you can go through before your money runs out, divide $200 by that $0.04, which gives you 5000 spins.

Now let’s do the same calculation with a 94% payout. Here, your loss is instead $0.06 per spin ($1 x 6%).

Then we take $200 divided by $0.06, which gives you about 3,333 spins before your money is gone.

The difference in the number of spins is roughly 1,700 spins, and that's just on a $200 budget! Each one of those lost spins would've been a chance at landing a big win, a jackpot or a bonus round.

Because of the above, we always recommend comparing slot RTPs at different sites before you spin, to ensure that you play at the best paying casino.

Which casino gives you the best chance to win?

Of course, luck and randomness play an extremely large role when you try to win at casino games - it’s part of the excitement.

But if you want to maximize your chances of winning as much as possible, you should play at online casinos that have the highest payout. Otherwise, you’ll miss out on many spins you could have won on. We list all casinos and the payout levels they use so that you can easily choose the casino that gives you the best chance of winning.

On our website, we transparently show all the casinos with the highest RTP, and which ones to avoid, based on real tests. The best way to boost your chances of winning, is simply to play on the best paying casinos.

Which slots gives you the best chance to win?

Looking at a casino’s average payout across all slots we report on gives a good overview of the levels offered at different gaming sites.

But if you prefer to return to the same particular game, it is definitely worthwhile not only to compare the average level at the casino but also the specific game you want to play.

For instance, one casino might offer 96% on Book of Dead and Starburst, but 94% on Reactoonz and Pirots 2, whereas another casino does the opposite.

So if you like to play both Book of Dead and Pirots 2, you can benefit from playing Book of Dead at one casino and Pirots 2 at the other. Always check out our slot pages to see at which casino you have the greatest winning chance on each specific game.

Slots with fixed payout levels

There are some slots where the chance to win is the same, no matter which casino you play at:

Dead or Alive 2, Jack Hammer 2 and Beast Mode are examples of slots with high RTPs that are identical at all online casinos. This because the game studios who created the game only offered one single payout configuration to the casinos.

As a little bonus to the above, the slot Beast Mode actually has a payout level that increases from 96.32% to 97.00% if you use the feature to buy the bonus round.

The difference between RTP and volatility

These are two terms that are often mixed up - they are related but still quite different.

RTP, as we’ve discussed, dictates the theoretical payback to players. Volatility (or sometimes variance) dictates whether wins are large and infrequent, or small and frequent.

Both terms, therefore, have to do with the winning element in slots. The choice of RTP is clear: always choose the highest. The choice of volatility, however, is personal. Many new slot players prefer low volatility, meaning you get fewer non-winning spins, even if the wins themselves are smaller.

In the table below, you can clearly see the difference between high and low volatility:

There’s often a wider spectrum with medium volatility, medium-low and medium-high.

How does this fit into a casino strategy?

Much has been written about different casino and slot strategies on various websites and forums online.

Some claim you should play at specific times of day, others that you should try to catch a jackpot after many others have played, and some others claim that you should count spins and wins to try and time the slot.

We at casino-RTP.com, with years of experience working at several real online casinos, know that these myths are not true.

There is only one proven way to improve your chances: play with the highest possible Return To Player configuration.

Do jackpot slots give you a better chance to win?

Many believe that slots with jackpots have a higher win chance overall, due to the massive prize that someone will eventually win.

However, the fact is that jackpot slots usually have significantly lower RTP.

A prime example is from Fire and Roses Joker: in our tests, casinos that offer 96% on this slot instead offer 92.50% on Fire and Roses Joker King Millions.

That’s a drop of 3.5% for the same game with a jackpot! So be careful when playing games with large jackpots, this is true especially for Games Global jackpot slot which are very popular in Canada.

How do you find the payout level for a slot?

A few years ago, many casinos displayed the payout for every game on their website. Then, they started lowering the payout levels, and the information got hidden deep in the help files of each game.

We think this is unreasonable. If you walk into a supermarket, you can see what an item costs. When you go into a casino, it should also be clear what the payout percentage is, because the difference between 100% and the RTP is essentially the price you pay to play.

That’s why we’ve decided to check casino payout levels, to determine which is the highest paying ones.

Finding the payout percentage takes a lot of time. This is due to having to check many slots, but also because each slot has multiple help or info files. You need to pick the right file, and go through loads of text to find the correct information.

A recent trend with Canadian online casinos is also that the RTP isn't even displayed in the actual help file, making it impossible for a regular player to find it. We have therefore built an advanced tool that lets us extract the payout configuration even when it's removed from the text help files.

The RTP is theoretical and long-term

You should be aware that gambling for money can involve risks. Never play for more than you can afford to lose and always be prepared for the possibility of losing your entire gambling budget.

The RTP figure is also calculated over the long term, which means that a slot will only hit its true RTP over a huge number of spins.

Just like with the roll of dice, it’s possible to get three 3’s in a row (100% of your rolls), but over tens of thousands of rolls, the numbers on the dice will have equal distribution.

Similarly, with slots, the RTP evens out the larger the number of spins measured.

Play Responsibly

Even though most people enjoy it under control, gambling can be addictive and harmful for some people.

If you get stressed from gambling, try to chase and win back losses, or show any warning signs around your gambling habits, please get in touch with one of the below Canadian helplines immediately:

• https://gamblingtherapy.org

• https://www.getevive.com/gamtalk

Before you play, evaluate your finances and set a gambling budget. It can be session based, weekly, or monthly. Whichever suits you, the important thing is that you've set it and stick to it.

A lot of players also set a "winning budget", which means that you stop playing if you manage to win a certain amount of money. This will help you prevent losing back potential winnings.

Regardless of when or where you play, virtually all casinos offer so called RG Tools (responsible gambling tools). They can be everything from deposit limits or loss limits, login limits or session timer warnings. Make sure you use these, especially the ones that can be used in parallel with your gambling budget (such as a loss limit).

Feel free to contact us

We love to talk about slots and casino games, so contact us if you have any questions or thoughts about our website. If, against all odds, there’s a casino or slot you like that we’re missing, please let us know and we will add it.

Contact us here.

Popular slots in Canada

There are an enormous number of slots, but most slot players have similar favourites. Below, we have listed a number of very popular slots, both new and old favourites.

Wanted Dead or a Wild

Sakura Fortune

Energy Joker: Hold and Win

Big Bad Wolf

Book of Dead

Gold Blitz Extreme

Immortal Romance II

9 Masks of Fire