Why Do RTP and Volatility Matter When Playing Slots?
Some online casino players bet on slots solely because they can potentially pocket immense prizes. Others opt to have a stab at slot machines because they are easy to play and require no real experience. Some players may even choose slots because they associate with their themes. However, the two main reasons you should choose slots are their RTP and volatility levels. What does this mean? We’re happy to help newbies understand these basic principles right here in this brief guide.
What is RTP?
RTP (in the slot world) stands for Return to Player and is the theoretical percentage of cash that a slot pays its players. Generally speaking, RTPs of below 95% aren’t very good, while some can rise up to 97%, even 98%. The percentage you see (RTP) is the amount of each bet that a casino makes available for all players (yourself included) to win over all time. This doesn’t mean that you can win 98% of the time or even that you are guaranteed to win $0.98 for every $1 you bet. It means that of every bet made, 98% (or whatever the RTP is) is put back into a pot for all slot players to win over all time. The remaining percentage is known as house edge. This is pure profit the casino takes from each bet on slots. As you can see, the higher the RTP rate, the fairer the slot is.
Where Does Volatility Come into the Mix?
Volatility is another important feature in online slot gambling. Volatility tells you how much a game pays and how frequently. For instance, low variance (another word for volatility) slots pay out regularly. However, these slots tend to dish out small-scale prizes most of the time, with big winnings only being landed rarely. By contrast, highly volatile slot machines pay out very infrequently. However, winnings tend to be sizeable when they do. Players with small budgets prefer low variance games, while those with big budgets prefer highly volatile games. This is because you need a big balance to sustain the losing streaks associated with high variance/high volatility slots.
Check Paytables, Read Reviews and Play for Free
You may be wondering how you can discover the RTP rate and volatility levels of top slot machines. Fortunately, there are three primary ways that you can discover this information. Firstly, you can choose to check the paytables of the slots in question. You may find the volatility rating and/or RTP rate mentioned there. If not, you needn’t worry – there are plenty of slot reviews online. While we have to account for a margin of error (some may have got the data wrong), many will accurately display the RTP rate and volatility level in their reviews.
Failing that, you can always opt to play the game for free yourself. There are equations online that you can use to calculate a game’s RTP and volatility. You’ll need to be good at mathematics, but it isn’t impossible if you’re interested in doing the legwork for yourself.
For all the latest sports news follow PledgeSports on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.