Payout percentage
Payout percentage is the share of all money staked on a casino game that the game is designed to pay back to players as winnings over a very long run of play. It is the same figure most sites label RTP, short for return to player, and it is always measured against total stakes rather than deposits. A slot listed at 96% is built to return 96 units for every 100 wagered across millions of rounds, keeping the other four. It describes the game’s design over its whole lifetime and says nothing about how any single session will go.
How payout percentage is calculated
The figure comes from the game’s mathematical model, not from watching players. For a slot, the studio adds up every possible outcome, weighted by its probability and multiplied by what it pays, and divides that by the stake. A testing lab then simulates the game over millions of rounds to confirm the observed return matches the model before certification.
Table games can be worked out by hand. A European roulette wheel has 37 pockets but pays 35 to 1 on a single number, so a player who covered every pocket once would stake 37 units and get 36 back. That is a return of about 97.3%, and the missing 2.7% is the house’s share.
Turnover is what trips people up.
Because the percentage applies to every stake, money that is won and then wagered again is counted each time it goes through the game. Someone who deposits €50 and keeps spinning a 96% slot until €500 has been staked can expect, on average, to have lost around €20 of that turnover, which is 4% of €500 rather than 4% of the original deposit. Over a short session the actual result can sit far above or below that, which is why the number is a long-run average and never a forecast.
Payout percentage, house edge and other figures
House edge is the same fact seen from the other side of the table. A game paying back 96% keeps 4%, and the two figures always add up to 100, so a page quoting one has effectively quoted the other.
The more misleading confusion is with a casino’s site-wide payout figure. Some operators publish a monthly or audited percentage covering every game on the site, but that number reflects whichever games customers happened to play in that period, so it tells a reader little about the slot in front of them. Practice here varies from operator to operator, and many publish no such figure at all.
Versions and settings
Many studios release the same slot in several RTP versions, and the operator chooses which one to run. Two casinos can therefore offer an identically named game at different payout percentages, and what I check first is the figure in that casino’s own game information panel rather than the studio’s headline number.
Hit frequency is a separate measure entirely.
Payout percentages across common table bets
The figures below are the standard mathematical values for each bet under the rules named, as published across house-edge references; individual tables can use different rules, so the game’s own help screen is the final word.
| Game and bet | Payout percentage | House edge | Rule that sets it |
|---|---|---|---|
| European roulette | 97.30% | 2.70% | Single zero, 37 pockets |
| American roulette | 94.74% | 5.26% | Double zero, 38 pockets |
| French roulette, even money | 98.65% | 1.35% | La partage on zero |
| Baccarat, banker | 98.94% | 1.06% | 5% commission, eight decks |
| Baccarat, tie | 85.64% | 14.36% | Tie paid at 8 to 1 |
| Online slot | Set per version | 100 minus RTP | Studio model, operator's choice |
Where players meet the figure and its limits
In a slot, the payout percentage usually sits in the information or help screen, often near the paytable or the game rules. Where it is shown is decided by the operator and the studio, and its position is not standardised across sites.
The number cannot make a game “due”. A slot that has paid little for an hour has the same payout percentage on the next spin as it had on the first, because each result comes from the random number generator independently of the last. A high figure also says nothing about volatility: two games at 96% can return that share through frequent small wins or through rare large ones, and the experience of playing them differs completely.
Used properly, the figure is a fair way to compare the cost of one game with another.
