Paytable
A paytable is the screen inside a casino game that lists every winning combination and what each one pays, usually as a multiple of the stake. On a slot it also explains the paylines, the special symbols and the bonus rules. In video poker it does more than describe the game: the figures printed there decide the long-run return, so two machines with the same name can pay back quite different amounts.
Where Players Meet the Paytable
On an online slot the paytable sits behind an information or menu icon, and the payouts it shows usually update when the stake changes. Many studios also print the game’s RTP there, although some release several RTP versions of one title, so the figure on the paytable is the one that counts for that casino.
Readers often confuse the paytable with the RTP itself.
The paytable is the list of prizes; RTP is the long-run average that results from those prizes combined with how often each one lands. A slot paytable never shows those frequencies, which is why the RTP has to be published separately.
Two Jacks or Better Paytables Side by Side
Video poker names its versions after the paytable: in Jacks or Better, 9/6 means a full house pays 9 per coin and a flush pays 6. The table below sets the full-pay 9/6 schedule against the common 8/5 one, using the published standard payouts.
| Hand | 9/6 per coin | 8/5 per coin | 9/6 five coins | 8/5 five coins |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal flush | 800 | 800 | 4,000 | 4,000 |
| Straight flush | 50 | 50 | 250 | 250 |
| Four of a kind | 25 | 25 | 125 | 125 |
| Full house | 9 | 8 | 45 | 40 |
| Flush | 6 | 5 | 30 | 25 |
What One Unit Off the Paytable Costs
With every hand held correctly and the five-coin royal bonus, 9/6 Jacks or Better returns 99.54%, while 8/5 returns 97.30%. Over €1,000 wagered, that is an average loss of roughly €4.60 against about €27, as a long-run figure and never a prediction for one session.
The gap comes entirely from two lines of the table, because full houses and flushes land often enough to move the total. Bet fewer than five coins and the royal flush usually drops to 250 for 1, which lowers the return further; operators differ on how clearly they show this, so the full paytable is worth reading before the first hand.
