Have you ever heard the words ‘house edge’ or ‘RTP percentage’ and wondered what they mean? Why are they talked about so frequently, and are they the same thing? These are very good questions, and we have got answers!
We are going to be taking a deep dive into this topic so that you do not have to do the research. Why not try to read on about the house edge vs. slots RTP% and whether they are the same thing?
House Edge
Firstly, let’s take a look at the phrase ‘house edge’. You are most likely to hear about this when playing online casino games such as Blackjack, Roulette or Craps. Everybody knows that casino games are usually based on chance, but some people are misled into thinking that this means you have a 50% chance of winning. This is not the case – a perfect example of this is Roulette. You could bet on red or black, and this would theoretically be like flipping a coin, right? Wrong – the house (aka the casino) will always have a slightly increased change of winning, so your chances are very slightly less than 50%. Look at the following house edges:
- The blackjack house edge is usually 0.5% but can be as high as 2%
- The house edge in a game of craps is around 1.46%
- The roulette house hedge is approximately 5.6%
Essentially this means that if you play a game of roulette and bet on red, the house has 5.6% increased chance of winning! This means that you are not going to win 1 in 2 games, but instead around 9 out of 20 games!
RTP %
Contrary to what many people believe, RTP% is not the same thing as a house edge. RTP% stands for Return to Player Percentage, and this essentially means the percentage of cash on average that will be returned to the player. Let’s take a look at the following RTP% examples:
- NetEnt’s Mega Joker has a tasty RTP% of 99%!
- The average RTP% of a standard slot game is around 97%
- Some progressive slots such as Playtech’ X-Men have an RTP% as low as 90%!
It’s important to realize that just because a slot has an RTP% of 99%, that does not mean that you will always receive 99% of your cash back. If that were the case, slot machine games would be very low risk and the chances of walking away with a profit would be huge! For example, whilst Mega Joker has an average RTP% of 99%, the RTP can be as low as 72%! If you are not aware of this, you can walk away very disappointed so watch out!
The Verdict
There you have it – the house edge is not the same thing as RTP%. The house edge represents the increased odds that the casino has of beating you in casino games, whereas RTP% represents the average amount of cash that will be returned to the player in a slot game. Always investigate these statistics before you play casino games! Smart.
