The return to player (RTP) of a slot is one of the most important aspects of the game. The number represents the odds of the game, giving players a good idea of what they can expect from a slot in the long term. Below, we go over what RTP means, why it’s important, and where you can find the highest RTP slots available online.
Table of Contents
What Is RTP?
Return to player (RTP) is the average payback percentage of a casino game on average. For example, a 90% RTP pays back $90 for every $100 bet on it overall. The average RTP for slots is about 95.5%. But what is a good RTP for slots? Once a player learns how to play slots, that’s the logical next question. Whether you’re looking for real money slots online or at a retail casino or you’re just playing free slots, good RTP can be, quite literally, a game-changer.
What is a Good RTP for Online Slots?
A good RTP for a slot is 97% or better, while the average RTP is between 94% – 96%, anything below 94% RTP is considered low, but slots are still considered one of the best games to win money. Slot machines allow players to wager small amounts for the chance to win huge jackpots at online casinos with the best payout, so the odds are generally worse compared to table games. A good RTP for table games is 98.5% or better, with games like blackjack offering payback as high as 99.8%. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a slot with odds that good, but it’s not impossible to find slots RTP as high as 98%.
Check out our list of the best payout slot machines.
Why is the RTP Percentage so Important?
Slots RTP is important because it sets expectations. If you’re looking to give yourself the best possible odds of keeping your money, a slot with a good RTP is the way to go. If you’re simply looking to win as much as possible, the slots with the biggest progressive jackpots will do.
Slots RTP represents the average amount a game pays back to the players. If a slot’s RTP is 95%, for example, it pays players 95% of the wagers it receives. However, slots RTP applies to all games happening at any time, so one player may receive 0% of their wagers while another can win 10,000%. RTP simply represents the average.
Unfortunately, some games, such as the Timber Wolf slot machine, don’t advertise their RTP. But those games are usually retail casinos only, yet another way an online casino for real money can be better than a land-based casino.
Highest RTP Slots for US Players in 2024
This is the definitive list of the top 15 highest RTP slots available to US players. The RTPs below are for the base game, so you get the RTP no matter the size of your wager per spin.
| Online Slot Machine | RTP |
|---|---|
| 🥇 Blood Suckers | 98% |
| 🥈 Starmania | 97.87% |
| 3. Ultra Stack Feature Africa | 97.93% |
| 4. White Rabbit MEGAWAYS | 97.8% |
| 5. Secrets of Atlantis | 97.07% |
| 6. Slick Riches LuckyTap | 97.06% |
| 7. Guns N' Roses | 97% |
| 8. Jack Hammer | 97% |
| 9. Thunderstruck 2 | 97% |
| 10. Jimi Hendrix | 96.91% |
| 11. Old Mac Dollar | 96.90% |
| 12. Santa Pays | 96.79% |
| 13. Fu Bao Meow LuckyTap | 96.76% |
| 14. Break the Bounty LuckyTap | 96.73% |
| 15. Lit Christmas | 96.70% |
Are There 99% RTP Slots?
The only two 99% RTP slots available to US players are Monopoly Big Event and Mega Joker. Both slots have 99% RTP if the player places a large enough bet and utilizes the feature, whereas the slots above offer their RTP at the base level, whether the bet is $0.10 or $100.
For Monopoly Big Event, the player has to use the “Big Bet” button to play at least $20 per spin. For Mega Joker, the player has to fill the Super Meter to continuously increase their bet to get up to 99%, which can cost up to $75 per spin.
Medusa Megaways has a 97.63% RTP for the Bonus Buy and a 96.28% base game RTP. The Bonus Buy costs $75 per round.
Online Casinos with High RTP Slots
If you’re looking to win cash prizes on slots with high RTP, try these top choices. While your location doesn’t have real-money online casinos, you can win cash prizes playing social and sweepstakes casinos.
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RTP vs. Volatility
While RTP shows a game’s average payback percentage, slots volatility represents how often a game pays out. On average, a slot with low volatility pays out more often than a game with high volatility, but the payouts are lower than the payouts on a high volatility slot. Volatility does not affect RTP and vice versa.
For example, let’s say a high volatility slot and a low volatility slot both have an RTP of 96%. If a player played both at $1 per spin, they could expect the following:
- Low Volatility: About half the spins to trigger wins between $0.10 and $5
- High Volatility: Most of the spins to pay out nothing, but big wins of $25 to $50 here and there, and some of the biggest slot wins of all time.
- Medium Volatility: Somewhere right in between high and low.
Like with RTP, volatility is just the general setup of the game. The random number generator (RNG) of the game ensures total randomness, meaning any slot can end up paying out big wins infrequently, low wins frequently, or any combination really. If you are interested in the volatility of a slot, Vegas Gems Sweeps Casino lets you sort by volatility, which is a really neat feature.
How Does Slot Machine RTP Compare to Other Casino Games?
Slots are generally considered a game with poor odds compared to table games like blackjack, but that’s often a misconception. Most slots have an RTP between 92% and 97%, with some going up to 98% and a few around 88%. American roulette, one of the most popular games in US retail casinos, has a 94.74% RTP, which is lower than many of the slots you’d find online. Keno RTP ranges from 84% to 94% depending on how many numbers you’re playing, and bingo is even worse, falling between 70% and 80% (which is likely why our bingo no deposit bonus codes are so popular).
All of that is to say slots RTP compares generally favorably to other casino games except for casino games with the best odds like blackjack or craps.
RTP vs. House Edge: What’s The Difference?
RTP and house edge are two sides of the same coin. The house edge is the average amount that’s paid to the casino while the RTP is the average amount paid to the player. For example, if a game has a house edge of 2%, it has an RTP of 98%.
House edge is more commonly referred to for table games. This is because variations on the rules of games like online blackjack and online roulette can change the house edge from something like 0.55% to 0.455%. Those numbers are a lot easier to manage without the 99% getting in the way.
But a specific slot usually has a fixed RTP. In that case, it makes more sense to display it as a higher percentile, if for no other reason than a higher number looks better than a lower number.
Turn Bonus Money into Cash Using RTP
Most online casino bonus codes offer the best playthrough requirements for slots players. And in some cases, a casino bonus can actually increase a game’s RTP. But you still have to bet the bonus amount on those slots multiple times before you can withdraw the winnings. Your best chance of doing so? Playing slots with the highest RTP. Based on the percentage, you can better rely on at least having some money remaining at the end of the playthrough requirements. It’s no guarantee, but it’s a viable strategy.
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How to Find a Game’s RTP
The easiest way to find an online casino game’s RTP is to check the game’s info. At most online casinos, the RTP is presented in the game’s info. If it’s not there, you can also Google the name of the game, which usually brings up pretty reliable results. For example, if you wanted to know the RTP of the Cleopatra slot, you could search, “Cleopatra Slot RTP,” and see that it has an RTP of around 95.2%.
But the regulations governing the licensing of online casino sites mean that most online casinos have to publish the payout percentages for all their casino games. So, one of the best US online casinos should be your first stop if you want to find out how much each casino game will return to you.
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