RTP
RTP, return to player, is the share of all the money bet on a game that comes back to players over its life. A game with a 96 percent RTP keeps $4 of every $100 put through it, on average, over millions of plays. It does not promise you $96 back on your $100.
The same number turned around
RTP and house edge are one figure seen from two sides. Take the edge away from 100 percent and you have the RTP. Double-zero roulette has an edge of 5.26 percent, so its RTP is 94.74 percent. The banker bet at baccarat has an edge of 1.06 percent, so it returns 98.94.
Machines are sold with the RTP figure, and tables are talked about with the edge, but there is no difference between them. I'd get used to flipping one into the other in your head, because the casino will quote whichever sounds better. "Returns 94.74 percent" sounds generous. "Keeps $5.26 of every $100 you bet" sounds like what it is.
On a sportsbook the same idea is the hold, from the book's side. I always found it easier to think about what the house keeps than what it gives back, since the giving back is the part that never quite adds up to what you brought.
Long run means very long
An RTP is worked out over the whole life of a game, and for a slot that means millions of spins. You will play a few hundred tonight. Over a few hundred spins, the return you see can be anywhere.
How far from the RTP your night lands depends on how the game pays. A low-volatility game pays small amounts often, so your results stay fairly close to the average. A high-volatility game holds back a large part of its return for rare, big hits. If 10 points of a 96 percent return sit in a top prize that lands once in a very long while, the game is returning about 86 percent to everyone who doesn't hit it, which is nearly everyone. The jackpots page goes further into where that money comes from.
So two games with the same RTP can feel nothing alike. I wouldn't read the RTP as what you'll get back. Read it as the price, and read the volatility as how rough the ride is.
Who sets the number
The maker designs the game, the math included, and the regulator sets the rules it has to meet. Nevada's floor is low. Its Regulation 14, section 14.040, says every gaming device must "theoretically pay out a mathematically demonstrable percentage of all amounts wagered, which must not be less than 75 percent for each wager available for play on the device."
Seventy-five percent is the legal minimum, not what the machines pay. Other states and countries set their own rules, and online games follow the rules of wherever they are licensed, so what applies to you depends on where you live and where the game is run. That's why the figure in the game's help screen, where one is shown, is the one I'd go by for the machine in front of you. If a game won't tell you its return, I'd assume it isn't one they're proud of.
What Nevada's machines pay back
Nevada also publishes what its slots actually keep, in the Gaming Control Board's monthly revenue report. For slots, the report's win percent is the casinos' win divided by the total amount played, which makes it the house edge measured in practice. Here are the statewide figures for the twelve months to August 2026, with the return worked out beside them.
| Machine | Casino win | Returned to players |
|---|---|---|
| 1 cent | 8.86% | 91.14% |
| 25 cent | 7.62% | 92.38% |
| 1 dollar | 6.26% | 93.74% |
| 5 dollars | 4.37% | 95.63% |
| Multi-denomination | 7.01% | 92.99% |
| All slots | 7.14% | 92.86% |
Two things stand out. The real return sits far above the legal 75 percent, because a casino whose machines kept a quarter of the money would soon have no one playing them. And the cheaper the machine, the more it keeps. A penny machine kept nearly 9 percent of what went through it, while the $5 machines kept under 4.5. The player betting pennies thinks he is playing it safe, and per dollar bet he is paying twice the price.
Bets on a penny machine aren't really a penny, either. Most of them play many lines or credits a spin, so the dollars through the machine add up quickly at the higher rate.
Comparing the games
Put the machines beside the tables and the gap is plain. Blackjack played correctly under good rules returns about 99.5 percent. The banker at baccarat returns 98.94. A full-pay Jacks or Better video poker machine, the one paying 9 for a full house and 6 for a flush, returns 99.54 percent with perfect play, and the video poker page shows how to find one. Single-zero roulette returns 97.30, and the Nevada slots as a whole returned 92.86.
Two catches. The skill games only return that much if you play them right, and every mistake comes off your return. And a high return on a fast game can still cost more an hour than a lower one on a slow game, because the edge works on everything you put through it. The slots page has more on speed.
I'd use RTP to choose between games and never to predict a night. Decide what the night can cost before you start, and if that figure keeps going up, responsible gambling is worth a read.