One fact, two framings
RTP — return to player — is the share of all money staked that a game pays back over the long run. House edge is the share it keeps. They always sum to 100%:
house edge = 100% − RTP
A slot advertising 96% RTP has a 4% house edge. A Mines game with a 1% house edge has a 99% RTP. There is no third quantity hiding behind either label — a game cannot have a good RTP and a bad edge.
The reason both framings exist is emphasis. “96% back” sounds generous; “4% of everything you stake, kept” sounds like what it is. Slots, which have larger edges, are marketed in RTP. Casino originals, which have small edges, are marketed in edge. Each product uses the frame that flatters it.
Worked example: what a session actually costs
Expected cost is total amount staked × house edge — staked, not deposited. Suppose you bring $200 and place 400 bets of $2 over an evening, recycling winnings as you go. That is $800 of turnover.
- On a 96% RTP slot (4% edge): $800 × 4% = $32 expected cost.
- On a 99% RTP original (1% edge): $800 × 1% = $8 expected cost.
Same money, same evening, four times the price — from an RTP gap that reads as “only three percent.” This is why edges should be compared as ratios: a 4% edge is not slightly worse than 1%, it is four times as expensive.
What neither number tells you
Variance. Two games with identical RTP can feel completely different. A low-variance game returns its RTP as frequent small wins; a high-variance slot funds rare large wins by making most sessions losers. RTP fixes the average, variance decides the spread around it.
Your session. RTP converges over millions of rounds. Over the few hundred rounds of a real session, luck dominates arithmetic — which is exactly why the arithmetic should decide what you play and a preset limit should decide how long.
Whether you get paid. A published RTP says nothing about withdrawal speed, terms enforcement, or licensing. That is what our scoring methodology measures separately — and provably fair games let you verify outcomes yourself.
Using the numbers
- Convert every advertised RTP to an edge before comparing games — the differences stop looking negligible.
- Multiply your expected turnover by the edge to price a session before you play it. Our Mines and Limbo calculators show the edge inside each payout.
- Apply the same arithmetic to bonus wagering with the bonus calculator — a wagering requirement is forced turnover, and the edge prices it.
- Check unfamiliar terms in the glossary.
Questions
Is a 97% RTP game better than a 96% one?
In expectation, yes — but look at the edge, not the RTP, to see by how much. 97% RTP is a 3% edge and 96% is a 4% edge, so the second game costs a third more per bet, not one percent more. Comparing RTPs makes differences look trivial; comparing edges shows their real size.
Does RTP mean I get that percentage back?
No. RTP is a long-run average across all players and millions of rounds. Your session can land anywhere: most sessions on a high-variance slot lose more than the RTP implies, funded by the rare session that wins big. RTP describes the machine's economics, not your evening.
Where do I find a game's RTP or edge?
Slots publish RTP in their info panel, usually to two decimals. Casino originals like Mines, Limbo, and Dice publish a house edge instead, typically 1% flat. If an operator publishes neither for a game, treat that as a meaningful mark against it.
Why does the edge matter for bonus wagering?
Because a wagering requirement forces turnover, and every unit of turnover is exposed to the edge. A $100 bonus at 35× wagering is $3,500 of forced bets; at a 2% edge that costs about $70 in expectation — most of the bonus. Our bonus calculator does exactly this arithmetic.
Arithmetic, not advantage.18+ only. Every edge is negative for the player and no game choice makes gambling profitable in expectation. Knowing the price is a reason to set limits before you play, not a way around them.