Understanding Average Return In Online Casino Games

• Published: March 26, 2015
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You must have come across the term average return to player while wagering at online casinos. An understanding of this helps you to make more considered selections of the games you might want to play. Average return to player is what the online casino is expected to pay out over a large number of bets as a percentage of the bet amount. To explain using numbers, an average return to player of 98% means that for every $100 wagered the online casino is expected to pay out $98.

There are a few clarifications required. These are expectations of payouts based on the rules and structure of the online casino games. The actual payouts could be different because casino games are games of chance. However, over large number of bets placed over a long period of time the actual payouts should be more or less in tune with the expected payouts. The average return to player is an average. Some lucky players will register a higher return and some unlucky players will register a lower return.

The average return to player from an online casino game will be less than 100%. If a game offers an average return of more than 100% all players will converge on that game and clean out the online casino. As stated earlier, on your lucky day your return will be more than 100%, but every day will not be your lucky day. Another term with a very similar intent is the house edge. It is the portion of the bet that the online casino is expected to retain in the long run. Very simply, the house edge equals 100% minus the average return.

It should now be obvious that online casino games with higher average returns will be more beneficial to the player, other things being equal. We now look at the average returns of some of the more common online casino games. Among the lowest average returns will be found in online slot games. These are generally around 95%. Despite this the slot games are the most popular. There are two reasons for this. The first is that there is no skill required in playing slot machines and the second is that slot games offer very high payout ratios. If you win from a $1 wager your payout can be in excess of $1,000. European Roulette offers an average return of about 97.5%, with the maximum payout being 35 to 1. Blackjack and video poker variants offer average returns of over 99%. But these are only when you play using optimum strategy. If you make the wrong moves, then your average return can fall drastically.