Return To Player (RTP) and Hit Frequency: What do These Signify?

What does the terms "Return to Player" and "Hit Frequency" Mean?

RETURN to the PLAYER (RTP).

Return to Player (RTP) is the term used by casinos to refer to the percentage of bets a VLT slot machine pays back to players over the course of. If you make 100 $1 bets on a machine that has an RTP of 90 percent, you could expect to win approximately $90 in winnings. However, both house advantage as well as RTP are generally calculated over the long term. It is possible for anything to occur in the short-term (see Short Time Volatility and Long-Term Predictability) It is essential to bet only using money that you're willing to lose.

It is possible that you have observed that RTP is really the opposite of house advantage. A machine that has a 20% house advantage has an average RTP of 80%. That means the machine will hold about 20% of the funds and then return the remainder to the players as they win.

Hit Frequency

Hit frequency is the number of times that a machine will stop when it finds a winning combination. If the machine has an average hit frequency of 8.8 It means that the machine will stop when it is hit by the winning combination approximately 8percent of the time. RTP % forget that some VLTs and slot machines allow players to wager on multiple lines at once. This means that a player can win one or more winning combinations and numerous losing combinations on one spin. Although it may seem like a player is winning more often than normal, the number of losing combinations over time is far greater.

Between VLTs and slots there is a wide variations in hit frequency. While some slots might have a hit rate of 3%, others like video poker may have a rate of almost 45 percent. Although the video poker hit frequency might sound appealing, keep in mind that nearly 50% of these "hits" are simply a return on his original bet. While a machine that has 3 hits per percent may not sound appealing, it may allow players to win a substantial jackpot. Jackpots that are large have a lower frequency of hitting however, they offer larger jackpots.

People often see games with low hit frequency as loose because they are difficult to win. Games with high frequency of hit are often perceived as looser since they're able to win a lot of small wins.

Remember that "hit frequency" is how frequently an winning combination appears in the an average. "Return-to-player" refers to the percentage or amount that a machine will return over time.