Return-to-Player and House Edge

Many players might be intrigued by crypto casino bonuses, loyalty programs and other reward programs, but even though casinos might give out a lot, you can also lose a lot if you're not careful. That’s where RTP and HE come to play, which are used to express how much of a bet will be returned to the player and how much the casino will get in the long run, so these two terms stand for the opposite sides of the same concept.

About RTP

Return-to-player represents how much of the money that you spent in a certain casino game will on average be returned to you in the form of winnings. That’s why this value is expressed in percentages and your goal should be finding the highest percentage. Games typically range between 80 % up to 99%, but there are a fair share of games that score below that range.

…and HE

House edge, however, is the opposite of RTP, as it expresses what percentage of money, spent on a specific game, will be handed to the casino. Or, to phrase it a bit differently - it tells you how much you’ll statistically lose.

For instance, if you play a game with a RTP of 93%, 7% on average will belong to the casino and 93% of the money gambled on a certain game will remain with you - granted you don’t score a big win, of course. So these values are fairly easy to calculate - simply subtract the return-to-player value from 100 to get house edge and vice versa.

Both are average values

Note that RTP and HE are both statistical averages, so you shouldn’t expect the game result to match them with every spin. Only betting numerous times would start to reflect the RTP and HE values. That also means betting with a certain amount of money could still result in winning it all, just as well as it could result in losing it all.

Where to find them?

Most commonly, games display only the return-to-player value, because the house edge is so easy to calculate. So when looking for these values, you’ll find them more easily if you look for RTP only than if you look for both or just HE. If anywhere, you’ll be able to find them on a game’s thumblain in the casino (when hovering over a game, a menu containing RTP will appear) or in a game’s info section. In some cases, it can even be found in the rules section of a game. Not all games from all the game providers have this value listed, though, so don’t bend over backwards if you can’t find it anywhere in a game - it’s most likely that game just doesn’t display it.

How to get more money using RTP?

As mentioned, the first thing you can do to increase your account balance is to look for high RTP (or low HE) games and play them, which will keep your losses at a minimum. Be mindful of the fact that the highest RTP values often don’t offer impressively big jackpots. There are even games that have a high return-to-player by design, which include blackjack, craps, baccarat and roulette.

But if you want to take it a bit further, you can also try playing games based on their volatility, which refers to the frequency and amount of payouts. Low volatility games pay out often in small amounts (great for beginners), while high volatility games pay out rarely, but in great amounts. Alternatively, you can also play medium volatile games.

Another tip that is often advocated by professional gamblers is bet maximizing. Minimizing your bets supposedly prolongs your losses, whereas maximum bets ensure that any of your winnings will result in a decent amount.

Budgeting and targets could also help you. With clear boundaries in mind, you can either set a target and hit it (beating the house edge) or minimize your losses for that day when reaching a budget. If you were to gamble aimlessly, it would most likely result in much greater losses.