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The principles outlined in this article can be applied to almost any game of chance in which the player plays against the house. In other words, all games where a casino collects bets and pays out potential winnings. The most famous of such games are: Slot Machines , Roulette , Blackjack  and  Baccarat . Most of you know that these games are somehow set up to give the casinos a certain long-term advantage. Otherwise, casino owners would be losing money by maintaining those games.  

The casino edge for each game is determined by the rules of the game and the payout percentage in the event of a win. If these rules are applied over many, many rounds (sometimes hundreds of thousands of times), casino owners can be fairly certain that the amount of bets collected will exceed the amount of wins paid. Statistics work in favor of casinos in the long run.

Even though the long-term statistics work against you, it is very common to come to a casino, play, win, and fold with your winnings. The main reason is that your visit to a casino consists of only several dozen rounds of play. In this case, the statistics do not have enough time to converge (appear). The outcome of your visit to the casino is then more determined by chance (or your luck, if you prefer). It is exactly this probability which helps lucky players to win and beat the casino’s statistical advantage. To increase the chances of beating the statistics, it is very important to know two basic characteristics of each game: the payout ratio and the variance.

Gambling And Payout Ratio (Rtp: Return To Player)

The payout ratio (also known as payout percentage, RTP – return to player) of a game of chance  is the long-term statistic of the total money won, divided by the total money stacked. The opposite of the payout percentage is the house edge. The house edge is calculated as 100% minus the payout percentage. If the payout percentage is 95%, then the house edge is 100% – 95% = 5%.

Roulette Payout Ratio

In European Roulette , the probability of winning when betting on the color black is 18 black numbers divided by 37 total numbers (don’t forget zero). The payout is 2 times the bet. The roulette payout percentage is then 2 * 18/37 = 0.973 = 97.3%. The house edge is then 100% – 97.3% = 2.7%. The game of Roulette is set to have the same RTP for all types of bets (color, numbers, etc.).

Rtp Blackjack

As the rules of Blackjack can vary from casino to casino, it is expected that the RTP will vary as well. But generally, a game of Blackjack with basic strategies used gives an RTP of around 99.5%. Live, in online Blackjack the expected RTP changes as the dealer deals cards from the deck. The RTP in this case is usually between 95% and 102%. This is taken advantage of by card counting players who estimate the current RTP of the Blackjack deck and try to bet high if the RTP is above 100%, to make a long-term profit. On the other hand, casinos also have ways of detecting such card counters and preventing them from winning.

Slot Machine Payout Percentage

The RTP of slot machines is usually between 92% and 97%. The payout percentage for slot machines is determined by the symbols on the virtual reels, by the pay table, and by other specific rules applied to each particular game.

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