Each online casino game features different return to player (RTP). Some games even have variations with differing RTP.
With so many payout percentages in the gaming world, you might have trouble figuring out what’s decent RTP. If so, you’ll probably appreciate knowing the average overall RTP for online casino games.
You can use such information to decide if the game you’re playing—no matter if it’s blackjack, slots, roulette, or video poker—is fair.
The following guide covers payout percentages for the main online casino games. It also averages these figures together to provide a composite RTP.
Method for Figuring Out Gaming’s Average RTP
Before going into the various casino games and their payout percentages, I’d like to discuss my methods for finding the typical RTP for each game.
First off, I’ll be considering a range of developers and what they collectively offer in terms of payback. These payout percentages will be based on my experiences when playing games across a variety of online casinos and developers.
Secondly, I’ll consider the top bets for each game. When it comes to craps, for example, I won’t include the riskier prop bets. Instead, I’ll only focus on wagers with the best RTP.
Additionally, I won’t include side bets and progressive jackpot bets. Regarding side wagers, they’re typically sucker bets that feature extremely high payback. Anyone who’s concerned with winning normally doesn’t make them.
As for the progressive jackpot wagers, their payback fluctuates anywhere from 70% to theoretical profits (100%+). I won’t include these bets in the RTP of Caribbean stud.
As for the games with strategy, I’ll just assume that gamblers are playing optimally. This isn’t always the case with many players, but RTP is usually listed with perfect strategy in mind.
Average RTP for Each Online Casino Game
The standard RTP for mobile casino games can vary based on the individual bet, game variation, and player’s skill level. That said, here’s the average payback for different games when taking these factors into account.
Baccarat
Some baccarat games differ in terms of side bets. However, their main wagers are the same across the board.
The banker wager, which is a bet that the banker hand will beat the player hand, is the best in baccarat. Even with a 5% commission taken out of wins, it delivers 98.94% RTP.
The player wager, which is a bet that the player hand will beat the banker, is also respectable at 98.76% RTP. For the purposes of this post, though, I’m only taking the banker bet into account.
Blackjack
Blackjack features plenty of variation from one gaming site to the next. One real money online casino may feature 99.5% RTP, while another only offers 98.8%.
The different variations and rules are what creates these discrepancies. That said, you want to pay close attention when picking blackjack games.
Single-deck variations are usually the best in terms of payback. Saucify, for example, features a game with 99.79% RTP.
Other variations can be profitable with the right rules. Ezugi offers the highest-paying blackjack game I’ve ever seen with 99.88% RTP.
As for a composite average of all the mobile blackjack games I’ve played, the average developer typically offers around 99.4% payback.
Caribbean Stud
Caribbean stud is best known for its large progressive jackpot. However, I’ll be focusing on the RTP of the main game.
With optimal strategy, you can boost the RTP to 94.78%. You just need to avoid the worse-paying side bets to achieve the top payback.
Craps
The best regular craps bet is don’t pass line (98.64% RTP). However, you can improve the payback even more with odds bets.
The latter, which can be put behind a don’t pass line (98.64% RTP) or pass line bet (98.59%), pay at your true odds of winning. Therefore, odds provide outstanding 100% RTP.
The payback for the combination of your original bet and odds improve as you risk larger odds. Here’s a look at how this aspect relates to the don’t past line wager:
- Don’t pass line w/ 1x odds – 99.32% RTP
- Don’t pass line w/ 2x odds – 99.54%
- Don’t pass line w/ 3x odds – 99.66%
Most online casinos cap the size of odds you can take at 2x. That said, I’ll be using the 99.32% RTP figure for online craps.
Keno
Keno is quite often the worst-paying game in Las Vegas casinos. It offers as little as 70% RTP, depending upon the casino in question.
Luckily, though, online keno has a lot more generous payback. The average mobile keno game delivers around 95% RTP.
Roulette
Roulette comes in three main variations, including American, European, and French roulette. French roulette is the best-paying game of this group with 98.65% RTP on even-money bets. However, the French variation is currently only available at Real Time Gaming and Microgaming casinos.
The European version offers 97.30% RTP and is available at most gaming sites. Therefore, I’ll use European roulette for my average.
Scratch Cards
The scratch cards available in convenience stores feature really bad payback. Many of these cards only offer between 50% and 70% RTP.
Much like keno, scratch cards pay far better online. They too feature around 95% RTP at mobile gaming sites.
Slots
Online slots RTP has steadily improved over time. Older games used to offer between 93% and 95% payback, but the newer ones now provide between 95% and 97% RTP.
In rare cases, you can find mobile slots that pay up to 99%. For the sake of my average, though, I’ll consider these games outliers. The average online slot pays back around 96%.
Video Poker
Plenty of video poker games exist throughout the mobile casino world. Some of them pay quite a bit too, with Microgaming’s All Aces topping the list with 99.92% RTP.
More realistically, though, 9/6 Jacks or Better is the top-paying game at most online casinos. It features 99.54% RTP with expert strategy.
What’s the Verdict on the Average Payback?
Now that I’ve gone through all of the main mobile casino games, it’s time to determine their collective payout percentage. Here’s the math on all of these games combined:
- Baccarat – 98.94%
- Blackjack – 99.40%
- Caribbean stud – 94.78%
- Craps – 99.54%
- Keno – 95.0%
- Roulette (European) – 97.30%
- Scratch cards – 95.0%
- Slots – 96.0%
- Video poker – 99.54%
- 98.94 + 99.4 + 94.78% + 99.54 + 95 + 97.3 + 95 + 96 + 99.54 / 9
- Average RTP is 97.3%.
You likely take more into account than just payback when choosing games. For example, you may enjoy the features and graphics of slot machines much more than video poker’s bland background.
If you do heavily take RTP into account, though, then you want to choose games that pay better than average. In this case, you should only place bets on games with somewhere around 97.30%.
Hopefully, you’ll find even-better payout percentages than this. But as long as you’re playing games with around 97.30% payback, then you’ll be alright.
What’s the Average RTP for All Casino Games Combined?
The point of this post is to nail down the average payback for an online casino game. But what about a figure for both mobile and land-based casinos combined?
You might be interested in this idea if you frequently play land-based and online casino games. I won’t go into as much depth with the average RTP for each land-based game.
However, I’ll be using the same methodology as for the online versions. Here’s my take on the averages for each brick-and-mortar game:
- Baccarat – 98.94%
- Blackjack – 98.80%
- Caribbean stud – 94.78%
- Craps – 99.68% (3x odds on don’t pass line)
- Keno – 75.0%
- Roulette (European) – 97.30%
- Scratch cards – N/A (convenience stores)
- Slots – 93.0%
- Video poker – 98.39% (8/6 Jacks or Better)
- 98.94 + 98.8 + 94.78% + 99.68 + 75 + 97.3 + 93 + 98.39 / 8
- Land-based average RTP is 94.49%.
- (97.3 + 94.49) / 2 = 95.9%
- The combined average is 95.9% RTP.
Assuming you don’t want to think much before playing casino games in either a land-based or mobile casino, then you just need to look for games with over 95.9% payback.
Conclusion
In summary, what’s the average payback for a mobile casino game? 97.30% according to my research and calculations.
My methods aren’t perfect science, but they do come as a result of years spent playing and researching online casino games. Therefore, I’m pretty confident in the final figure.
Of course, you don’t necessarily have to play mobile games with 97.3% payback. If you’re a slots aficionado, for example, then you’ll be dealing with many games that feature 96% RTP.
The main point of this discussion, though, is just to show what’s fair payback for most games. That said, you should keep the 97.3% figure in mind and shoot for higher payout percentages.
Michael Stevens
Michael Stevens has been researching and writing topics involving the gambling industry for well over a decade now and is considered an expert on all things casino and sports betting. Michael has been writing for GamblingSites.org since early 2016. …