Today’s question is simple on the surface, but a bit more complex once we dive in:
How does slot volatility affect the Return to Player (RTP)?
Kathaleen T.
Slot volatility has no impact on RTP. They’re effectively separate aspects of the overall slot machine design.
RTP is a long term achievement, based on millions of spins. A low volatility slot and a high volatility slot can have the same RTP.
Volatility is more about the journey to get there. A lower volatility slot will have smaller swings between the ups and downs, while a high volatility slot can have much broader swings. But over time, those millions of spins, both will approach that same long term average.
That means both will, eventually, achieve the same result, even if your results in the casino over a session (or 10) can vary wildly from the expected long term result.
Talking with a regular reader on the site, Don, he noted some try to play lower volatility slots thinking they can win more, when the RTP could be exactly the same, and in reality a higher volatility slot may have a higher chance of walking away a winner because when you do get a winning outcome, there’s the potential for it to be bigger, and overcome what it took to get there. (Of course, it could also never come in that session, leading to a bigger loss in short term).
So ultimately, they’re just different aspects of the slot’s makeup, with RTP being what it’ll achieve in the long term, and volatility how wild of a ride it could be to get there. Most of the time slots in the same casino on the same denomination will pay back pretty close to the same percentage in the long run, so volatility has more of an impact for us in terms of what sort of a game draws us in.
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