Casino Payout Percentage
One important aspect of choosing an online casino is the Casino Payout Percentage. Essentially, this piece of information says a lot with respect to how trustworthy the online casino is and how much they have invested in their fair gaming practices. The Casino Payout Percentage is a verification that can only be given by an unbiased third party and has the trust and place within the industry to act as a regulating body. We'll explain here what that means and why it's important when making your choice concerning whether or not to play at an online casino website.
Both online and offline casinos calculate their payout percentage in order to show their customers that they are fair and trustworthy. It's an auditing process of sorts but in the online casino world, it's done also to show that the online casino is fair AND that it pays out. Online casinos always have better odds than traditional "brick and mortar" casinos but within the industry, there is competition between other online casinos to keep the payout percentage high.
The software suppliers that provide the online casino itself (most casino websites buy the license to a software and then simply operate the platform), are the ones who are audited for fair gaming. The basic "brains" of the software is a Random Number Generator (RNG) which incorporates a unique algorithm that randomly generates the systems for each individual games. This ensures that the software mimics real-life random number generation.
The casino payout percentage is a number (a percentage, or ratio), which explains how much of the total bet money players (overall) are receiving as winnings. Traditionally this number is above 95% which means that for every dollar, on average, $.95 gets paid out as winnings and $.05 is kept by the house. Online casinos will typically advertise their overall payout rate as well as individual game payout rates for games like slots.
Casino Payout Percentage - Regulation
The regulating is done by a number of third parties, unbiased standardization organizations including the Online Players Association, Price-waterhouse-Coopers, and eCommerce Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance. These three authorities are the top names in the industry and are trusted by players, operators and software companies alike. It is the casino's job to make an effort to get this important certification and the more often a casino is audited, the better it looks. Some are audited as frequently as once a month, while some only a few time a year (the minimum required by these regulating parties). The regulation ensures that the payouts are as advertised and that the random number generators they are using are indeed random and fair.
The importance of payout percentages is clear but it's not always easy or intuitive to understand what a good payout percentage is and what one isn't – it's not strictly a numbers game. For example, if a casino is being audited on a month basis (a good thing), you can't always take that number as an overall picture of their activity. What is that month a player won a huge jackpot, for example? The payout percentage will be extremely high but it won't be an overall indication. As we mentioned earlier, 95% is the cut-off, and anything above that is considered good. Below 95% is sub-standard, as the house should never be keeping more than 5%.
Your job as a player is to stay informed. Casinos will publish this information, and it is usually available upon request, but sometimes you'll have to go looking for it. Remember that a smart player is an informed player and the casino payout percentage is a great indicator of the type of business you would potentially be spending your money at!
