RTP calculation for Progressive Jackpot Slots

Hey pasz4, I'm really sorry but your post was wrongly caught by our anti-spam system. I've pulled it out of the bin and published it.

The RTP number for Net Ent games are what they publish in the game help files, and for their progressive jackpot games they only specify a single number. Obviously in reality the RTP does change with the jackpot amount. For card games and video poker we can calculate the exact RTP of a progressive game taking the jackpot into account because we know the exact number of cards and rules of the game. That linked page explains a bit about slots lower down the page:

Quote:

It is far more difficult to calculate the exact probability of hitting a progressive jackpot on a slot machine and then use it to determine the break-even amount. In order to do so without being told directly by the game's developer, you would need to know the position of each of the symbols on each of the reel strips and if there are any weightings applied by the game to the reels, and then cross-reference this information with the paytable to determine all the possible outcomes for a spin. This is information that the developers of slot machines almost never divulge. In addition, many jackpot slot games these days are determined by the outcome of a randomly selected bonus games which complicates things even further.

So in Net Ent's case I don't know for sure, but assume they are basing that RTP number on an average jackpot value. Some of the jackpot is included in that RTP, but we don't know exactly how much.

I think it would be better if they listed the RTP of the base game plus jackpot, but it is likely to not look as impressive if they wrote something like 92% + 1% per $50,000 in the jackpot for example.

On a somewhat related note, Ignition Casino customer support recently told me that their slots return an average of "about 97%" to players. I was surprised to learn their slots RTP is so high and it does feel in line with my experience.

Ignition has very high RTP on table games like Tri-Card Poker compared to other casinos, which has become my base measure of fairness, and it's reassuring to see that reflected elsewhere throughout their offering.

I would take any claims like "about 97%" with a hefty grain of salt. It is so vague as to be meaningless, individual games no doubt vary significantly, and they aren't publishing any audits or certifications to prove it. And of course to one person, 95.5% could be "about 97%" while to someone else it means closer to 96.8%.

All good points. And realistically if there's a progressive jackpot in play and you're contributing a percentage of your bet (again varying per game) to a jackpot that you'll likely never win then your immediate personal return is going to be impacted.

For example, I was playing Shopping Spree recently and verified that I was the only active player contributing to the progressive - a whopping 6% of each bet was siphoned off and added to the jackpot. Add a profit margin into the mix and you're almost certainly walking away with 90% or less of the money you put into that game.

I always wonder how many people are playing at the same time. Some Jackpot totals are on a fast, continuous incline so it seems like a ton of people are playing. Others barely move up a cent every minute or so.