RTP Explained: What Return to Player Really Means
Updated on June 30, 2026 by the editorial team
RTP explained in one line: it is the slice of every pound wagered that a game hands back over the long run, shown as a percentage. A slot rated 96% keeps 4% for the house and returns the rest across millions of spins. This page shows you what that number gives you at the reels, how it swings by game type, why it tells you nothing about tonight, and where to read it on any FatPirate title before you stake.
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What return to player buys you in plain terms
Return to player is a percentage. Nothing more mysterious than that. It measures how much of all the money staked on a game comes back to players over a huge number of rounds. Feed £100 through a 96% slot across its lifetime and roughly £96 flows back to the people playing it. The other £4 is the house edge, the built-in margin that keeps a casino running.
Here is the part that pays off for you. A higher RTP means less of your bankroll leaks away per spin on average, so the same £20 tends to last longer on a 97% game than a 94% one. You are not buying a win. You are buying more time and more spins for the same money. Over a month of play the gap between a 94% slot and a 97% slot is real cash left in your pocket.
One warning before you treat the figure as gospel. RTP describes the long haul, measured over millions of rounds no single player will ever match. Your own session lives inside the noise around that average. So read it as a comparison tool, not a promise, and the rest of this guide shows you exactly how.
How much you get back from each type of game
Not every game returns at the same rate. Table games with fixed rules or a bit of skill usually hand back more than slots, while progressive jackpots hold back the most because part of each stake feeds the top prize. The table below lists the typical bands you meet across the FatPirate lobby. These are standard studio and rules-based figures, not the numbers from any one title.
| Game type | Typical RTP | House edge | What it means for your money |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online slots | 94% - 98% | 2% - 6% | Widest spread, pick the higher end |
| Blackjack (basic strategy) | 99% - 99.5% | 0.5% - 1% | Money lasts longest here |
| Baccarat (banker bet) | ~98.9% | ~1.1% | Simple bet, low cost |
| European roulette | ~97.3% | ~2.7% | One zero beats American |
| Video poker (full-pay) | 98% - 99.5% | 0.5% - 2% | Rewards correct play |
| Progressive jackpot slots | 88% - 94% | 6% - 12% | Lower base, bigger dream |
Look at the spread. Blackjack played by the book returns close to 99.5%, while a progressive jackpot slot can dip under 90%. That is a ten-point gap in how fast your balance drains. Neither choice is wrong; they simply serve different goals. Want your session to run long and steady? The games near the top keep more of your stake in play. Chasing a life-changing sum? The jackpot slots trade a lower everyday return for the shot at the top prize. FatPirate carries reels from BGaming, Yggdrasil, Thunderkick, Spinomenal and Platipus, and every studio publishes its own figure per game. Check the FatPirate games lobby and you will see the range for yourself.
Turning a percentage into a real number you can use
A percentage on a screen feels abstract until you attach money to it. So let us do that. The trick is to think in turnover, meaning the total you wager, not just your starting balance.
Say you stake £1 a spin at around 500 spins an hour on a 96% slot. Your turnover for the hour is £500. The house edge of 4% applied to that turnover is £20, and that is your theoretical cost for the hour before luck pushes the result up or down. Move to a 94% game and the edge doubles the relevant slice, so the expected cost climbs to about £30. Switch to blackjack at 99.5% and the same £500 turnover costs roughly £2.50 in theory.
Read those three numbers again. Same stake, same hour, wildly different price. That is what the RTP percentage buys you once you convert it. A single percentage point sounds trivial until you multiply it by thousands of pounds of turnover across a month. This is the practical reason to check the figure before you play rather than after.
Why the number says nothing about your next hour
RTP is a long-run average, and that word long-run does a lot of heavy lifting. The published figure only holds true across millions of rounds. Your evening might be forty spins or four hundred, and that is far too small a sample for the average to show up.
So what actually decides how your session feels? Two traits the RTP number hides. Volatility controls the swing. Low-volatility games drip small wins often, while high-volatility ones stay quiet then pay big in rare bursts. Hit frequency counts how often any win lands at all. Two slots can share a 96% RTP and play nothing alike: one pays a little every few spins, the other goes cold for fifty then drops a large hit. Same headline number, opposite experience.
The takeaway is simple. You can turn £20 into £200 on a 94% slot or lose it all on a 98% one, and neither result breaks the maths. Use RTP to compare which games cost you less over time. Use volatility to judge what kind of ride you are signing up for. And never expect the percentage to predict the next hour, because it was never built to. Set a budget before you start, and treat any session as entertainment you have paid for.
Where to read a game's return before you spin
You never have to take the number on trust. Every regulated slot publishes its RTP, and FatPirate is no exception. Here is exactly where to look.
- Open the game and load its info panel, usually the small "i" icon or a menu tucked inside the reels.
- Find the paytable or rules section. The RTP is printed as a percentage, often sitting right next to the volatility rating.
- Check for more than one figure. Some titles ship in several RTP versions, and the operator chooses which one runs, so read the panel rather than assume.
- Confirm it against the studio's own site. BGaming, Yggdrasil, Thunderkick, Spinomenal and Platipus publish default RTP per release, so you can match the panel to the source.
- Note the volatility beside it. A high RTP with high volatility still means long dry spells, so weigh both before you set your stake.
Table games work a little differently. Blackjack RTP depends on the rules and your own decisions, so you only reach that 99.5% by following basic strategy. Roulette and baccarat are fixed by the wheel and the bet you place. On any FatPirate game the info panel is your first stop and the provider's published data is your backup. If a figure ever looks off, live chat runs 24/7 and can confirm the setting on a specific title.
RTP also matters when you clear an offer. The FatPirate welcome deal is 100% up to £1,000 + 100 FS, with wagering at x40 on the bonus and a 7-day window to finish it. Higher-return slots burn less of the bonus per spin, so more of it survives to the finish line. The full terms live on the FatPirate bonus page, and it is worth reading them before you pick which games to play the bonus through.
Questions players ask about RTP
Does a high RTP mean I will win more often?
No. RTP measures return across enormous sample sizes, not your chances tonight. A 97% slot can run cold for an hour and a 94% one can pay big on the first spin. Higher RTP lowers your expected cost over time, but it makes no promise about any single session.
What counts as a good RTP at FatPirate?
For slots, 96% or above is solid, and the FatPirate reels from BGaming, Yggdrasil, Thunderkick, Spinomenal and Platipus mostly sit in the 94% to 98% band. Table games such as blackjack and baccarat return more, often 98% to 99.5% when you play the best bet.
How do I find a game's RTP?
Open the game's info or paytable panel, where the return is shown as a percentage next to the volatility. Confirm it against the studio's own published figures. If you cannot locate it, ask FatPirate live chat, which is open 24 hours a day.
Is RTP the same for every player on a slot?
Yes. The published RTP applies to everyone playing that title at that setting. What differs is short-term luck and volatility. Two players on the same 96% slot can have very different nights, yet the game returns the same percentage across all of them combined.
How does RTP affect clearing a bonus?
Higher-RTP games lose less of your stake per spin, so they chip into wagering more slowly. With the FatPirate welcome offer of 100% up to £1,000 + 100 FS at x40 wagering and a 7-day window, a higher-return slot helps more of the bonus survive the playthrough.
Return to player is the closest thing a casino game has to a spec sheet. Read the number, weigh it against volatility, then convert it into the pounds it costs you per hour. Do that and you spend your bankroll with your eyes open. Keep a budget you set in advance, and lean on the safer-play tools on the FatPirate responsible gaming page whenever you need them.
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