Bonus guides · Updated
RTP and house edge: the number behind every bonus
Return to player is the share of everything staked on a game that goes back to players over an enormous number of rounds. It is the figure that turns a wagering requirement into a cost: stakes multiplied by one minus RTP. On €7,000 of turnover at 96%, that cost is €280, against a €100 bonus.
In short
RTP (return to player) is the percentage of total stakes a game pays back over the long run; house edge is the rest. A 96% slot keeps 4%, so €7,000 of wagering costs about €280 in expectation. That is why a €100 bonus only breaks even at 25× or lower.
What is RTP?
Return to player is the share of all money staked on a game that goes back to players across a very large number of rounds. A 96% slot returns €96 for every €100 staked, on average, over millions of spins. The house edge is the other side of the same figure: 100% minus RTP, or 4% here.
It says nothing about your session. Over a few hundred spins variance dominates completely, which is why an operator can publish RTP without risk: it is a property of the game over the long run, not a forecast of an evening.
How does RTP affect a wagering requirement?
A wagering requirement is a volume of stakes, and RTP converts that volume into an expected cost: stakes × (1 − RTP). Nothing else in bonus terms is as easy to compute, or computed as rarely.
Apply that to the offer these eight casinos run. A €100 deposit matched to €100 and wagered 35× on the pair comes to €7,000 of stakes, and at 96% the expected cost of producing them is €280 against a bonus of €100. The 200 free spins add roughly €19 of expected value before their own 40× requirement, which does not close the gap. That is the whole argument, and it is why the calculator on this site leads with turnover rather than the headline.
When does a bonus stop costing money?
Set the expected cost equal to the bonus and solve. On a 96% slot a €100 bonus covers its own clearing cost at 25× and no higher: 25 × €100 × 4% = €100. Above that the bonus is a discount on a loss, not a gain.
Now put the market against that line. In our 52-casino study the median advertised multiplier is 35×; only 5 of the 48 offers that state one sit under 30×, and 22 sit at 40× or above. Converted to a single yardstick — every offer expressed as a multiple of the bonus alone — the mean effective requirement is 45.8×, not the 36.4× the terms advertise.
What to do with that
This is not an argument against taking a bonus. It is an argument for knowing which side of the line an offer sits on before depositing, and for treating the difference as the price of the entertainment rather than a windfall.
Two things the arithmetic does not promise. A positive expected value on paper is not a plan: on a high-variance slot the typical session finishes below the average, and every figure here assumes the requirement gets cleared at all. And RTP is set per casino, not per game — studios ship some titles in several RTP builds and the operator picks which to run, so the game's own info panel is the only source that applies to you.
| Wagering as a multiple of the bonus | Turnover on a €100 bonus | Expected cost at 96% RTP | Bonus minus that cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10x — the lowest in our study | €1,000 | €40 | +€60 |
| 25x — break-even at 96% | €2,500 | €100 | €0 |
| 35x — the study's median | €3,500 | €140 | −€40 |
| 70x — 35x on deposit + bonus, these eight | €7,000 | €280 | −€180 |
| 80x — the highest in our study | €8,000 | €320 | −€220 |
Frequently asked
Does a high RTP mean you will win?
No. RTP is an average over far more rounds than anyone plays, and over a session the outcome is dominated by variance. At any RTP below 100 per cent the expected result is still a loss, and a bonus lowers that cost without reversing the sign.
Where do you find a game's RTP?
In the game's own info panel inside the casino you are playing at. Studios ship some titles in several RTP builds and operators choose which to run, so a figure quoted in a review is not reliable for the specific casino in front of you.
Does RTP change while a bonus is active?
No. The game behaves identically. What changes is how much you are required to stake, and that is what turns a fixed house edge into a large expected cost: 4 per cent of 7,000 euro is 280 euro.
What wagering multiplier would make a bonus break even?
On a 96 per cent RTP slot, 25 times the bonus. At that point the expected cost of the turnover equals the bonus. In our 52-casino study only 5 of the 48 offers that state a multiplier sit below 30 times, so offers on the right side of that line are rare enough to be worth hunting for.
