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.
What RTP is, and what it is not
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.
Where it meets the bonus
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.
The multiplier at which a bonus stops 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 I 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 I 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.
