Of course, it’s all down to luck. You can land a big win at any casino, even one not known for big payouts, yet you can play at a top payout casino and walk away with nothing but losses. 

If you’re lucky enough to land a big win, you’ll want to receive your winnings as soon as possible. Most of the time, you’ll have to wait a short while for your money to reach you. First of all, you have to wait while the casino processes your withdrawal request. At some casinos, this can take less than a day, whereas at others it can take several days. Once that’s done, your money will be on its way to you. 

However, the amount of time it takes to reach you depends on the payment method you’re using. If you’re using an e-wallet, such as PayPal, Neteller or Skill, your money should reach you as soon as it’s been processed by the casino. For other payment methods, such as cards and bank transfers, you usually have to wait several days or longer.

There may be limits on how much you can withdraw in one go or over a certain period of time. At most casinos, you should be able to withdraw your winnings and receive them without having to wait too long. There are many fast payout casinos that will get your money quicker to you than others. If you’re lucky enough to win a progressive jackpot (the payouts for these can be in the millions), there are usually special procedures in place for getting your money to you.

Many good online casinos have monthly reports commissioned that show how much money, on average, is returned to players. Independent, third-party testing agencies such as eCOGRA carry out these tests, with the results publicly accessible at the casino itself. A payout percentage report shows how much of money wagered at the casino is returned to players; the figure is represented as a percentage. 

For the vast majority of casinos that have commissioned such reports, the percentage is in the 90s, more often than not in the high 90s. If you’re looking for a high-paying casino, it’s worth trying one that has a higher monthly average payout. Stick with one of these, and you should be in with a better of chance of landing some wins. 

Let’s say you spend 100 playing casino games. You make some losses and a few wins, ending up with 95, a loss of 5. Your average payout percentage for these games is 95%, since you’ve ended up getting 95% of your money back. Casinos are businesses that have to make money to keep on going, just like any other business. Casino games are designed to have an average payout percentage of less than 100%. 

This way, the games you play at casinos are more likely to favour the casino than the player. While you may have some big wins, ultimately the games should on average pay out less than 100% of the money that’s wagered on them. If they paid out more than 100% on average, that would mean the casino would be losing money. So, if you’ve wanted to have payout percentage explained, that’s pretty much all there is to it.

More often than not, you’ll see payout percentage referred to as a different term: RTP. It stands for ‘return to player’ and is a measure of roughly how much of your bet you can expect to be paid back from a casino game. It’s an average measure over long-term play: if a slot’s RTP is 96%, for example, you won’t win 96% of your money back every time (you’ll likely experience some wins and many losses), but if you keep on playing, your average payout should get closer to 96%. 

There are two types of RTP: theoretical and actual. The theoretical RTP is the one you’ll see displayed at online casinos; it’s calculated by game providers by running through huge numbers of simulations and is a fixed number that doesn’t change. The actual RTP, on the other hand, is more to do with short-term payouts. Let’s say you’ve just won a prize worth x2 your bet on a slot with an RTP of 96%. The actual RTP for that slot - that particular spin - is 200%, since you’ve won double your bet. 

As you play, your payouts will average out and should get close to the theoretical RTP for that particular game.

That’s RTP explained - as you can see, it’s basically the same as payout percentage.  Generally speaking, you should stick to the games that have a higher RTP for better chances of winning more money. Of course, it’s possible to play a slot with a high RTP and walk away with no winnings; it’s also possible to play one with a low RTP and land a huge win. 

You may come across a term called ‘house edge’. This figure is the exact opposite of RTP. For a slot with an RTP of 96%, its house edge will be 4%. So if a casino displays the house edge, you should choose games that have a lower house edge.

So what games have the best RTP? You may find it surprising that slots, for all their popularity, don’t usually have the highest RTP. For slots, it’s usually around 95-96% or higher, which is still good, but isn’t as good as some table games. Blackjack has highest RTP of all casino games. There are lots of different blackjack variants and for most of them, the RTP is well above 99%. Craps is another game worth checking out - its RTP is above 99% as well. 

So if you’ve found one of the best payout online casino bonuses, you now know which games to focus on playing to stand your best chance of making a profit