If you have been playing slots for quite some time and you start noticing some changes in your gaming sessions, there might be a reason for that. While virtual casinos offer different types of incentives to their customers to keep them entertained, you will not come across a casino that does not try to always have an edge over the player. While you may be aware of that when you choose to play at an interactive casino, you may not know that some online casinos are trying to further boost their advantage over their members.
Those who have been a part of casino forums for a while have most probably noticed that the number of frustrated slot players has increased in the last couple of years. While it is not uncommon for players to be displeased with virtual casinos when they do not have luck with games, the majority of complaints came from players who have noticed that many interactive casinos have started offering slots with reduced RTPs.
Experienced players know that the RTP is one of the most important things to be on the lookout for when you are choosing the games you would like to play. A reduced RTP would seriously affect your successful casino play in the long run. That is why it is crucial to be able to recognize so-called nerfed slots that will decrease your chances for fruitful casino experiences.
What Are Nerfed Slots and How They Affect Your Play?
As you may know, the RTP is expressed in percentages and shows players what their potential return can be in the long run. The true RTP can vary immensely, depending on your luck. If you are riding a winning streak, you may actually reach an RTP of 200% or even higher, however, if luck is not on your side, you may be playing with an RTP that is significantly lower than the announced percentage.
To learn more about RTP and winning odds of online slots, you can check here. Understanding RTP will allow you to comprehend why the issue with nerfed slots is extremely important for players and what a reduced RTP can mean for long-term slot players.
In the past couple of years, online casinos have started offering slots with nerfed RTPs. That means that the potential long-term return that they offer is significantly reduced compared to the standard RTP announced by the software developers that create the respective slots.
You may be wondering how it is possible for online casinos to switch the RTPs of slots. Well, licensed interactive casinos are actually not allowed to change the RTPs of the games they offer as they are hosted on the software platforms of their respective providers. That is why online casinos must request software providers to reduce the RTPs of the games supplied on the casinos’ websites.
Somewhere around the beginning of 2020, players started noticing that the RTPs of casino slots started deviating from the regular percentages promoted by software companies. As gaming providers started offering alternative slot models to online casinos, regular slot players started noticing some irregularities in their gaming sessions.
While gaming distributors are required to notify players about alternative RTPs of certain slots, it is not unusual for slots’ general rules to list one RTP but use a significantly reduced RTP version of the game. Fortunately, some licensed casinos are required to be transparent with their customers and always list the RTP of every game that they offer on their websites. That, however, is not something that every online casino does.
With nerfed slots becoming a trend, many software providers tend to offer casino games with several RTP settings. In the last few years, it has become a common practice for gaming suppliers to have two or even three RTP settings per a single game. That said, there are even extreme cases of slots by Play’n GO that offer five different variations of RTP per single game.
Reduced RTP Minimum for Casinos Licensed in Malta
In 2021, the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) introduced an amendment to Article 22 of the Player Protection Directive. With the latest change in the law, the requirement for the minimum RTP in online slots was reduced from 92% to 85%. The lowered RTP minimum was introduced with the objective of bringing online slots to their land-based counterparts.
According to the Maltese regulator, the change will allow gaming operators to provide their games in foreign markets with extremely high taxes without implementing huge changes in the ways games are played in every market.
While the reduced minimum RTP had its supporters, some still believed that the most reasonable threshold was around 92%. During a closed consultation, the MGA spoke to several industry stakeholders, assessing the possible effects of the reduced RTP. One respondent ensured that a reduced RTP threshold does not indicate any significant change as operators will continue to strive for adequate RTPs. According to operators, the lower RTP minimum will have an effect only on the RTP settings of a few games that are expected to offer the lowest possible level of 85%.
Even though operators claim that the reduced RTP threshold will not affect many of the online casino slots offered on websites licensed by the MGA, players often warn their fellow slot lovers about the chance of playing with significantly reduced RTP.
How Nerfed Slots Affect Your Gaming Sessions?
You may be wondering whether reduced RTP has a significant meaning for your gaming experiences online. That is why we will explain to you how this change in the slot’s settings can affect your gameplay in the long term. Experienced players often choose the slots to play based on RTP so there must be a reason for that.
Most of the new slots that software companies create have a standard RTP of around 96%. Let us assume that you have come across a virtual casino that offers a slot with an RTP of 96% but you will be provided with a version that has an RTP of 94%. At first glance, 2% may not seem like such a drastic change, making you believe that this would not affect your slot session in any significant way.
On the face of it, a reduction of 2% may seem small, however, it can have a major effect on your average playtime. In the case of the RTP being reduced from 96% to 94%, your playtime may be affected by around 30%.
One easy way to understand how an RTP reduced to 94% could affect your gameplay is to take for example a no-variance slot. That means the slot we are using as the model will return the wager minus the house edge every single spin.
If the no-variance slot has an RTP of 96% and you decide to deposit £100 to play the game, you will play with a house edge of 4%. The loss per spin you will experience in this case will be £0.04. In that case, the player is supposed to bust in about 2,476 spins.
Now, let us reduce the RTP of the same no-variance slot to 94% and use the same deposit amount of £100. In that case, you will play against a house edge of 6%, with your loss per spin being estimated to be £0.06. In this slot variant, the player will bust in 1,651 spins.
As some software providers offer extreme slot variants, reducing the RTP to somewhere around 84%, we can even take a look at the drastic change with that much of a lowered RTP. The same non-variance slot, with an RTP reduced to 84% and a deposit of £100, will have a house edge of 16%. That would mean the loss per spin is going to be £0.16 and you will go bust in just 619 spins.
Lowered RTP will ultimately make your gaming sessions shorter, making you lose your money much faster. Expert players know that a high RTP is not necessarily telling them how much they can win but it can indicate better chances for higher prospects in the long run. We recommend checking the RTP of the slot you are about to play online as even a “small” 2% reduction can significantly worsen your gaming time.
What to Do to Avoid Slots with Reduced RTP?
To be sure that you will be playing with the optimal RTP setting of the slot, you can load the game at the virtual casino where you play and choose to play for real money. Then, you must check the information about the game by either going to the Info or Help section of the slot. In the respective segment of the game, you should be able to see the theoretical RTP of the slot.
Even if you cannot find information about the slot’s RTP in the game itself, you may be able to view the RTP details in the casino’s gaming library. Some casinos, such as those licensed by the UKGC, are required to list the RTP of the games they are offering to their patrons.
To make sure that you are playing with the highest possible RTP, you can compare the value you see at the casino with the one the software provider has listed on its official website. You can also read a few reviews of the game available online as most review platforms list the highest RTPs of slots in the general information about the games.
If you cannot find information about the RTP of the slot you are about to play for real money, we recommend you switch to a virtual casino that is transparent about the gaming products it offers and the RTP setting of every game.
How to Be Sure You Are Playing with the Highest Possible RTP?
In addition to checking the RTP settings of the slots you are about to play, there is another way to make sure that you are playing with the highest possible RTP. While many gaming companies have been persuaded to develop different RTP versions for their slots, there are still software providers that stick to a single-RTP setting for their games. That means that no matter the virtual casino where their games are offered, the slots of these gaming companies will have the highest possible RTP that they offer.
If you want to play slots that definitely have only a single RTP version, you might want to try games powered by:
- NextGen Gaming
- Iron Dog Studios
- Realistic Games
- Relax Gaming
- Yggdrasil
- Big Time Gaming
- Barcrest
- Elk Studios
- 4ThePlayer
- Fantasma Games
- High 5 Games
- Kalamba Games
- PG Soft
- ReelPlay
- WMS
- Lightning Box Games
- Inspired Gaming
Unfortunately, even big iGaming providers like Microgaming and NetEnt have introduced several RTP variants to their slots, with different casinos that run on their software platforms, often offering games with reduced RTPs. That said, there are still virtual casinos that offer their customers slots with the highest possible RTP despite having the option to go for adjusted lower RTP levels.
Beware of Fake Slots to Avoid Playing with Reduced RTP
While some software providers may offer a single-RTP version of their slots, it is possible to come across cloned versions that do not run on the official software platform of the gaming developer. In such cases, you are most probably playing with a reduced RTP without even realising it.
If the slots are provided by reputable gaming companies, then you can be certain that the games will be hosted at the respective provider’s servers. That way, virtual casinos cannot meddle with your gaming experience and affect the RTP of the slots you are playing. That said, you can also check if you are playing cloned versions of your favourite slots.
Just like the process of checking the RTP on Play’n GO slots, you can yet again open a game at the virtual casino where you are registered and you are about to play and load the game in real-money mode. Right-click on the screen and select “Inspect”. The next step is to click on the Network tab and search for the Domain section. There, you will see the servers from which HTTP Responses are coming. If you are playing the original slots, the responses should come from the web servers of the official software company.
Closing Thoughts
In the last couple of years, online casinos started utilising slot variations with reduced RTPs, ultimately affecting the gaming time of their members. While players were experiencing noticeable changes in their gaming sessions, it took quite a few expert gamblers to notice that software providers have started offering different RTP versions of their games.
Even the slightest change in the RTP of a slot can significantly decrease the duration of your gaming sessions and negatively affect your potential winning chances. That is why it is important to check whether you are playing with the highest possible RTP. You can do that either by checking the details of the slot at the virtual casino where you play or you can opt for gaming providers that offer just one version of their slots. That way, you can be certain that you are always playing with the highest possible theoretical RTP.
