If you have been playing slots for quite some time and have started noticing changes in your gaming sessions, there might be a reason for that. Although virtual casinos offer various incentives to keep their customers entertained, you will not find a casino that does not strive to maintain an edge over the player. While you may be aware of this when you choose to play at an online 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 are not having any luck, the majority of complaints come from players who have noticed that many online casinos have started offering slots with reduced RTPs.
Experienced players know that the RTP is one of the most important factors to look out for when you are choosing the games you would like to play. A reduced RTP can seriously affect your long-term success. That is why it is crucial to be able to recognise so-called ‘nerfed’ slots, which will decrease your chances of a fruitful casino experience.
What Are Nerfed Slots and How Do 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 advertised percentage.
To learn more about RTP and the 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 they offer is significantly reduced compared with the standard RTP announced by the software developers who create the respective slots.
You may be wondering how it is possible for online casinos to switch the RTPs of slots. Well, licensed online 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 their websites.
At the beginning of 2020, players started noticing that the RTPs of casino slots began deviating from the regular percentages promoted by software companies. As gaming providers started offering alternative slot models to online casinos, regular slot players noticed 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 a game’s general rules to list one RTP yet use a significantly reduced version. 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 now offer casino games with several RTP settings. In the last few years, it has become common practice for gaming suppliers to have two or even three RTP settings per game. That said, there are even extreme cases of slots by Play’n GO that offer five different RTP variations for a single title.
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 this change, the minimum RTP requirement for online slots was reduced from 92% to 85%. The lower threshold was introduced in order to bring online slots in line with 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 major changes in how games are played in each 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 reduction. One respondent asserted that a lower RTP threshold does not signify any significant change, as operators will continue to strive for adequate RTPs. According to operators, the lower minimum will affect only the RTP settings of a few games, which 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 enthusiasts about the chance of playing with a significantly reduced RTP.
How Do Nerfed Slots Affect Your Gaming Sessions?
You may be wondering whether a reduced RTP has a significant impact on your online gaming experiences. 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 which 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 advertises a slot with an RTP of 96%, yet the version you are offered has an RTP of 94%. At first glance, a 2% difference may not seem drastic, leading you to 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. This means the slot we are using as the model will return the wager minus the house edge on 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 be playing against a house edge of 4%. The loss per spin you will experience in this case will be £0.04. In that scenario, 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 estimated at £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 also look at the drastic change associated with such a low RTP. The same no-variance slot, with an RTP reduced to 84% and a deposit of £100, will have a house edge of 16%. That would mean a loss per spin of £0.16 and you will go bust in just 619 spins.
A lower RTP will ultimately make your gaming sessions shorter, causing you to lose your money much faster. Expert players know that a high RTP does not necessarily tell them how much they can win, but it does indicate better 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 shorten your gaming time.
What to Do to Avoid Slots with a 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 the real-money mode. 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 of 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 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 on 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 whether you are playing cloned versions of your favourite slots.
Just like the process of checking the RTP on Play’n GO slots, you can open a game at the virtual casino where you are registered, load it 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 have 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 a few expert gamblers to realise that software providers had begun offering different RTP versions of their games.
Even the slightest change in a slot’s RTP 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 this either by checking the details of the slot at the virtual casino where you play or by opting 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.
