Understanding Return to Player percentages in Australian gaming venues - clubs, pubs and casinos.
In Australia, the Return to Player (RTP) percentage for pokies varies depending on your state and the type of venue. If you're wondering where you have the best chance of getting your money back, this page explains how RTP works and what it means in practice.
RTP is a percentage that indicates how much a gaming machine is programmed to return to players over time. A pokie with 90% RTP will, on average, return $90 for every $100 wagered - with the remaining $10 going to the house.
RTP is calculated over millions of spins, so it says nothing about any individual session. A machine can go weeks without a significant payout, then pay out heavily in a short period. A higher RTP increases your chance of winning more than you put in, but it doesn't change the fundamental probability of beating the odds - pokies are still based on luck.
All gaming venues in Australia - clubs, pubs and casinos - are regulated to return a minimum of 85% to players. Some states set the minimum slightly higher.
On machines with a large jackpot, a portion of the RTP is allocated to funding that jackpot rather than regular line pays. This means you'll typically see fewer small wins on jackpot machines compared to standard machines with the same headline RTP. If winning the jackpot is your goal that's fine, but if you prefer more frequent smaller wins, a non-jackpot machine with the same RTP will generally feel more generous in regular play.
Generally yes, though the difference is often small.
Clubs in Australia tend to offer slightly higher RTPs. Many clubs are non-profit organisations that reinvest gaming revenue back into the club or the community, which can translate to better machine settings. In NSW and Queensland, clubs are required to meet minimum RTP thresholds of around 85-90%, and larger clubs with more machines often have a wider range of games at varying RTP levels.
Pubs are commercially driven and pokies revenue contributes directly to their bottom line. This can result in RTP settings toward the lower end of what regulations allow. Pubs also tend to have fewer machines, which gives you less choice across different RTP levels.
In most states, individual machine RTP information isn't publicly displayed, but you can press the information button on any machine to see its paytable and sometimes its RTP range. RTP can vary significantly between different machines in the same venue, so it's worth checking before you settle on a game.
If choosing between a club and a pub, the club is generally the better bet for RTP - though venue-specific factors matter more than venue type alone.
For more on how pokies work in Australia, see our beginner's guide to playing pokies.