Online Casino Payouts
Date Added: October 28, 2008
The average payout percent is the amount paid out by the casino in winnings for each $100 wagered. One of the reasons for the popularity of online casinos is that they have a higher payout percent as compared to land based casinos. There are two reasons for this. One is that online casinos have lower costs. The second reason is that because of the intensely competitive nature of the online gambling industry the online casinos are unable to convert the lower costs to higher profits but have to pass on the benefit to the players.
An itemization of the cost heads will reveal why online casinos have lower costs. The most important factor is real estate. Land casinos are built on some of the costliest real estate in the world whereas online casinos have no real estate. Therefore there are also no maintenance costs associated with repairs to buildings, furniture and even mechanical gambling devices. And based casinos incur whopping electricity bills and have considerable manpower expenses. All these reflect in lower payout percents for land based casinos.
These lower payout percents are almost completely reflected in slot machine games. It is simpler to alter the payout percent of slots games by altering the payout tables or the composition of the symbols on the reels. The average payout percent of land based slots games in all of America is about 93%. The variation is from about 91.5% in Atlantic City New Jersey to about 95% in Las Vegas in Nevada. As against this most online casino slots have a payout percent of between 95.5% and 97%.
As far as online casinos go the games are divided into three groups for the purpose of determining payout percents. Slots games are at the bottom, followed by table and card games with video poker being at the top. Online video poker games have a payout percent of around 100%. These are the best games to play. Generally only those online casinos audited by eCOGRA report payout percent by game groups. Other casinos report the overall casino payout percent. Comparison of payout percent by gaming software providers also makes for interesting reading. All online casinos of the same software provider will not have the same payout percent because the mix of games offered differs. An analysis of the best online casinos of each software provider results in the following conclusion. The information on payout percents has been taken from “Casino Advisor”. Microgaming, Vegas technology and Real time Gaming were found at the top with payout percent between 97.5% and 98.5%. Cryptologic was next with payout percent between 97% and 98%. Playtech was last, among the major software providers with payout percent between 96.5% and 97.5%.
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