Social Casino RTP Showdown: Which Platforms Offer the Best Payouts?
Return to Player (RTP) is a crucial concept to understand when choosing casino games, particularly slots. It measures the percentage of wagered money that a game pays back to players over time. RTP is frequently a second thought to players, but since the same game can have wildly different RTP across sites, it can be important to consider when playing a casino. Choosing the right site could potentially save hundreds or even thousands of dollars over the long run.
I’ve always heard the sweepstakes casinos have different RTP but didn’t really understand the range of RTP available. So I went ahead and compared the RTP of 12 of the top sweepstakes casinos to answer the question: “Which Sweepstakes Casinos have the Highest RTP?”, and the results really surprised me.
RTP data was sampled on January 2024, data may have changed since then!
What is RTP (Return to Player)?
First of all, let’s talk about what RTP is in the first place. RTP is the expected value of funds to be returned to players over billions and billions of plays. It doesn’t determine how much you’ll get back in your next session, but it shows the trend over the long-term.
Small differences in RTP can be very important. For example, a 96% RTP vs. a 92% RTP is doubling in house edge. The house collects 4% of wagers on a 96% RTP slot, vs. 8% of wagers on a 92% slot.
Here’s a simple example of how RTP works:
Consider two popular sweepstakes casinos, Casino A and Casino B, both offering the same slot game, “Cosmic Cash,” but with different RTPs.
- Casino A: RTP for “Cosmic Cash” is 95%.
- Casino B: RTP for “Cosmic Cash” is 97%.
While this difference might seem small, it can significantly impact your virtual bankroll over time. Let’s illustrate using a hypothetical scenario:
Scenario: You play “Cosmic Cash” with a $100 budget at both casinos.
- Casino A: With a 95% RTP, you’ll likely retain $95 on average, losing $5 to the house edge.
- Casino B: With a 97% RTP, you’ll likely retain $97 on average, keeping $2 more.
This difference accumulates over time:
- Weekly Play: At Casino A, you’d lose $35 (7 x $5) in a week. At Casino B, you’d lose $14 (7 x $2).
- Monthly Play: At Casino A, you’d be down $150 (30 x $5). At Casino B, you’d be down $60 (30 x $2).
This simplified example demonstrates the long-term impact of RTP choices. Consistently selecting games with higher RTPs can gradually preserve your virtual wealth in sweepstakes casinos.
Key points to remember about RTP:
- It’s a theoretical, long-term average, not a guarantee of individual wins or losses in any given session. RTP is computed by game providers by doing billions of sample spins.
- Higher RTP generally means greater chances of retaining your money over time.
- RTP can vary significantly between different games and casinos.
- It’s often displayed within the game’s information or rules section.
Top Sweepstakes Casinos RTP Comparison Table
| Site | RTP Score | RTP by Provider |
| Stake.us | 🟢 | 🟢 96.4% Pragmatic 🟢 96.3% Hacksaw 🟢 95.7% BGaming |
| High5 | 🟢 | 🟢 96.4% Pragmatic 🟢 96.3% Hacksaw 🟢 96.4% Relax |
| Fortune Coins | 🟡 | 🟡 94.4% Pragmatic 🟡 94.1% Relax |
| Pulsz | 🟡 | 🟡 94.8% Pragmatic 🟡 95.2% Relax |
| Chumba | 🟢 | 🟢 96.4% Pragmatic 🟢 96.3% Relax |
| Modo | 🟢 | 🟢 96.3% Hacksaw 🟢 96.4% Relax |
| Crown Coins | 🟢 | 🟢 96.6% Pragmatic |
| Luckybird | 🟢 | 🟢 96.0% BGaming |
| WowVegas | 🟡 | 🟡 94.4% Pragmatic 🟡 94.5% BGaming |
| Chanced | 🔴 | 🔴 92% Hacksaw 🟡 94.3% RTP Pragmatic |
| Stackr | 🟡 | 🟡 94% Hacksaw |
| Sweepslots | 🟢 | 🟢 96% Relax |
Conclusion
Stake.us and High5 win out huge here in my eyes. Both are highly trustworthy and offer a huge selection of games- and surprisingly both are offered at consistently high RTP. Chumba was also a big surprise- I’ve personally had terrible luck there and would’ve guessed they were in sell-out mode from personal experience, but Chumba offers among the highest RTP across the sampled games. In my opinion, any casino with a green score should be considered best in class. Think twice before playing on a yellow site. If your favorite games can be played on a site with a green score instead of one with a year score, consider switching sites! And avoid playing on site/provider combos with a red score.
RTP isn’t the only factor with sweepstakes casinos, want to learn which ones offer the best daily login bonuses? Check out my article Best Sweeps Casino Daily Bonuses and learn how I make $25+/day.
Methodology
To compare RTP across casinos, I took a sample of popular slots from four of the top game providers: Pragmatic, Hacksaw, Relax, and BGaming. I then opened each slot and noted the RTP of the slot. Interesting, all major providers visibly display the RTP of the current game in the information tab for that game. I compiled all of this data into a giant spreadsheet and then compared average RTP across sites and providers.
This approach to comparing sites ignores the RTP for both originals and table games, which are both significant draws to sites, as they aren’t easily comparable across sites.
View the raw data in my analysis speadsheet here
