I know this might be old news by now for most, but for those who don’t know, or feel they need to be reminded, here we go.
These kind of things are the last thing the casino industry needs really, an industry which already is looked upon with suspicion and which more or less lacks transparency. We know that game developers are extremely secretive, which per se isn’t anything strange as it likely is a strategy to keep hackers, cheaters and competitors away, but it also helps strengthen the suspicions many of us have. That’s why it’s bad when things like this comes to light, even if it is good for us to know.
In January of 2017, a Danish player on the forum Casinomeister asked about the rtp settings on games from Play’n Go (PnG). He had noticed that after some updates the rtp was very low compared to with the very same games on other casinos. On his casino the rtp on the slot Holiday Seasons was as low as 91.51% while being 96.51% on other casinos.
He soon realized that this wasn’t the case on only Holiday Seasons, but on all games by PnG. When this came to light it spiraled into a hefty debate about rigged slots, which I think we all can understand. People also wondered what other developers may have adjusted their rtp settings to lower levels, or as one forum member wrote: “I have played a lot of the 9-liners in 2016 and they feel about 5-10% less generous.”
When it comes to judging the rtp of a game it is impossible to do so based on gut feeling since variance is also a factor. It would take the tracking of millions of spins to get somewhat close, but either way, an rtp setting of 91.51% is BAD. It’s more what you would expect from land based casinos. Even a 4% decrease in rtp can be quite dramatic even if of course again varience is a factor which means for the individual player on a given day the slot may perform very well.
But after some time a member got hold of a representative of PnG called Petter and this is what he had to say in regard to this:
So, all our games comes in a default RTP of 96%. As an example, Book of Dead has 96,21%, 7 Sins has 96,28% and Holiday Season has 96,51%. Depending on which market and jurisdiction the client want to use/launch the game, we’ve added different RTP levels. So Play’n GO releases the games with 96.xx% by default, then the client can change to another config if they chooses to do so. So each operator act on their own. Each game and it’s RTP is certified for ALL regulated markets and controlled by NMi as a test house. BTW, all providers offers different setups for their games and so does Play’n GO to be up to date with all markets and regulations.
According to a post by the owner of CM it seems that Microgaming for exampel do not allow for changes in the rtp which is set at the production phase and cannot be changed later. At this time we have no reason do question this.
But here comes the tricky part of this and something you need to be made aware of. Petter from PnG writes:
The RTP is up to each jurisdiction to decide, not us. We just provide the games and the feature, what the operator then do it’s not in our hands. But of course, they have to apply by each regulators rules. In UK they have their rules, MGA for Malta have theirs and DGA for DK have theirs as well. In UK, Malta and DK i’m pretty sure they have to display the RTP, but when running a casino from Curacao, which many are doing, I’m not sure they have to display it. So all major casinos running a Malta license im sure they have to show. As an example, LeoVegas look at the help file and you see. But that I guess is for you to ask the specific casino operator since we just deliver the game with default values of 96,XX% RTP.
In other words this hasn’t have to be a problem as long as you’re sticking to UK and/or MGA casinos. On those casinos they are obligated to display the rtp as compared to the Curacao licens where none such demands are made. This means you have to accept the fact that you may be playing with the lower range rtp setting.
However frustrating this may be, at the same time I guess we have to give PnG some credit for being open about it. We don’t know what range of settings are available for the operators, but according to one member on CM it is supposedly three settings at 89%, 94% and 96%. Anything below 95% is not that great and even that is pretty low. 89% is awful in other words.
This doesn’t necessarily make all casinos that run a Curacao license automatically bad, in fact some of them are highly accredited and concidered to be in the top league, but still, you may want to avoid PnG games at those places. Just saying, from one player to another.
Example of some casinos with Malta license are:
LeoVegas
Videoslots
Mr Green
Casumo
Maria Casino
Unibet
iGame
All the best.
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