Let's come up with terms for slot returns and paybacks

There are two distinct concepts about how much a slot machine pays out: how much it with theoretically pay in the long term, and how much it actually pays out over some period of time.

The terms used to refer to these concepts are the "return" or the "payback", but ridiculously, people use either term to refer to either concept. So it's not always clear which flavor someone's talking about.

To add clarity, people sometimes refer to the former concept as the "theoretical return". It's clear but it's cumbersome. I'm a writer and I can't use an annoying seven-syllable phrase over and over and over in my articles.

So years ago, I stated on my site that for the purposes of my articles, "payback" would refer to the theoretical return, and "return" would refer to what you actually get back. It's cleaner, but it's not necessarily clear. I'm also not certain I picked the right match, maybe it would be better to reverse them.

So, my questions to the community are:

(1) What's a good, simple term to refer to the theoretical return?

(2) What's a good term to refer to the percentage a slot actually pays out?

(3) If I keep "return" and "payback" as the terms I use, which term should refer to which concept?

BTW, twenty years ago I called IGT to ask how they refer to those concepts since surely a slot maker would have need for terms that are both simple and unambiguous for internal communications. They said they'd get back to me but never did.

Discuss.

Quote:

(1) What's a good, simple term to refer to the theoretical return?

(2) What's a good term to refer to the percentage a slot actually pays out?

(3) If I keep "return" and "payback" as the terms I use, which term should refer to which concept?

(1) Use an abbreviation, TR, stands for "theoretical return".
(2) Use "percentage paid out", or abbreviated "PPO", with perhaps a time period. So a report could read "Slot Machine XXX from Apr 1 through June 30 PPO 85%".
(3) Clarify "Long Term Return" and "Short Term Payout", again defining the term length.

Quote: GenoDRPh

Quote:

(1) What's a good, simple term to refer to the theoretical return?

(2) What's a good term to refer to the percentage a slot actually pays out?

(3) If I keep "return" and "payback" as the terms I use, which term should refer to which concept?

(1) Use an abbreviation, TR, stands for "theoretical return".
(2) Use "percentage paid out", or abbreviated "PPO", with perhaps a time period. So a report could read "Slot Machine XXX from Apr 1 through June 30 PPO 85%".
(3) Clarify "Long Term Return" and "Short Term Payout", again defining the term length.
link to original post

Return to Player (RTP) is always used to mean theoretical return. I assume there is some basis in statutes or regulations that supports this very specific meaning in a legal and regulatory context. But I don't know the history of the term.

I agree with Mental. I have prepared a couple of Probabilistic Risk Assessments of games and the phrase "Return to Player" or "RTP" is the gaming industry phrase meaning "theoretical return." "Return to Player" is also the term used in the contracts I had to sign to describe what it was that I had to calculate. I believe that "Return to Player" is also the phrase used by the organization (GLI?) that certifies the integrity and mathematics of the game.

For the percentage that a slot actually pays out over a given time period, I would suggest "Actual Return."

Okay, thank you everyone for your help. I edited my article on slot returns, reversing the meaning of "returns" and "paybacks" os per the suggestion here.

How does it flow now? I feel it gets sticky when I refer to paybacks, but "actual returns" just doesn't fit and seems even worse, e.g. the subheading "Slot paybacks across the U.S." is cleaner than "Slot actual returns across the U.S." Seems like a single word is better.

Okay, you shamed me into actually reading your article on Slot Returns.

It's actually a good article with a lot of useful information!

One caveat - some of the key return data was compiled from 2017-2018. An awful lot has happened in the industry since then, so that's not ideal.

Your terminology was clear to me and presented no problems to me in reading and understanding.

Quote: MichaelBluejay

(1) What's a good, simple term to refer to the theoretical return?

(2) What's a good term to refer to the percentage a slot actually pays out?

In the casino gaming business we just refer to them as the theo and the actual.

Thank you everyone for your help. Based on suggestions I'm referring to theo as "RTP" or "return" (opposite of what I had before).

Also, I think I was overthinking this. Instead of starting the article with a boring and unnecessary dive into the dichotomy of the two kinds of returns, I just explained theo only (using "RTP" or "return"), and then when we finally get down to the section about casinos reporting their figures, *then* I call it "payouts" and casually point out that it's not the same thing as theo.

I wrote the article about five years ago which is why the payout data is old. It was a lot of work, I don't think I'll re-do it any time soon, and I don't think the data has changed *that* much.

i mean in my head it's keep and theo. same terms the casino would use in 1 syllable, but since most people are not expecting to win then an antonym of keep? Expected loss would be my long phrasing or just drop maybe?

I'm pretty comfortable with RTP and return for theo, and payout for actual. In the section heading, "RTPs are secret at U.S. land casinos" sounds better to me than "Theos are secret at U.S. Land casinos". Likewise, in the table, "Las Vegas Slot Payouts" seems better than "Las Vegas Slot Drops".

I'm pretty firm at this point on RTP and return for theo, though I could yet be convinced to change payouts, but I don't think drop is it.