Slot Machines Payouts Guide: Highest Paying Slots & US Casinos by Category

Americans love to play slots online. We love slot machines in general – they are fun, immersive, and exciting. Did you know, however, that some slot machines are inherently better than others and offer a better payout percentage? It’s true! Not all video slots are created equal, and some give a mathematically better chance of winning than others.

If this has caught your attention or caused surprise, you have come to the right place. In this guide, we look at slots with best payout percentages. Furthermore, we explain important factors, like RTP and volatility. Additionally, to give you the best gaming experience, we recommend the best online casinos with consistently high payouts.

20 Slots With the Best Payout Rate (RTP)

While online slots are incredibly fun to play, US players still want to win money, too, and walk away with an epic cash prize! This is why it is important to consider the RTP when looking at slot machine payouts.

RTP shows your expected winnings and the house edge when you play online slots. This is shown as a percentage. The basic theory is that the higher the percentage, the more you can expect to win. The larger number is the playing winning, and the house edge is 100% minus this number.

For example, Ugga Bugga by Playtech is one of the best payout slot machines of all time, with an RTP of 99.07%. Playing this game for a prolonged period and spending $2000, for example, should result in a 99.07% return or $1981.40. Alternatively, we can say this would result in a house edge, or loss, of $18.60 ($2000 – 1981.40$). From this, we can see that the best payout slots have a higher RTP percentage closer to 100%.

Understanding this is theoretical is important, and the average payout should play out over time. However, there are other factors we discuss below, such as progressive slots and volatility.

Furthermore, the average payout could vary wildly if you only play a few spins. For example, Player A could play just ten spins and hit a real money jackpot prize after their second spin. This would result in an RTP much higher than 100%. In contrast, player B could play the same game, have ten spins, and win nothing. In this scenario, their actual RTP would be 0%. This is why the RTP is an excellent factor to show the best real money slots, but it must be taken as an average payout – not an exact guaranteed number.

Regardless, some online casino games are well-known for their above-average slot payout. If you can play these slot games, we urge you to do so as they have a higher payout percentage way above the industry average of 96%. We have hand-picked 20 of the best RTP slots below for your benefit!

10 Slots With the Best Payouts (Progressives)

If you want to utilize gambling sites to their fullest potential and hit epic wins, you want to try your luck on progressive jackpot slots with the highest payout percentages.

Progressive slots still have the same game mechanics and features as regular slot games. However, they have one key difference that can result in some life-changing high payouts. These slot games have pooled progressive jackpots in addition to their standard pay tables.

The progressive jackpots are built-up by customers via a percentage of their slot spin cost. For example, a game may contribute 1% towards the jackpot prize pool. This means that if you spent $1000, you would add $10 to the pot.

This may not sound like much. However, there could be hundreds of thousands of other players contributing too. Furthermore, many jackpot slots have their prize pools added to across multiple online casinos. For example, the potentially best-known progressive slot of all time is Mega Moolah. This has the record for the highest payout of all time (Over 25 million US Dollars!), and a large network of online casinos builds up the prize pool.

For the highest payout percentage, progressive slots usually have a lower RTP than standard slot games, in some cases even lower than 91% RTP. This is due to the potential of hitting that huge jackpot, taking part of the spin after spin returns to build up. However, as you can see from our table below, there is still a range of progressive slots with better payout percentages.

Best 10 Slots With the Best Payout (Non-Progressive)

The last main factor to look at when considering slot machine payouts is volatility. Volatility relates to the risk factor and the frequency and value of payouts. There is often a correlation between RTP and volatility, but it isn’t guaranteed.

In most slot games, you can open the information panel or game rules, and the software developer will list both the RTP and volatility for your benefit.

The volatility of slot machine games can be classed in three instances – low, medium, and high.

Low volatility online slots – These best-paying slots are for the cautious and conservative US players. Low volatility is the way to go if you prefer to spend little amounts and make consistent returns. These online slots work on the premise that you will receive frequent payouts, but the payout value will be much less. Furthermore, you are less likely to get real money jackpot payouts. Typically, low-volatility slot games have a higher RTP percentage.

Medium volatility online slots – Medium slot machine games are basically the middle-ground. They provide a balanced gameplay experience that sits between low and high. These slots pay less often than low volatility games but also have a slightly higher chance of larger payouts. If you want to take a little more risk but aren’t quite ready to let loose, medium volatility games are an excellent option.

High volatility online slots – High volatility slot machines online are for the risk-takers – the US players who want fame and glory and don’t mind a potential loss. These online slots payout infrequently. However, there is a much greater chance of jackpot prizes and large real money rewards as a result. Due to the long stretches without real money payouts, the RTP of high volatility slots is typically lower.

Below, we have selected ten high RTP slots with a range of different volatilities to suit various player types!

What is RTP, and How is it Calculated?

RTP is an important percentage relating to how much money a player can expect to win back when playing a casino game. RTP is not exclusive to the best online slots; it is also used for other games like Blackjack, Roulette, and Baccarat.

RTP = Return to Player

Key Points

• RTP is the percentage a player can expect to win back when playing a game of their original stake.
• This is a theoretical return and not guaranteed.
• The percentage is based on playing over time and can easily be skewed if a customer plays only a few spins.
• The remaining percentage out of 100 is the house edge – or how much you will lose.

Let’s look at an example. Divine Fortune has a theoretical RTP of 96.90%. If you played this slot game and spent $100, you should expect to win back 96.90% of that = $96.90. Conversely, the house edge here (or the amount you lose) would be 100-96.90 = 3.10% / $3.10.

How is RTP Calculated?

So how is this percentage arrived at? There is actually a simple formula to calculate the best online slots RTP; however, you need financial data from online casinos!

RTP = Total Amount Won On A Slot Game / Total Amount Spent On A Slot Game

Let’s create a theoretical example. Online Casino A features the Hall of Gods slot game with an expected RTP of 96.50%. In the month of August, the total spend on this slot game was $1,340,000, while the total net winnings were $1,277,000.

Therefore, the actual RTP was 1,277,000 / 1,340,000 = 95.29% which is slightly below what it should be.

Theoretical RTP values are provided by each developer and tested regularly by third party companies to ensure the provided data are accurate and fair.

Slots Volatility Explained

The other major factor when looking at the online casino payout percentage and the best slot machine payouts is volatility. This states how risky slot machines are, how often you can expect to win, and the value of those wins.

There are three types of volatility for the best payout slot machines in a broad categorization: low, medium, and high. However, many slot providers list volatility on a scale that can include rankings between the main types, such as medium-low or medium-high. We describe the three main volatility types below.

Low Volatility

• Risk: Low
• Win Frequency: Often
• Win Amount: low

If you want to find relatively risk-free slot games, low-volatility titles are your best option. These slot machines pay out often, but the downside is that the payout amount is usually low. Furthermore, playing such a particular slot game has a lower chance of hitting big payouts and jackpot prizes.

If you enjoy low-risk online gambling and prefer to play for fun, low-volatility slot machines are suitable.

Medium Volatility

• Risk: Medium
• Win Frequency: Semi-Often
• Win Amount: Medium

As the name suggests, medium volatility is basically a compromise between low and high. Medium volatility slot machines give a little more risk, pay out a little less, but also have a higher frequency of jackpots compared to low volatility games.

High Volatility

• Risk: High
• Win Frequency: Infrequent
• Win Amount: High

Lastly, we have high volatility slots. These are for those of you who love the all-or-nothing approach. These high payout slots are for you if you are quite happy to risk it all to hit a mega jackpot. High volatility slots pay out infrequently. As a result, there is the potential to walk away with nothing! However, there is generally a higher chance of winning epic prizes through the slots bonus games.

Relation between RTP and Volatility

As mentioned, RTP and volatility are key aspects of high payout slots. There is also a general correlation between the two. It is important to understand this so that you can choose the best online slots to suit your intentions, bankroll, and playstyle.

Generally speaking, we can state that:

• Slot machines with low volatility have a higher RTP
• Slot machines with high volatility have a lower RTP

Let’s look at this logically. A low-volatility slot machine often pays out. The amounts may not be huge, but you are consistently winning back the amount you bet or a little bit less. This results in higher payout percentages and thus a higher RTP.

In contrast, a high-volatility slot pays infrequently. This means that you are consistently not earning back your spin costs, dragging the RTP drastically down. However, the higher percentage chance of jackpot prizes means that the RTP is bought up and thus usually averages out slightly lower overall than low-volatility games.

What does this mean for you when choosing paying online slots? It means that if you want low-risk games with frequent wins, RTP should be the deciding factor. In contrast, if you don’t care about making consistent wins, and want those jackpot prizes, look instead at the volatility.

Are Loose Slot Machines Real?

Have you ever heard of the epic myth of loose slot machines that payout on virtually every spin? No? We haven’t either! This stems from land-based casinos. You can find many rumors, legends, and stories of supposed casino operators that have the loosest slots with that payout far more than they should.

Unfortunately, for online gambling, there is no such thing. Online slot machines use complex RNG systems and algorithms to ensure that the outcomes are random. Furthermore, software developers have the RTP percentages of their games published, which is required as part of their licensing terms.

Therefore, if you are playing online slots on a game with an RTP of 96.00%, you can guarantee that RTP is pretty accurate.

Aside from the technicalities, and that it is virtually impossible with online casinos, ask yourself this – why would online casinos purposefully have loose slots? If this was true, they would all be out of business!

Best Payout Online Casinos in the US

Now that you have an amazing idea of the best payout slots, you need to know where you can play them!

The top online casinos value their customers and give them a fair chance at winning real money. You can check this simply by looking at their average payout percentages.

In fact, to make things even easier, we have done this for you. Below, we have selected the best payout online casinos in the US. The average payout was calculated using their published RTP percentages against the total number of slot games.

Land-Based vs. Online Slots Payouts

It is vital that you understand the difference between land-based and online casinos and how paying slot machines works.

Slot machines in land-based casinos usually have lower RTPs. Therefore, you are not likely to win as much as online slot machines. However, to offset this, the jackpot prizes of real money slots in physical casinos are typically much higher. In many instances, casino operators have both physical venues and online casinos and offer the same games at both!

Popular examples include BetMGM Casino and Caesars Casino – these companies have well-known physical venues but have also branched out to online gambling. While their online and offline game catalogs are not exactly the same, there are games that crossover.

You must also remember that online gambling is not legal in every state with physical casinos. Currently, you can find legal online slot casinos in Connecticut, Delaware, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.