RTP gets most of the attention, but “hold” is the figure that actually describes what a platform keeps, and understanding how the two relate clears up a common source of confusion about where the house edge actually comes from.
What Hold Actually Measures
Hold is essentially the mirror image of RTP: if a game returns 96% of wagers over the long run, its hold is the remaining 4%. It represents the portion of total wagers retained by the game over time, which funds the platform’s operations and, ultimately, its profit margin.
Why Both Figures Describe the Same Thing
Because hold and RTP are complementary, disclosing one effectively discloses the other through simple subtraction, which is why most platforms lead with RTP rather than hold — the framing sounds more favorable even though the underlying math is identical. Recognizing this equivalence removes any mystery from the relationship between the two terms.
Hold Varies by Volatility, Not Just by Game
A higher-volatility game does not necessarily carry a higher hold; the two are independent variables. A low-volatility, low-hold game and a high-volatility, low-hold game can share the same overall retained percentage while feeling completely different session to session, which is why hold alone is not enough to judge a game’s overall design.
Table Games and Slots Often Differ
For readers familiar with other forms of gaming, it is worth noting that typical hold percentages for slot-style games tend to run higher than many table games, reflecting differences in game design and operating costs rather than any inconsistency in fairness standards across game types.
Where Hold Data Sometimes Gets Published
Some regulators require licensed operators to publish aggregate hold data across their catalog periodically, which can be a useful independent check against a platform’s own disclosed RTP figures for individual games, where such regulatory reporting is publicly available.
Readers wanting to see how return figures are disclosed on a specific platform may find it useful to look at Slot88 as one example, alongside any regulator-published data for comparison.
A Quick Way to Estimate Hold From RTP
A useful shortcut for comparing games quickly is to simply subtract the published RTP from 100 to get an approximate hold figure without needing a separate disclosure. This works because the two numbers are defined as complements of each other in almost every regulatory framework. Doing this mental subtraction across a shortlist of games before playing is a fast way to rank them by generosity, even when a platform only publishes RTP and never mentions hold by name. It will not tell you anything about volatility or how a session might actually feel, but as a first filter for comparing otherwise similar titles, it takes only a few seconds and requires no extra research beyond the numbers already displayed in the game’s own information panel.
Final Thoughts
Hold and RTP are simply two ways of describing the same underlying mathematics from opposite directions. Understanding that a lower RTP means a higher hold, and that both figures are set independently of a game’s volatility, adds a useful layer of clarity to how these statistics are actually read.