Realtime Gaming, known simply as RTG, is an online gaming software provider based in Atlanta and Costa Rica with a significant number of years of experience, as they were established back in 1999. Since 2006 when Playtech and Microgaming left the USA online casino market due to UIGEA, RTG casinos became the most popular online destination in North America.
In this review you will find...
Don’t get us wrong, they have their strong sides…
Video poker is one of their performance peaks, and they do have a vast selection of slots to enjoy. However, certain company approaches have contributed to RTG not being as highly regarded as one of the big and mighty providers out there. Let’s overlook minor imperfections and focus on payouts. How does RTG’s stand on matters of return to player rates and progressive jackpot payouts?
Simple Numbers Analysis
Looking at some of the famous RTG progressive slots that have showed a decent number of player visit frequencies, we can draw simple and direct conclusions on the matter of payouts. For starters, we have Aztec’s Millions. The game was released in 2009 which means it has been running for 7 years now. The jackpot value reached an amount above $2,000,000 and the max jackpot has actually never been paid.
Another example is the Jackpot Piñatas slot. It was launched in 2007 and until now the jackpot, which has reached $1,750,000 and counting, has never been won. Their Shopping Spree II slot holds a progressive jackpot prize of $400,000 that has never been paid out – and the slot is running since 2009. There’s more. Jackpot Cleopatra’s Gold slot also comes with a flattering $379,000 jackpot prize and has been running since 2009 as well. But unfortunately, the jackpot has never been paid. And for last, we’ll mention the Spirit of the Inca slot with a progressive jackpot of $300,000 which hasn’t been paid ever since the game was released in 2012. So, what is the point? Obviously, these progressive slots ought to be avoided.
How Should We Approach This?
As we are all familiar with, progressive slot machines usually have lower theoretical payout rates because of the fact that one part of the player’s bet goes into the progressive jackpot fund. For example, above mentioned slot Aztec’s Millions has an RTP of 91%. Spirit of the Inca has a theoretical RTP ranging from 91-97%. And some Realtime Gaming slot machines haven’t disclosed this information altogether, like Shopping Spree II.
RTG has maintained a company policy about allowing casino operators to have their say about which payout percentage to attach to a specific game hosted at their casino site. This has brought a lot of discomfort among customers as they can’t fully enjoy a casino game manipulated in this way without suspecting the casino being rogue. It has happened a lot of times in the past, and this is the main reason why RTG has been associated to various scandals taking place at unregulated casinos.
Getting back to progressive slots, and all things considered, it kind of looks pointless to even bother playing them when RTG stands behind the curtain. Progressives are always a big risk, but when there is just a slightest chance to get closer to that life-changing enormous win, it gives you will and patience to endure and keep on trying. When you find out these slot machines haven’t had any jackpot payouts in years you can only draw a conclusion that you are spending your money in vain.
Light at the end of the RTG tunnel
All the problems about RTG progressive slots we have pointed out – never paid progressive jackpots, shady casinos and ridiculously low payout percentages – can be overcome only if you bother to find a respectable, generous casino that has its own network of casinos and the progressive jackpots’ pools are drawn and paid out from that internal network.
A perfect example is the Bovada Casino group, which includes Slots LV, Ignition, Cafe casino and of course Bovada. They host RTG progressive slots on a separate network and RTG progressive jackpots do get paid at Bovada. RTG’s Megasaur was released in 2014 and while running under Bovada has a past payout of $1,051,455. It is now worth $1,051,455. Another jackpot amounting to huge sums is Shopping Spree, which was paid out of Bovada at $1,244,529. The Shopping Spree progressive jackpot value has now reached almost $2,400,000.