Key facts
- A paytable shows prize sizes, not chances. The same paytable can sit on reels that make a symbol four or eleven times more valuable, as our model shows.
- Check the unit first. A '500' printed for five of a kind is $25 on a 20-line game at $1 a spin if it means 500 times the line bet, and $500 if it means 500 times the total bet.
- In our 30-stop reel model, a symbol paying 20x, 100x and 500x the line bet returns 0.80% of the line bet with 2 per reel, 3.20% with 3, and 8.96% with 4.
- The two numbers worth copying down from the rules screen are the RTP and the maximum win. Light & Wonder lists one online game, Huff N More Puff, in five RTP versions from 87% to 96%.
- Victoria's approved casino machine rules say a malfunction voids all game plays and pays, the rule behind the familiar line in the small print.
How to read a pokies paytable in five steps
To read a pokies paytable, start with its unit, then the symbol prizes, then the special symbols, then the features, and finish with the RTP and maximum win in the rules. The paytable is the game's price list. It tells you what each result pays, and it is silent on how often each result happens.
- Find the unit. Are the numbers multiples of the line bet, multiples of the total bet, credits, or dollars at your current bet?
- Read the symbol prizes. For each symbol, note what 3, 4 and 5 (or each cluster size) pay.
- Read the special symbols. What the wild cannot replace, what the scatter triggers, whether scatter wins are paid on the total bet.
- Read the feature rules. How many free spins, what changes in them, what multipliers apply, whether there is a cap.
- Read the fine print. The RTP line, the maximum win, and rules such as "malfunction voids all pays and plays".
Step 1: the unit, worked through
The single most common misreading is the unit. Take a paytable that shows "500" for five crowns on a line game played at $1 a spin. What you collect depends on what the 500 means:
| If the paytable means | 10 lines at $1 | 20 lines at $1 | 25 lines at $1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 500 x the line bet | $50 (line bet $0.10) | $25 (line bet $0.05) | $20 (line bet $0.04) |
| 500 x the total bet | $500 | $500 | $500 |
On a line-bet paytable, the more lines your dollar is spread across, the less each line win is worth. A 500x line win on 25 lines is 20 times your total bet, not 500. Many online games solve this by showing dollar values that update as you change the bet; if the numbers move when you change your stake, you are looking at real money values for that stake.
Ways and cluster games have no separate lines to bet on, so check whether their prizes are quoted against the whole bet or shown in dollars at your stake. Our guides to how do pokies lines work and cluster pays pokies cover how those wins are counted before the paytable prices them.
Steps 2 and 3: symbols, wilds and scatters
When you read the symbol rows, look for three rules that sit next to them:
- Which way wins count. Many line games pay left to right from the first reel; the rules say if a game also pays right to left.
- What the wild cannot do. BGaming's rules for Elvis Frog in Vegas say its wild replaces every symbol "except Scatters and Coin symbols". A wild that cannot complete a scatter or bonus trigger is worth less than it looks.
- How the scatter is paid. Scatter prizes and triggers count anywhere, and the rules state whether the scatter prize is multiplied by your total bet or line bet.
Also look for a line about multiple wins: whether several winning lines on one spin are added together, and whether only the highest win on each line is paid.
Step 4: feature rules and caps
The feature section tells you what the free spins or bonus round changes. That is where caps hide. NetEnt's Mega Joker, for example, caps Supermeter wins at 2,000 coins. BGaming prints two ceilings on Bonanza Billion: 15,000x the bet and EUR 180,000, and whichever is lower applies. At a EUR 20 bet, the cash cap cuts the real top prize to 9,000x.
A paytable may also show a gamble option, a feature buy price or a bet booster. Each changes what a spin costs; pokies bonus features explains them one by one.
Step 5: the RTP and maximum win
The rules screen of most online pokies states the theoretical RTP, and many state the maximum win. Write both down. These are the only numbers on the screen that describe the game's overall maths.
Light & Wonder's iGaming site shows why this matters. It lists Huff N More Puff in five versions, at 87%, 90%, 92%, 94% and 96%, each with its own game ID. Same game name, same 5,500x top prize; in our calculation, $1,000 of bets loses $40 on average at 96% and $130 at 87%. The highest rtp pokies australia list shows the top figures makers publish for popular games.
What the paytable never tells you
The paytable prices each win. It does not say how many of each symbol are on the reels or how they are weighted, and that decides how often each win lands. Here is a model we built to show how much that hidden part matters.
Take a crown that pays 20x the line bet for three from the left, 100x for four and 500x for five. Put it on five reels of 30 stops each, with the same number of crowns on every reel. In our calculation:
| Crowns per 30-stop reel | Chance of 3 from the left | Chance of 5 | Crown's share of the line bet returned |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1 in 3,616 | 1 in 759,375 | 0.80% |
| 3 | 1 in 1,111 | 1 in 100,000 | 3.20% |
| 4 | 1 in 487 | 1 in 23,730 | 8.96% |
The paytable is identical in all three rows. Going from two crowns per reel to four makes the same symbol return more than eleven times as much. The formula is short: with p the chance of a crown on one reel, the crown returns 20 x p³(1 - p) + 100 x p⁴(1 - p) + 500 x p⁵ per unit of line bet.
Pundit tip: never judge a pokie by how generous its paytable looks. A big number for five of a kind is cheap to print if the symbol almost never lines up. The RTP line is the only honest summary.
The fine print worth knowing
A few lines of fine print are worth knowing:
- Malfunctions. Victoria's gaming machine rules approved for the Melbourne casino say a malfunction of a machine, including its jackpot display or controller, "voids all gaming machine game plays, winning of jackpots, prizes and payments".
- Wins below your bet. On a many-line game a "win" can be smaller than the spin cost. GambleAware NSW calls these losses disguised as wins: the machine celebrates while your balance falls.
- Theoretical return. RTP is a long-run average over the game's whole life, not a promise for your session. For how that average is built, see how do pokies work.
Once you know the RTP and your bet, the pokies calculator turns them into an expected cost per hour.
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Frequently asked questions
What is a pokies paytable?
The screen, usually behind an 'i' or menu button, that lists what each winning combination pays, how wilds and scatters work, how lines or ways are counted, what the features do, and the game's rules. Online games often add the RTP and maximum win.
Does the paytable show the odds of winning?
No. It shows what each win pays, not how often it lands. The odds depend on how many of each symbol sit on the reels and how they are weighted, which the paytable does not show. Only the RTP line summarises the overall return.
Are paytable values per line or per spin?
It depends on the game, and the paytable or rules say which. Some show multiples of the line bet, some show multiples of the total bet, and some show credits or dollars that update when you change your bet. Change your bet and watch whether the numbers move.
What does 'malfunction voids all pays and plays' mean?
If the machine or its jackpot equipment faults, results during the fault do not count. Victoria's approved gaming machine rules for the Melbourne casino state that a malfunction voids all game plays, jackpot wins, prizes and payments.
Where do I find the RTP in the paytable?
Usually in the rules or help pages after the symbol payouts, written as RTP, return to player or theoretical return. If a game lists more than one figure, read what each applies to, such as a feature buy.
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