House edge, hold and RTP are three different numbers

House edge, hold and return to player describe three different quantities that are routinely used as if they were one. Separating them makes published figures much easier to read, and it explains why two numbers about the same game can both be correct and still disagree.

House edge

House edge is the expected loss expressed as a percentage of the amount staked on a single decision. It is a property of the rules and the payout schedule, not of any particular session. It is computed, not observed: given the rule set you can derive it exactly.

Return to player

Return to player is the complement of house edge over the same base, expressed as what comes back rather than what is kept. A game described as returning ninety-seven per cent of stakes is the same game as one described as carrying a three per cent edge. The two phrasings are arithmetic mirrors, so seeing both quoted is not a contradiction.

Hold

Hold is the odd one out because it is measured rather than derived. It compares what a table or machine retained against what was brought to it, over some period. Money that is wagered repeatedly passes through the edge more than once, so hold is usually a larger number than the edge and says as much about how long people played as about how the game is priced.

Reading a figure correctly

Before comparing two published percentages, check three things: whether the base is a single decision or a whole visit, whether the figure was derived from rules or measured from activity, and whether the rule set quoted matches the rule set actually in use. A change to one rule can move a derived edge noticeably, which is why a figure without its rule set attached is not really a figure about anything.