Buffalo RTP and volatility: two settings, and why the casino you pick matters

Online Buffalo has two published RTP settings, 91.821% and 94.724%, and the casino decides which one you play. That is a gap of 2.9 percentage points on the same game, so the casino you choose is the one decision that changes Buffalo’s long-run return. Volatility is less clear: Aristocrat does not rate it, and the casinos that do contradict each other.

What RTP does Buffalo pay online?

Aristocrat Interactive’s official rules list the classic Buffalo in two configurations, and its Pennsylvania rule pages show which casinos use which:

The rule pages are undated, so they show which settings exist, not that every casino still carries the game today. Casino marketing pages add their own figures: BetMGM’s game page shows 94.72%, with a note that RTP can differ from one jurisdiction to another, and its December 2023 review quotes 94.85%. When sources disagree, the rules screen of the game in front of you is the one that counts.

The other Buffalo games have their own pairs of settings, listed in the comparison table on how Buffalo plays online.

What does a 2.9-point gap mean in dollars?

RTP is the share of all money wagered that a game is designed to pay back over a very long run. Here is an illustration, using a hypothetical $1,000 in total wagers (for example, 1,000 spins at $1):

The arithmetic: $1,000 x 0.94724 = $947.24, and $1,000 x 0.91821 = $918.21. The difference is $29.03 per $1,000 wagered, and the lower setting’s expected cost is about 55% higher ($81.79 against $52.76). At $10,000 in total wagers the gap grows to $290.30.

Total wagered adds up faster than most players expect, because winnings that are bet again count again. These are long-run averages, not predictions: any single session can finish far above or far below them, and no setting makes a win more likely on the next spin.

For the general theory behind both numbers, beyond Buffalo, read a longer explainer on RTP and volatility at casinonline.us.com.

How do you check Buffalo’s RTP before you play?

• Open the rules inside the game. Use the help, info or paytable screen before your first spin. Aristocrat Interactive’s rules print a line reading “Game RTP” followed by the percentage for that configuration.
• Use the casino’s game page. Caesars Palace Online’s Buffalo page links straight to Aristocrat Interactive’s Pennsylvania game-help pages.
• Check the exact title. Buffalo Gold Collection, Buffalo Chief and the rest have their own figures, so make sure the rules match the game you opened.
• Check again later. Casinos can change versions, so a figure you saw months ago may not still apply.

How volatile is Buffalo?

Aristocrat does not publish a volatility rating for the online game, and the casinos describing it disagree outright. BetMGM’s review calls Buffalo a low-variance slot; Caesars Palace Online’s game page calls it high volatility. Both cannot be a precise description of the same configuration, so read these labels as marketing copy rather than data.

What the rules do show is where the large results come from: the free games, where sunset wilds multiply wins by up to 27x in BetMGM’s description. Budget as if the game can run for long stretches between bonuses, whatever label a casino uses, and set a limit before you start. The responsible gambling page lists free help.

Why the online figure does not describe the floor machine

On a casino floor, each casino sets a machine’s payback and does not publish it per machine, so there is no floor figure to compare with 94.724%. The online classic also lacks the linked progressive jackpot some floor Buffalo machines carry. CDC Gaming Reports said in January 2024, writing about Buffalo Gold, that the studio sometimes adjusts an online game’s math model to make up for that missing jackpot. In short, the online game is its own version with its own numbers. What changes when a slot moves online covers this across the games on this site.

To see where the multipliers that drive Buffalo’s big results come from, read how the Buffalo free games work. For which casinos carry which Buffalo game in each state, see where to play Buffalo online, or return to the Buffalo overview.