The numbers
Dog House RTP, Volatility and Max Win
Every RTP figure for every Dog House game and every mode, copied from the rules screens in Pragmatic Play's demos, plus what the casino pages say, what volatility really means here and how big each game's cap is.
RTP by game and mode
| Game | Base game | With buys and special bets | At a casino we checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Dog House | 96.51% | No buy | 96.50% |
| The Dog House Megaways | 96.55% | Not listed separately | 96.50% |
| Dice Show | 96.51% | No buy | 96.51% |
| Multihold | 96.06% | Buy 96.08% | 96.06% |
| Dog or Alive | 96.52% | Buy 96.54% | 96.52% |
| Muttley Crew | 96.50% | Buys 96.54%, 96.53%, 96.54% | 96.50% |
| Royal Hunt | 96.53% | Both buys 96.51% | 96.53% |
| The Big Dog House | 96.53% | 96.43% to 96.56% across 12 options | 96.53% |
| Megaways 1000 | 96.50% | 96.50% in every mode | 96.50% |
Three things stand out. Eight of the nine games sit within 0.05 points of 96.5%. Multihold is the outlier at 96.06%. And buys barely move the needle: the biggest gap between a buy and normal play in the whole series is a tenth of a percent.
Read the rules
Why the RTP can differ between casinos
Pragmatic Play, like most studios, offers casinos several versions of a game with different RTPs. The game plays the same, but the long-run return differs. We saw this ourselves:
- A large real-money casino showed 96.50% for The Dog House and The Dog House Megaways, against 96.51% and 96.55% in Pragmatic's demo.
- Pragmatic's own website lists Dog or Alive at 96.08% and Royal Hunt at 96.50%, while their demos' rules said 96.52% and 96.53%.
The rules screen inside the game is the only figure that describes the version in front of you. Here's how to find it:
- Open the game at your casino.
- Tap the i button at the bottom left.
- Page through the rules to the page with the payline diagrams or volatility badge, usually page 3, 4 or 5.
- Look for "The theoretical RTP of this game is…".
Volatility
Volatility: what the games say about themselves
Every Dog House game shows a volatility badge on its intro screen and in its rules. Seven say medium: "medium volatility games pay out steadily and the range of pays varies from low to very high". Two say high: Dog or Alive and Muttley Crew, which "pay out less often on average but the chance to hit big wins in a short time span is higher".
Casino pages don't always agree. One large casino's descriptions call The Dog House, the Megaways and Dice Show "high volatility", while the games themselves say medium. We go with the games.
In practice the badge describes normal spins. As soon as you use a 500x buy, a super spin or a 2,500x buy, you're playing something far more volatile, whatever the badge says.
| Game | Volatility |
|---|---|
| The Dog House | Medium |
| The Dog House Megaways | Medium |
| Dice Show | Medium |
| Multihold | Medium |
| Dog or Alive | High |
| Muttley Crew | High |
| Royal Hunt | Medium |
| The Big Dog House | Medium |
| Megaways 1000 | Medium |
Caps
Max win: from 6,750x to 25,000x
| Game | Max win | At a $1 bet |
|---|---|---|
| The Dog House | 6,750x | $6,750 |
| The Dog House Megaways | Over 12,000x | $12,000+ |
| Dice Show | 6,750x | $6,750 |
| Multihold | 9,000x | $9,000 |
| Dog or Alive | 10,000x | $10,000 |
| Muttley Crew | 7,500x | $7,500 |
| Royal Hunt | 8,000x | $8,000 |
| The Big Dog House | 15,000x | $15,000 |
| Megaways 1000 | 25,000x | $25,000 |
In the newer games, a round ends the moment it reaches the cap, and any free spins left are lost. The cap is a ceiling, not a target: reaching it takes a near-perfect bonus round, and most players will never see one.
Plain English
What RTP means, and what it doesn't
RTP, return to player, is the share of all money staked that a game pays back over a very large number of spins. At 96.5%, the game keeps 3.5% on average: for every $100 staked over millions of spins, about $96.50 comes back.
- It's an average, not a promise. In a single session you can lose much more, or win much more. Our nine test rounds returned anything from 13x to 417x.
- Small differences add up slowly. The half-point gap between Multihold and the Megaways is about 50 cents per $100 staked.
- Buys don't change the edge. A 100x buy at 96.54% loses about 3.5x on average, the same share as normal spins. It just gets there faster.
Want to see what a budget really buys you? Our cost calculator works out the expected loss for any bet.