Hold

Hold is the share of the money players wager that the operator actually keeps as revenue over a period of time.

Definition

Hold (or hold percentage) is an operator-side metric measuring what proportion of total amounts wagered (handle) is retained as gross gaming revenue after paying out winnings. It is calculated as revenue kept divided by total staked, expressed as a percentage. Unlike the theoretical house edge, which is a fixed statistical expectation built into a game's rules, hold is the realized, backward-looking figure that appears in an operator's accounts and can drift above or below the theoretical value due to variance, player behavior, promotions, and game mix. In table games and sports betting the term is used loosely and can be measured against the buy-in (drop), the amount wagered, or the number of chips purchased, so its exact denominator depends on context.

Worked example

A slot machine has an RTP (return to player) of 96%, which means its theoretical house edge is 4% (RTP and house edge sum to 100%). Over one month, players wager a total of 1,000,000 in handle. At the theoretical rate the machine would keep 40,000 (4%). In practice the machine's actual hold that month comes in at 42,500, or 4.25% of handle, because a few high-variance sessions ran below average payout. Here the theoretical hold is 4% while the actual hold is 4.25%; over enough spins the actual figure trends toward the theoretical 4%.

Why it matters

Hold is a foundational profitability metric: it tells operators how much revenue they realize per unit wagered and is central to floor management, game selection, and financial reporting. Learners should distinguish theoretical hold (the designed statistical expectation, tied to house edge) from actual hold (the realized result affected by variance and player behavior), because conflating them leads to misreading short-term results as trends. For players and analysts, understanding hold clarifies that the operator's mathematical advantage, not any single outcome, is what produces revenue over time, which underscores why gambling should be treated as paid entertainment rather than a source of income.

Related

Note: The core definition (revenue kept divided by amount wagered) is stable, but the denominator and precise usage of "hold" vary by vertical and jurisdiction: in table games it is often measured against the drop (buy-in) rather than total wagered, and in sports betting "hold" typically refers to the margin retained from total stakes. Whether hold is quoted before or after bonuses/promotions (GGR vs. NGR basis) also varies by operator, so specific figures should be verified against the reporting standard in use.