Slot machines have long been among the most popular games at all casinos, whether they are in Las Vegas or on the internet. The early examples of a slot machine would have mechanical means by which to work out the outcome of a spin. Nowadays, all slots are based on complex programming. Your slot machine won’t have proper reels if it is inside a real casino – it is likely to have a video screen instead, on which the reels are shown. Hence the name video slots.
One thing all these games have in common though is a random number generator. You often see this term abbreviated to RNG. Each spin of the reels of any slot game should be entirely random. This means two consecutive spins could conceivably produce two jackpot wins at one end of the scale and nothing at all at the other end.
The software ensures a random outcome will be determined and therefore makes it impossible to predict what might happen next. You’ve probably heard of people saying a slot game is going through a cold period or is on a hot streak. However, while that might be true in terms of the number of prizes (or lack of) that are seen on that machine, each spin is still random. We tend to see patterns even when they are not there.
Casino slots are also based around a payout percentage. This is commonly known as the RTP of the slot. This means the return to player, or if you prefer, the amount returned to the players in prizes, taken from the total monies accepted by the machine.
Every slot machine, no matter how high the RTP is, will return less than 100%. The remainder is kept by the casino for providing the game. A Vegas casino, for example, would take a small slice of the monies taken from every machine on their casino floor. The same applies at online casinos, even though the floor there is virtual.
The random number generator ensures that no one can tell what the outcome of the next spin would be. It might produce the progressive jackpot if the right combination of icons is present on the reels. It may produce a losing spin. It could be something in between, creating the means to scoop one of the prizes offered on the paytable. It is that uncertainty that leads many players to enjoy various slot games, whether at real casinos or their online counterparts.
