Slots Random Number Generation

A random number generator (RNG) is what has enabled slot machines and other gambling games to be completely random and provide casinos with an absolute level of trustworthiness.

What is Random Number Generation?

Random Number Generation, abbreviated to RNG, is a technology developed in order that the randomness of a physical shuffle, throw or spin can be produced. This means that rather than having to have a dealer shuffle a deck of cards, a player throw a pair of die or a machine spin its reels, the results of those action can be simulated completely fairly, reflecting the correct odds, by a computer.

What does this have to do with Slots?

When slot machines or one armed bandits were first made they worked on the basis of 3 spring mounted reels that would be caused to spin by a mechanical set of actions put in motion by the pulling of a lever. Each of these reels would have a number of pictures on them and a winning outcome would be determined by the combination of images created when the reels ceased spinning. In this set up each image or picture on each reel was as likely to be landed on as any other; the result was completely random. Modern slot machines however haven’t worked in this way since the 1980’s when computerization was introduced into the gaming world.

Random Number Generation in Modern Slots

Today a slot machine will have many more image positions on each of its reels than would have been imaginable by its original creator. Most slots today have 3, 5 or 7 reels, but each of those reels may have tens if not hundreds of possible images on which the reel could rest. In the world of physical reels this would never be possible, but with video slots and virtual reels it is no problem.

Let’s take the example of a 3 reel machine with 147 positions per reel. A computer will randomly pick a number 3 times between 1 and 147; let’s say it picks 16, 78 and 43. The first of those numbers, 16, relates to the first reel, the second, 78, to the second, and the third, 43, to the third. Each of the 147 image positions on each reel corresponds to a number; so the computer tells the first reel that it should move to the position number 16, the second to move to position number 78, and the third to position number 43. Each of these positions are represented on the screen by a symbol which has been previously allocated to that position, so you don’t see numbers, rather you see cherries, a pineapple and a banana, or if you’re lucky cherries, cherries and cherries. The whole spin has happened without a physical spin at all.

Is Random Number Generation fair?

The fairness of RNG is exactly the same as the fairness of a physical spin; each spin is an individual event and unaffected by what proceeded or followed it. The numbers are not custom generated, meaning that when you hit the button it may be a pre-created set of random numbers that is represented by the reels by each combination of numbers only gets used once and the next spin uses a new random number generation: RNG is both fair and safe.

Theo Evans