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The Mini-God of Slots (1 of 2)

Once upon a time, slots were not as intelligent as they are now. It wasn’t that your grandfather’s slot machines didn’t study hard enough, or couldn’t be bothered to read a book. Rather, they lacked that crucial component that passes for intelligence in terms of this generation’s electronic devices – a computer chip. Today’s slot games are heaps smarter than their predecessors, thanks to a little something called a “RNG,” which officially put God in the machine…. slot machines, that is.

A random number generator does pretty much what one would assume, given the name. The RNG constantly generates random numbers, which correspond to specific outcomes of the slot reels. The vast majority of these outcomes will be tied to dud spins, in which the player wins nothing. A few will correspond to wins of varying amounts (again, based on the number that comes up), and very rare ones will correspond to life-changing jackpots that make instant millionaires of simple schlubs feeding tokens into a coin slot. Despite what might seem like common sense, the RNG has nothing to do with what is displayed on the reels of the slot or the LCD screen of a video slot. These non-winning combinations of symbols (whether they be fruit, anchors, or little Elvis heads) are separately cooked up by the slot device to let you know the outcome of your spin. The RNG does not give you two bananas and a BAR, for instance.

The principle of randomness has everything to do with slot machine operation. It did way back in 1895 when Charles Fey dreamed up the “Liberty Bell” three-reeler, and it still does today.

Continue to part 2 here.

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