How Do Online Slot Machines Work

Slot machine video from casino expert Steve Bourie that teaches you the insider secrets to winning at slot machines and how a slot machine really works.

Work

Most amateur gamblers believe that if a slot machine hits the jackpot, then it immediately goes ‘cold’. They also believe the opposite is true; if a machine runs cold for hours, then it’s ‘due’ for a big payoff. But if you look inside modern slot machines, you learn the cold hard truth. Every single pull of the lever has equal odds of winning, and those odds are steep.

Since the earliest mechanical slot machines, gaming manufacturers have weighted the machines to tweak the odds. If you look closely at the reels of old machines, you’ll find many more blanks and low-scoring symbols than pots of gold, especially on the third or final reel. This creates the famous ‘near miss’ effect.

How casino slot machines work

Modern slots have replaced the gears, cranks and stoppers with precision step motors and random number generators (RNG). When you pull the crank on a modern slot, a built-in RNG selects three numbers between one and 64. Each number corresponds to one of 22 spots on the three reels. The trick is that half of the numbers between one and 64 correspond to blank spots and only one random number matches the jackpot symbol. The odds of nailing the jackpot are 1/64 x 1/64 x 1/64 or one in 262,144.

The lever is just for show. Three internal step motors spin each reel and stop them precisely at the positions chosen by the RNG. Still feeling lucky?

Return vs payback

There is no such thing as a ‘loose’ or ‘tight’ slot machine. In modern casinos, slot machines are programmed to deliver a precise return percentage, somewhere around 95 per cent. That means 95 per cent of the money that goes into a slot machine is paid back out to the players and the casino keeps the rest.
But here’s where things get tricky. The return percentage is not the same as the payback, which is the actual amount of money you win or lose during each gambling session at a slot machine. If you sat down at a slot machine for eternity and pulled the lever an infinite amount of times, your payback percentage would be exactly 95 per cent. Likewise, in a casino full of gamblers, the collective machines will pay back roughly 95 per cent of the total money gambled during the course of a day.

Unfortunately, you are only one person and you don’t have infinite pulls. So your odds of winning are equally good or bad every pull. You could lose all day and that doesn’t mean the machine is rigged. And it doesn’t mean that the guy who wins the jackpot found the ‘loose’ machine. He just got very, very lucky.

Top 5 Facts: Gambling stats

1) Big jackpot, big odds

The odds of winning the jackpot on a ‘progressive’ slot machine like Megabucks is one in 50 million, although if you are that one you’re likely to become very rich.

2) ‘Easy’ money

68 per cent of people who gamble at Las Vegas play the slot machines most often. And there’s a large target market as nearly 90 per cent of visitors to Las Vegas gamble.

3) The house wins

In the United States, gaming was a $92 billion industry in 2007, double what it was a decade ago. And in the UK, there were 143 casinos as of 31 March 2009.

4) United States of Slots

Even though Nevada is widely considered the gambling state, there are 37 US states with some form of legalised electronic gaming device like slot machines or video poker.

5) Vegas’ most wanted

The Nevada Gaming Commission maintains a list of 35 people who are not allowed in any casino or gambling establishment. Only one of them is a woman.

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How Slot Machine Work

Slot games started out as big machines with drums that spun symbols around when people pulled a long lever. These one-arm bandits couldn’t be further from how the games that you know and love, work today. Today’s slot games can be found online or via slot apps, just like the games you can find at House of Fun. These work with a click of the mouse or a swipe and tap of the smartphone screen and you certainly can’t see drums of the reels spinning around. Of course, there is plenty going on behind the scenes to make sure that you can enjoy a fun and exciting game with great sound effects and graphics, unique features and mini games and even progressive jackpots. Here we’ll look at the guts of the mobile and online slot machines that we have all grown to love in order to understand how they are designed and how they work.

The Ins and Outs of Video Slots

When slot games first moved online in the 1990s, people were nervous of a game where they couldn’t see the actual reels spinning. But, the way that these games work has proved to players that they are not only fun, but fair and reliable.

The most important part of the way that video slot games work is the Random Number Generator (RNG) and here’s where it gets a bit technical. The RNG produces a constantly random sequence of numbers. When you click spin, that sequence will stop, telling the symbols where to land. This means that the symbols will land in a random way every time you spin.

How is the Random Number Generator Random?

The RNG does not have a memory so it can’t remember if you’ve won or lost in the past and it can’t remember how the symbols landed on the reels on past spins. It works with a mathematical equation, but the results are not pre-programmed.

The RNG is constantly producing numbers so that each time you press the Spin button, the sequence will be different. In other words, no 2 spins will be the same, giving you a unique playing experience every time you sit down to play!

How Does a Slots Game Work?

The RNG is the guts of the slot machine; it’s behind the scenes and we don’t see it. Let’s take a look now at the parts of the slot games that we do see.

  • Reels – There are slot games that aim for a more authentic look and feel and these have 3 reels, similar to the original land-based machines. These are known as classic slots or fruit machines. More common are the video slots and these generally have 5 reels, although you may find games with 6 reels. These are the types of games you will find at House of Fun.
  • Paylines – This describes how many lines of combinations of symbols there are in the game and also explains how many chances you have to win as you play. Video slots games generally have between 5 and 50 paylines, but there are games with more. You can choose how many paylines you want to play and this will affect the size of your bet. You will only be paid out for combinations that land on active paylines so the more paylines you bet on, the bigger your chances of winning!
  • Rows – The number of rows in a game describes how many symbols there are visible on each reel at a time. Online slot machines most commonly have 3 rows, but 4 is not unusual. At House of Fun, during some bonus features, the number of rows increases to give you even more opportunities to create winning combinations!
  • Ways to Win – Some games do not have paylines, but they have something called Ways to Win. These Ways to Win are calculated by how symbols land with respect to other symbols. Games commonly have 243 or 1,024 ways to win. If a game increases its number of rows, such as during the free spins feature of some of House of Fun’s games, the number of Ways to Win will go up.
  • Features – Features are what make games unique and fun. At House of Fun, there is an incredible range of features, including free spins, mini games, gold symbols, progressive jackpots, Classic Star jackpots, Rapid Fire jackpots and more.

How Do Online Slot Machines Work

How Mobile Slots are Unique

How Electronic Slot Machines Work

Mobile slots use the same RNG as online slot machines so whether you are playing on your computer or on a mobile device, every spin will be unique and fair. The games also look the same as online slot machines with great graphics and sounds, unique features and impressive bonus games. But, at House of Fun, we know you love to play on the go and have your favorite games right in your pocket with you, so we have developed our games to be played on mobile devices also. These games are designed to fit perfectly onto a smartphone or tablet screen with a specific layout and display that suits the size of the screens. The swipe and tap features of mobile devices are also perfect for slots play and these are incorporated for intuitive and simple playing. Not only that, but mobile players will have access to the same incredible progressive jackpots as online players.

How Do Online Slot Machines Works

Playing Slots via Mobile – The Final Say

For slots lovers, mobile slots are a windfall! Slots apps, such as House of Fun, allow you to carry around your favorite slot games wherever you go. You can whip out your smartphone or tablet whenever you have a few minutes and play games that have been especially designed for your mobile device. These have all the fairness and randomness of online slot machines, as well as all the great bonuses and features that players have come to love. If you’re wondering whether it is a good idea to play slots via mobile, the answer is a resounding yes! Simply collect your free coins and start spinning the reels to win!