Slot Machine Myths: Rng and Jackpots

 

You can see the order of symbols on each wheel and calculate the odds of winning just like counting cards.

 

Well, why is that pesky RNG generating random numbers? When you press play, the program picks the latest “set” of numbers generated. Each number in the “set” is one of the symbols on the reels. If you have three reels, you get three numbers in the set. So, when those virtual wheels spin, the RNG has already calculated where the reels are going to stop.

 

It would be so convenient for you if you could see the result of one spin and then calculate the odds of the next spin going through the same spinning sequence a given number of rotations to pick the next symbol on the reel. But, as in the real-world roulette table where the croupier picks up the ball and starts the wheel spinning again, there is no fixed sequence between slot machine spins. During all those seconds you paused between each play, the machine has calculated hundreds if not thousands of spins and virtual stops. That means that there are literally millions of possible combinations available for you to win or lose every minute. That`s how these casino slots can generate a big enough margin to pay out the one or two really big jackpots.

 

You`ve been playing the online slot machine without winning big for a while – a jackpot is coming!

 

If only life were so certain! As you will now have realized, every spin of the virtual wheel is random. The RNG ensures that every spin is completely unrelated to the last spin (unless you can press play every 1/1000 of a second, that is). So whether you`ve had one spin or a thousand (without winning big? surely not!), you have the same chance of hitting a winning combination. It`s entirely possible that one machine out of hundreds might go a month before it pays out a jackpot (and you were so lucky as to start playing that slots machine). But it`s statistically unlikely that you will be so unlucky as never to win at all on a machine. That a machine does not pay out a jackpot does not mean that it will not pay out its usual percentage of smaller wins.

 

Myths are wonderful things with a life of their own. It`s a shame that most of them are untrue. Although I did hear the other day about someone playing a slot machine and, when he felt inside to pick up his winnings, he pulled out. . . Well, let`s say it wasn`t a human body part! So play your luck against that RNG. Someday, the world of math will come to an end and you want to be playing a machine when that happens and win the jackpot every time you press play.