Ding, Ding, Ding. The noise is everywhere, from the minute you step off the airplane to the minute you leave. Whirrs, bops, mechanical screeches, but most of all dings. What is making this racket? Slots, and they are absolutely everywhere. They are in airports, cafes, bars, casinos, convenience stores, even on the streets and everywhere they are there is noise.

How did these devices of infernal racket become so popular? What makes them work? 3 lines, 5 lines, 40 lines which one should I play?

Slots were originally put into casinos as a diversion. Something for people, mostly women, to do when they were not playing the table games. Fast forward a few decades and slots now make up 60% of the gaming profits in the United States.

But, what makes them work? The original slot machines worked on gears and levers. It didn’t take long before the players realized that they could manipulate the game by pulling the levers at certain times during the spin cycle. The caused a constant revamp of the machines until the casinos got it just right.  Today the machines may have the same outward appearance of the games of yore but the guts are all computers now.

The computer uses step motors to turn each reel and stop it at the predetermined point. Step motors are driven by short digital pulses of electricity controlled by the computer, rather than the fluctuating electrical current that drives an ordinary electric motor. These pulses move the motor a set increment, or step, with great precision.

But even though the computer tells the reels where to stop, the games are not pre-programmed to pay out at a certain time. A random number generator in the computer ensures that each pull has an equal shot at hitting the jackpot.

So now we come to the heart of the modern slot machine the random number generator. Whenever the slot machine is on, the random number generating is “working”. It is constantly generating a number (somewhere between 1 and several billion) hundreds of times a second. As soon as the arm on the slot machine is pulled (or the spin button pushed) the computer records the next few numbers that the RNG produces. The computer takes these numbers feeds them into a very simple program and calculates where the reel will stop.

Here is an example using a typical 3-reel machine.

The slot arm is pulled (or the spin button is pushed). The computer records the next 3 numbers, one number for each reel, that are generated by the RNG. These numbers are then divided by a set value (usually 32, 64,128, 256 or 512). The computer is interested in the remaining value, for instance, 123,456,789 divided by 64 is 1,929,012 with a remainder of 21. 21 is the number the computer will use. Why the remainder? It limits the possible returns. In the example above there are only 63 possible outcomes as the remainder cannot be 64 or greater and it cannot be 0. Each remainder number is now used to calculate the stop position on the reel. Quite often there are less stop positions than possible remainder numbers, in this case some stop positions have more than one remainder number assigned to it.

So what does all this geek talk mean? As we saw in the example, each stop on the actual reel may correspond to more than one remainder number. Simply put, the odds of hitting a particular image on the actual reel depend on how many remainder numbers correspond to the actual stop.

In a typical weighted slot machine, the top jackpot stop (the one with the highest-paying jackpot image) for each reel corresponds to only one remainder number. This means that the chance of hitting the jackpot image on one reel is 1 in 63. If all of the reels are set up the same way, the chance of hitting the jackpot image on all three reels is 1 in 63³, or 250,047.

So what is the appeal to the player? They are twofold first and foremost is the money. Slots offer the ability to win a lot of money for a small bet. If you put $5 on a blackjack table the most you can win is $7.50. But $5 in a slot machine could net you thousands or millions. Next, is entertainment, slots can deliver on entertainment in a big way. Today’s video slots are much more than spinning wheels. Most include bonus games that can vary from free spins to fully interactive movies.

Is it possible to beat the game? Uh, not that I am aware of.  My advice treat these games as a source of entertainment and you won’t be disappointed, treat them as an investment and you are in for a world of hurt.

Popularity: 13% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!