Slot machines are one of the main occupations of people who visit the casino. They are simple, fun, full of interesting motives and games, and besides, you can make good money on them. This game’s basic rules had not changed since 1894, when Charles Fey assembled the first slot machine. The player spins a set of 3, 5, or more reels with specific symbols. Each of these rotating reels stops at a random position. The player wins when the reels are placed to form a line of the same symbols. The rarer the winning symbols, the larger the amount that can be won.
Behind each slot machine, there is one software without which slot games would not be possible. Most online gaming companies buy software from developers who specialize in this technology and then host it on their data-based background. Different software platforms are used to develop these games. The games can be programmed in C, C ++, JavaScript, Python, and other programming languages.
The competition in the slot machine market is huge, and several companies are giants in this field. They are always competing, such as Net Entertainment (NetEnt), Microgaming, Playtech, Novomatic, Real Time Gaming (RTG).
How slot machines are programmed
The player presses the spin button in a slot game. The game sends a “spin” message to the game provider’s server. The game server calculates the required bet, the game provider’s server asks the casino to deduct the amount of money needed for the spin. Casino provider confirms. The server provider plays a random number from the RNG. RNG responds with a fair random number. The provider’s server uses a random number to spin the reels and calculate the round’s outcome virtually . The game provider’s server asks the casino server to add the winnings to the player’s account. The casino server adds the winnings and confirms. The result of the round is returned to the game running in the player’s browser. The outcome of the game is animated and displayed to the player. All of this usually happens in less than 200 milliseconds.
RNG- Random Number Generator
Modern RNGs used in online casinos are hardware devices that generate random numbers from electromagnetic noise. It’s like an old TV without a signal – full of little white and black dots. The black pixel is 0, and the white pixel is 1. When the pixels are converted to numbers, they are written to the text document, a random number is obtained, and hardware generates thousands of random numbers every second. The random number obtained with the help of RNG “tells” the reels when to stop and thus decides on the game’s outcome. This means that the same game with the same random number must always provide the same outcome.
How RNG works
RNG generates a random number. The mathematical module of the game takes a random number and calculates where the reels should stop. The game stops the reels at certain positions and calculates the spin outcome. The spin outcome is then displayed to the player who initiated it.
Slot return value and volatility
RTP(Return To Player) and volatility are the two most critical mathematical characteristics of a slot game. They affect how much and how often you get it. RTP is the long-term statistical rate of the total money received divided by the total money invested. (If the game’s RTP is 96%, that means if you start with $ 100,000 and then play 100,000 rounds for $ 1 each, then you should end up with approximately $ 96,000.) RTP states the advantage of the house-more precisely, how much casino plans to save from the money you have invested. If the RTP is 96%, the house advantage is 4%.
The volatility of slot games cannot be shown as a single number, as you can win thousands of different sums due to many other winning combinations. Game providers usually classify their slots into “low,” “medium,” or “high” volatile categories. These categories cannot be compared and used in calculations, but they can give a basic idea of the game’s volatility. Slots with low volatility will bring you more frequent but smaller wins; with medium volatility, you will get neither very small nor large winnings, and slots with high volatility pay out less frequent but big winnings.
Most software developers do not disclose the volatility of slots to players publicly. The easiest way to check this would be to check online, but you can determine this yourself by doing the following:
- Check the payment table – Look carefully at the gap between the combination that pays the most and the one below it. In slots with high volatility, the difference can be double-digit, 10k-20k or more, and if it is a slot of small or medium variance, the difference between each row would be about 3k-5k or somewhere around that.
- Look for jackpots – The jackpot is almost always part of a package of high volatility slots.
- Check bet limits – A high maximum stake limit in the hundreds of dollars is often a sign of high slot instability. In contrast, slots with small deviations often have smaller bet limits are aimed at more cautious players with a lower budget.
- Play slot for free — many casinos offer players the opportunity to try out the game for free. You can use this to test slot volatility.
With the advent of specific platforms, machines are now evolving into virtual and augmented reality. Slot machine technology is growing daily, making slot gameplay safer and better for everyone involved.
