Random Number Slot Machine
Posted : admin On 7/25/2022In 2014 casinos across the United States discovered that a number of patrons were winning at slots. For anyone who has a passing interest in maths, or has played a slot machine, would know: this should be impossible! “The house always wins“, is a saying that’s actually mandated by law for slot machines in many countries.
Random number generators can be hardware based or pseudo-random number generators. Hardware based random-number generators can involve the use of a dice, a coin for flipping, or many other devices. A pseudo-random number generator is an algorithm for generating a sequence of numbers whose properties approximate the properties of sequences of. The numbers produced by the Random Number Generator in a slot machine are not truly random because they are the result of a mathematical process. If you knew the formula used and the value of the last random number generated, you would be able to calculate the next random number that would be generated. Slot machines installed with non-complex RNGs can be beaten by high-tech devices and prediction algorithms. Are Random Number Generators in Slot Machines Really Random? By John Robison. One of the questions I'm asked most often is - 'how is it possible for a slot machine to be a random device and for a machine to also pay back a certain percentage of the money played through it?' If the results are truly random, people argue, then the payback should.
How do slot machines work?
Simplifying things a bit, a slot machine is a random number generator which picks a number between 0 and 100 randomly when the punter puts in a coin and presses a button. If the number is above 55, the punter “wins” and there is some payout — otherwise the house “wins” and keeps the coin. The house should always win in the long run: they have the mathematical edge.
But what if the punter knows what number the machine is going to pick? If you could know that, you would be able to press the button when you know you’re going win. How could a punter ever know what random number the machine is picking? The trick is that slot machines don’t (usually) pick random numbers! This is because computers are very much not-random: they can only follow instructions. A computer which doesn’t follow its instructions to the letter is not a good computer. Sadly, “roll a die” is not an instruction that any computer can understand.
Pseudo-random numbers
Instead, machines use a pseudo-random number generator. As the name suggests, this technique generates numbers that appear random: each number generated seems to be unrelated to the ones that came before, and has an equal probability of coming up. To make a pseudo-random number generator all you need is a bit of maths, and a complicated enough formula. A common formula to get random numbers is called the Mersenne Twister, which takes a “seed” number to start, then does a whole heap of maths on it to spit out a series of pseudo-random numbers. They are not truly random as if you put in the same seed, it will spit out the same numbers.
Now, the slot machine’s pseudo-random number generator doesn’t just use a single seed, and some of its seeds may even depend on time or other hard-to-know-precisely variables. However, with a long enough observation time, and some really smart reverse-engineering, it is possible to recreate the entire formula: you’ve know cracked that slot machine, and know when to press the button such that you beat the house odds.
Really truly random
If you wanted to create a truly random number generator you need an input to your complicated formula that is truly random: just picking your seed isn’t an option. Some common ways to get this random number is to use something like the timing of keystrokes or mouse movements as in the Fortuna method, or atmospheric noise (like the noise picked up by a radio antenna) as used by RANDOM.ORG. However perhaps the most robust way is to use radioactive decay, like the Hotbits service.
Using radioactive decay relies on the fundamental laws of quantum mechanics to ensure that the numbers are actually, truly, irreproducibly random. The chance that a single element will decay and create a “blip” at your detector is just that: a pure chance. There is no way to know, regardless of how good your measuring equipment just when a radioactive source will decay. This makes it an ideal place to find truly random numbers.
In the end, this technique doesn’t save the casinos. They are unwilling to replace or upgrade all of their slot machines, so there will always be a chance that another enterprising hacker will work out how to reproduce their “random” numbers, and start beating the house again!
Slot machines are popular in the gambling world especially for the random numbers they generate. It is these random numbers that really confuse us, as our curiosity swells as to how these random numbers are generated. Well slot machines deploy random number generators to spring forth all those random numbers.
These random numbers have similar functions with the roulette wheel, or even sharing the same unpredictability with your normal pair of dice. But with modern slot machines now all over, we have computers creating these hazy and random numbers. It is these numbers that decide the eventual results of the game.
Over time players have tried deciphering the fundamental formula, the code with which the computer manufactures these random codes. But all still, the unpredictability of these random numbers is what is certain. What this means is that there is no humanly fathomable order through which the random number generator works. The uncertainty of the next number is almost like trying to predict what card you would pick from a deck of cards.
Casinos using these computerized random number generators involves a hefty load of mathematics and numbers. At the end of the day, the casino has an advantage over you the player as for every bet you place, the casino would only give you a payout that is actually lesser than the real odds you were supposed to win.
Let us make this more practical using a roulette. Now the odds of you hitting one number precisely is 37:1. However when you bet on a specific number, what you get as a payout is rather 35:1. So you see the casino eventually has the upper hand sadly.
Slot Machines Work This Way Too
Usually slot machines can have 3 reel slots or 5 reel slots. The reel we are referring to here pertains to the image which spins on the machine. A reel would have a variety of symbols. The big money payout can be won when you successfully combine the winning symbols. The lesser the probability the right combinations, the bigger the allocated win.
These spinning reels do stop too. Those terminals or positions where the spin ends and the reel stop is conventionally called “stops”. While it is very possible for a reel’s spin to end and stop at symbol, it is also very possible for the reel to stop between symbols. These symbols that the reel stops at have their allocated winnings (as the case may be). More commonly, an orange could pop up one time in every five times that you try a spin. And then a symbol like a cherry may result one time when you spin for 50 times.
The Odds Are adjust by the weighting system
The important factor that contributes to what symbol your reel would stop at is the weighting. Lets use this example, a slot game is using 10 symbols, and that one special one symbol only comes up every 100 spins. The odds of getting 3 of that symbol are 1/100 X 1/100 X 1/100, or 1/1,000,000. theoretically you could receive a payout of $1 million on that combination and still break even over the long run. casinos love that kind of operation, and so do players.
Another symbol could be programmed to come up half the time, so your odds of hitting that symbol might be as low as ½ X ½ X ½, or 1/6. If that pays out at 2 to 1, the casino still makes a significant profit, but the player feels like she’s winning on a regular basis.
It is the par sheet that does all the calculations in setting the odds you play for. This par sheet also determines the weighting of every one single stop on ten reel. The par sheet would also determine the weighting of the blanks.
Every slot machine during its manufacture is allocated its own par sheet which would later on set the odds. Majority of the gambling firms have their par sheet all wrapped up based on its sensitivity and delicacy. This way you can’t easily tell the odds or have a sound idea of the house edge.
Lastly there is the payback percentage which is the amount of cash the machine will pay you back when you infinitely play spins. This way casinos allow you back say a $3 from a cumulative reel play of $100.
So there you are. You have a better informed idea of how random number generators now work in the slot machines we have all up the casinos. Play safe and wise.
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