Slots Hero

Slot machines, both online and in land based casinos are equipped with a Random Number Generators (RNG). What an RNG does is create and outcome for each round that slot machine is played. And yet, a slot machine or an online slots game has a payout percentage. How can it be random and hold a certain payout percentage at the same time?

This is a question asked by many slots players. And, yes, it does seem a bit mind boggling when one stops to think about it.

An RNG is programmed with an outcome pool from which it will draw an outcome. The jackpot outcome will only come up a certain percentage of the time, although no one knows when it will.

Let me break this down into an analogy that is easier to understand.

Let’s say that you have a bag with twenty marbles in it. You have ten red marbles, six blue ones and four purple ones. Now, without looking, draw a marble out of the bag, record what color it is and return it to the bag. Repeat. Repeat again. And keep repeating. Even though you don’t know which times you will draw a red marble, you will draw a red one about half of the time since half of the twenty marbles are red.

This is how slot machines and online slots games maintain a certain payout percentage while also remaining random.  There are X number of combinations that will win nothing, X number will win a little and X number will win the big jackpot. If there are 100 outcomes but only five of those outcomes will win the jackpot, then a slots player has a 5% chance of winning that jackpot, but there’s no telling when that outcome will come up.

Obviously slot machines and online slots games have more than 100 outcomes, but you get the idea. The point is that there is not telling which outcome will come up, just that it will come up X% of the time based on how many winning outcomes there are versus the total number of outcomes.

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