How modern slots work
...and why they are CRAP!
This page still under construction - come back soon!
On this page I'm going to explain how slots work, a bit about their history, and why most modern ones are utter garbage.
I'm only going to be talking about the two most popular providers - Rival Gaming and RTG - because I have very little experience with other brands' slots. With these two I have played 100,000's of spins!
At the bottom of this page I'm going to reminisce about Rival - a software I was truly in love with!
Most players already know quite a bit, but for the benefit of the less experienced gamblers I have added "pull downs" with more detailed information where needed.
In the Beginning...
RTG started around 1998 and Rival in 2006.
Back in those early days video slots were designed to mimic real slot machines you could find in bricks and mortar casinos. i.e. They had a "fixed reel strip" for each reel, and when spun each reel would land in a truely random position. The only difference from physical slots (which had the same number of symbols on each reel), is that video slots could have a different number of symbols on each reel, thereby making certain symbols on some reels more likely to appear than on others.
Therefore each spin was a "truly random" outcome.
The End of Randomness...
Well, not actually the end, but a big change in the way slots work.
I'm not sure exactly when, but sometime in the early twenty-tens I guess, slot designs started to change.
Instead of reels with fixed strips of symbols and each reel stopping in its own random position, slots were made with a massive "pool of outcomes" and reels no longer had a fixed pattern. So now, when you press "spin" a single random number is generated and the associated outcome displayed.
Technically this does not affect your chances of winning - the overall return to player is still the same and the chances of a BIG WIN is still the same.
But somehow, it feels less random.
What is Return to Player?
There are two main factors to consider when playing to win:
Variance (or Volatility) and
Return to Player.
Variance is basically your chance of hitting BIG wins, whereas RTP (Return To Player) determines how long your money is likely to last = how many spins you are likely to get.
RTP is VERY important, because it seriously affects your play-time!
On average, for the same bet level, you will get TWICE as many spins for the same money on a 96% RTP slot, than you will on a 94% game. That 2% really does make that much difference!
Of course, the more spins you play, the more chances you have to hit a "biggie"
Explained: What is Variance?
Quite simply variance is the ‘swings in fortune’ you experience when playing any game.
Imagine something like a Roulette wheel, but with only 20 sectors on it; 19 Win & 1 Lose.
You place a bet and if the ball landed in Win you just got your money back, but hit Lose and you lost, this would be zero variance (and a totally pointless game to play!)
But if the wheel has 19x Lose and 1 win which paid bet x 19, this would be extremely high variance.
In both instances the payout percentage (RTP) would be 95%, but in the first case you could never win anything no matter how long you played, while in the second case a short run of hitting the winning sector 2 or 3 times in a short space of time would enable you to leave the game with a nice profit.
Conversely you could have a very long run of losing and go bust.
Basically then Variance = Risk.
The Smart Phone Killer!
The original online slots were designed to be played on computers and laptops, but with the huge explosion of smart phones, providers wanted to allow their games to be played anywhere, any time.
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