Slots are exciting games. You press the spin button, watch interesting animations jump across the screen, and then the result comes - a win or a loss. In many games, small wins and losses occur fairly evenly, while bigger hits happen less often.
But what really happens behind the scenes when the reels spin? How is it determined whether you will win or lose, and what is the probability of each outcome?
If you have ever wondered this question, you have come to the right place. In this article, I will tell you how these games are actually structured and what actually happens during the game.
A brief description of slots
To understand the science behind slots, you first need to understand how they work "under the surface". In essence, it is quite simple: you choose the amount to bet, press the spin button, and watch the reels spin on the playing field. When they stop, a combination of symbols appears that can result in a win or a loss.
The most common layouts for slots used to be 5×3 or 3×3 (reels x rows). These still exist, but larger playing fields such as 5×4 or 7×7 have also become common. As for symbols, you can find everything from classic motifs such as cherries or lemons to candies, hieroglyphs and comic book characters.
Regardless of how it looks graphically, the basic mechanics of each game are the same. Each spin has a random outcome, which is controlled by a random number generator (RNG).
I often refer to the RNG as the heart of a slot machine. It ensures that each spin is independent of the previous one, and that there is no way to predict what will happen next. That’s why there’s no set rhythm or secret strategy to try to hit the jackpot in slots. And read about the health benefits of playing golf in this article.
How did the idea for slots come about?
Slot machines have a very long history. To find their roots, we have to go back to the late 19th century. In 1895, a man named Charles Fay created a slot machine in San Francisco, often called the Liberty Bell. It had three reels with symbols such as horseshoes, stars, and a bell – the Liberty Bell. Three bells in a row meant you won the top prize.
This ingenious invention quickly became popular. The game was easy to learn and didn’t require any prior knowledge, but people still found it very exciting. As a result, in the early 20th century, various types of mechanical machines began to appear in bars and gaming halls around the world.
By the 1960s, technology had become more advanced, allowing slot machines to take a new step forward. Instead of springs and gears, they were now controlled by electrical components. In the 1980s, it was time for the next step in development, when they moved from physical reels to a screen that displayed the playing field. This digital transition allowed the games to become much more complex, and it also paved the way for the emergence of slots in online casinos in the 1990s.
RTP and Volatility - Two Concepts You Should Know
There are several terms used in slots. The most common terms are RTP and volatility, and I also believe that they are the most important to understand.
RTP: Return to Player
RTP is an abbreviation for Return to Player. And that is what the RTP of a game shows - the theoretical percentage of your bet that the game will return over time.
RTP is expressed as a percentage, for example 96%. If it is exactly 96%, this means that for every 100 kronor you bet, you will get an average of 96 kronor back. The remaining four remain in the casino and are what is called the house edge or house edge in the casino context.
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I want to emphasize that you should not consider RTP as a measure of individual gaming sessions. It is an average based on millions of spins, so in the short term you can either win big or lose a lot. But after enough spins on a particular slot, the payout will approach the theoretical RTP.
Volatility - how games distribute winnings
Volatility, or variance as it is also called, is an important concept when it comes to slots. It describes how often wins appear in a game - and how big they usually are when they do. Slots are usually divided into two main categories:
- Low volatility: A few small wins and a few long periods without winning.
- High volatility: Fewer wins, but often much larger amounts when they do happen.
For games that don’t fit neatly into either end of the spectrum, developers may also indicate volatility as medium, low to medium, or medium to high. It is also common to use numerical rating scales, where they indicate volatility with a number, such as 1 to 10.