Slot Machines & Coin Slots: How they Work

Posted by Denise Connor on May 15th, 2023

Slot machines are among the most popular casino games, but many people do not understand how they operate. Some people don't understand how slot machines work. Others are willing to take advantage.

This page aims to explain in detail how a Fun Casino slot machines actually works. You may find that you are less or more attracted to the type of game once you understand the inner workings. Slots are a lot fun but the casino makes a lot of money from them.

Are online slots rigged? If you were to say that online slots are rigged then almost all casinos would have been closed by now. VSO only recommends reputable online casinos because it is one of the most common concerns that people have. Top gaming jurisdictions like UK, Malta, and Gibraltar have fair and secure gaming standards in place. This gives everyone the same chance to win.

Return to Player (RTP), is the factor which determines the amount of money that the slot machine pays out. If the RTP is 96%, for each 0 wagered, the slot will pay out . It is independently tested and regulated to ensure that you are playing in a safe environment.

Follow our recommendations to avoid encountering rigged slot machines.

Slot machines are controlled by a random number generation. The first slot machines (think of coin slots) were mechanical, but they used a random generator in the same way that a roulette, a deck or dice, or even a set of cards are random number generators. Modern slot machines generate random numbers using a computer. These random numbers determine the outcome of the game.

It is important to keep in mind that the outcomes are truly random. Slot machine jackpots do not become due. The game does not work in a cyclical manner. Slot machines don't go hot or cold either. In retrospect, they only appear to. You can't predict it, just as you cannot predict the next card in a deck of playing cards.

Casinos have an advantage over players. In fact, this is true for all casino games. The casino gains its advantage by using math and big numbers. Each bet in every casino game has a payout that is lower than the odds of winning.

In roulette, for example, the odds are 37-1 that a certain number will be hit. A bet on one number pays out at only 35 to 1. You don't have to be a genius in order to understand how the casino is able make a profit.

Slot machines all work in the same manner.

Slot machines usually have three or five reels. The image on the reel spins at the front of the slot machine. The reel has many symbols and you can win money if you get certain combinations. The higher the payout is for a certain combination, the less likely you are to get a specific set of symbols.

These reels used to be large metal hoops. Now, slot machines run on computers and they are more often images displayed on a screen. The random number generator in the computer determines the outcome of any slot machine with reels.

The "stops" are the places where those reels stop. The reels can stop either on a symbol, or on the blank space in between symbols. In the early days of slot machines, all symbols had the same chance to appear, but with computers running the show now, the odds are more complicated. A cherry might appear on a slot machine reel once in 50 spins. An orange, on the other hand, might show up once in 5 spins.

In the early days of slot machines, there might only have been 10 stops on each reel. Now it is common to see between 30 and fifty stops per reel. It is easier to offer large jackpots when you have more stops on the reel. If you play a game that has 10 stops per reel and each stop has an equal chance to land, your chances of hitting a winning combination are 1/10x1/10x1/10 or 1/1000. You're losing money if you get a payout of more than 1000 units.

Computers can now adjust these odds by using a weighing system.

Weighting determines the likelihood of a stop being selected. Imagine you have 10 symbols in a slot game, but only one of them appears once every 100 turns. The odds for getting three of this symbol are 1/100X1/100X1/100 or 1/1,000,000. Theoretically, you could offer a payout on this combination of million and still break even in the long term. The casinos love this kind of action and so do the players.

If a symbol is programmed to appear half of the time, your odds of hitting it could be as low at 1/2 x 1/2 x 1/2 or 1/6. The casino makes a good profit even if the payout is 2 to 1. However, the player will feel like they are winning quite often.

The odds are determined by the par sheet. Modern slot machines are designed with par sheets that specify the weightings of each stop, including blanks. The casino knows the house edge and odds for each slot machine. The gambling companies hide these par sheets, however, so that players don't have a good idea what the odds are, the house advantage, or the payout percentage.

The "payback percent" is a term that you should also understand. This is a mathematical calculation of how much the machine will return over an infinite number spins. If a machine has a 97% payout, then over a sufficient number of spins the average player should win for every 0 they put in. You can count on casinos to differentiate between the theoretical return percentage and actual return of the machine. Casinos make a lot of money from slots.