The Video Slot’s Brain

When you walk into the casino and head towards the slot machines the last thing on your mind is how it all works. The truth is though, that it is a pretty fascinating system, which is not as simple as you might suspect seeing as it must be able to control everything that goes on just so that you can have a good time. It is all one big computer program which chooses completely at random the pictures you see when you pull the handle (or press the button, no difference). Technology today has advanced greatly in casinos as well as everywhere else so this system is new – when slot machines first were invented at the end of the nineteenth century the reels of pictures spun round with no connection to each other so no one could predict what would happen.

Today it is completely different story; the computer controls the outcome when you play video slots. There is a system called the random-number generator (RNG) which is what the computer uses to choose numbers. These numbers are each connected to a picture on the reels and a push of a button brings up a different series of pictures (or blank spaces) each time, as the computer uses whichever set of numbers was “it” at the moment. This means that the reels of symbols and blanks have no independent action; they are randomly selected by the computer, so the action of the spinning pictures is completely unnecessary. We are so used to the idea of the spinning reels that it would be tough to give up, but the truth is, because it is all computer based, the spinning is just a diversion.

Of course the programming doesn’t stop with the spinning reels. The computer also keeps track of the money spent so that the casinos can make sure that they turn a profit. They make sure that they keep a certain percentage of the money spent so even if you win (no matter how much you win) the slot machine has kept a set amount of the money spent on that particular machine. Still, the random winnings are part of the fun of the slots; after all there is no fun in winning every minute – that would take away from the magic of winning. So the computer system of the slots lets you play sometimes for ages without winning and then all of a sudden you are made a winner.

The knowledge that it is entirely random is exciting, it is all chance and nobody can help but find that enticing –you never know when the computer might decide to make you a winner. It doesn’t really matter to most players that the computer keeps a small percentage of each spin of the wheel. What really thrills us, is the random spinning, knowing that any second you could be a winner. So go ahead, the next time you walk into a casino, head on over to the slot machines and give into the buzz of randomness!