Early slots were simple games that anyone could understand and play. There were minimal reels, few symbols, and each jackpot casino game spin was activated by the player pulling and releasing a lever. The result of each spin was truly random because the human touch was involved.
However, it was inevitable that casino pay by phone slots would continually move with the times. By the mid-1990s, digital technology ensured that slots became computer-driven, and the human touch of a slot spin was lost forever.
Slots became more complex both in visuals and the way they played, because of the introduction of more reels and far more symbols to most games. Levers were confined to history and slot spin results were left in the hands of computers, and in particular, a computer microchip called a Random Number Generator, or RNG for short.
The Random Number Generator: A Closer Look
Random Number Generators in some form or other, have been around for years. In the 1940s a machine called ERNIE which was developed by the Bletchley Park World War II code-breaking team was used to generate random numbers for the UK Premium Bond Lottery. In 1951 random number generating was computerized courtesy of a machine called Ferranti Mark 1. However, Random Number Generators didn’t come to the fore in the world of gambling until slots went digital in the 1990s. RNG technology is still the gambling industry-standard way of creating slot spin results even today and will be for the foreseeable future.
This RNG computer microchip exists only to continuously churn out millions of numbers, and these number sequences are translated into slot spin results. This is because each number produced corresponds to a symbol on a slot reel platform. Therefore, slots are not skill-based games such as Poker, instead, they are purely games of luck.
Are Slot Spins Truly Random?
Since the introduction of the RNG in digital and virtual slots, a debate has been raging as to whether this technology used by the gambling industry, really produces random results. The problem here is that the RNG technology used by the gambling industry is known as Pseudo-Random Number Generation and the gold standard is Quantum Random Number Generators.
Some punters suspect that the Random Number Generator’s computer microchips can be programmed to behave in certain ways, rather than being truly random. Slot players notice patterns in certain slot games and can predict what symbol will fall and where it will land, during lengthy gaming sessions. This throws up the question of whether the RNG in slots has limitations, or whether these microchips are programmed to behave in certain ways to the benefit of the casinos and not the gambling public.
Final Thoughts
For now, punters look set to be stuck with RNG technology, even though it was introduced back in the mid-1990s. The gambling industry insists that this technology is the fairest way of producing slot results that do not favour the slot site or the punter. However, even though players do win regularly on slots, some feel that it is time to somehow make slots fairer for casino customers.
