Hi again, Mark Vincent the Slot Technician here. If you watched my last video, Episode 1, then you know I spent a lot of my time there saying that slot systems don’t work. I also told you that I would explain how a slot machine works, and consequently why systems can’t work. The inner workings of a slot machine, especially the new video slots, can be pretty daunting. Even so, pretty much every electronic slot machine’s operation can be boiled down to one phrase. This, by the way, includes regular reel slots because they’re electronic too, even though you don’t see a video screen.

Oh, that phrase I was talking about? Everything is random.

Now, I know you don’t believe me. That’s ok, nobody does at first. It doesn’t matter though, because whether you believe it or not, it’s still true. Every single spin of a slot machine is random, and isn’t connected to any other spin on that machine that has ever happened before, or will ever happen. This is because that wins and losses are chosen by the computer inside the machine, and it chooses based on the results of something called the RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR.

The Random Number Generator, also called the RNG, is a computer program that is always running inside the slot machine unless the machine is turned off or it’s in an error condition. The RNG has only one job, and that’s to constantly generate random numbers, big ones. It chooses a new random number several thousand times a second, and the number it chooses is what decides if you win. How does it choose a number? It picks one at the exact millisecond you place your bet. No more, and no less. Yeah, you heard me right. If you win or lose is based solely on when you hit the bet button. How’s that for truth?

So, how can a casino possibly influence random numbers in order to make the machines so profitable? This is where the reels come in. The machine relates the chosen number to a set of reel stops. Reel stops are the symbols, including blanks, that the reels can land on to make up the combination that you get. There are usually 22 of them on a standard slot reel. This gets tricky, and there’s not enough time in this video for me to fully explain it, though I do explain it fully in my book. It’s tricky because the symbols you see on the reels that are actually in the machine are not the symbols the machine uses to decide payouts… the machine uses virtual reels. A virtual reel is sort of like a pretend reel that can have as many stops on it as the casino wants. This way, the casino isn’t forced to make all the reels and symbols have the same odds of appearing, and they can make the top award symbol actually appear far less often than it seems like it should on the reels you see. The number chosen by the RNG is mapped to the virtual stops, and your combination is made up of that. The virtual reels are then matched to the symbols on the actual reels, and your combination is displayed. The reels you see on the machine? They don’t decide anything… they’re just there to display the combination the machine chose before they even started to spin.

So the RNG chooses a number randomly, that number is matched to a set of virtual reel stops, those stops are then mapped to their counterparts on the actual reels, and the machine spins the reels to show you what it chose. It then pays you, or not, depending on the paytable. The paytable is the third part of this sort of, holy trinity, of slot machines. Usually the paytable is plastered all over the glass, but it’s for more than just looks or to notify you of how the machine pays… it’s the roadmap the machine uses to decide how much it’s going to pay for all the combinations that are possible. The chance of any given combination coming up and the amount that the combination pays when it hits make up the payback percentage of the machine…. and the payback percentage of the slot machine is just about the biggest secret in a casino. It’s also the topic of my next Tech4Truth episode, so be sure to stay tuned.

Keep in mind that all this stuff can be pretty complicated, and my book goes into quite a bit of detail and gives examples of everything I’ve discussed here in order to make it easier to understand.

The bottom line that you need to remember is that everything is random. Every spin is independent of every other spin, and every spin is random. See now why systems and methods can’t work? How can a method predict random numbers, and how can a system change the intricate relationship between the RNG, Virtual Reels, and the Paytable? They can’t. So, when someone tells you they have a system that can predict when a machine is about to hit… you can tell them they’re full of *effect*.

Thanks again for watching, and be sure to watch my other videos for more information. See you next time on Tech4Truth.

Watch Episode 3