HOW DO ONLINE CASINOS GENERATE RANDOM NUMBERS
The RNG algorithm is the software that generates fair results in online casino games. Discover how online casinos implement this system by reading our article.
The outcome of every game in an online casino is the result of RNG, an equation algorithm, or a method of generation. RNG stands for random number generation, which is the secret recipe of how every game is fair and allows you to gamble honestly.
So how do online casinos generate unexpected results? Read the article to know how.
CASINO RNG BASICS
Online casino RNG
The key to these programs is a random number generator, or RNG. Casinos demand strong RNG algorithms RNG is a program (an algorithm) that generates relative random results. It determines the number that comes up on the reels in slots and video poker, the results of a virtual roulette wheel, the hand you’re dealt in video blackjack, the number or letter picked out for bingo, your initial hold’em hand on any online poker site. If the RNG weren’t random, the casino couldn’t guarantee fairness.
‘The seed you use at time one gives you your first result,’ explains Shannon. ‘And then you use that result to give you the next result and the next result and the next.’ Each seed, more or less, is produced by a hardware counter or other device that has been nudged somehow by its outer environment – whether it’s the system clock, an LED light or something similar. At that point, the extremely complicated algorithm is put into motion, such that each seed produces more than one result.
So you probably think that this is what causes the delays or jitter in your slot reel spins – well, no. This is just the graphical way of depicting a result. Every RNG algorithm is capable of delivering a result within several milliseconds of clicking ‘spin’.
AN AMAZING INTRODUCTION TO RANDOM NUMBER GENERATION BY NUMBERPHILE.
HOW DO CASINO GAMES GENERATE RANDOM NUMBERS
As we’ve seen, sometimes the random numbers are generated for the games live in front of us (eg, roulette, poker and blackjack), like they are in real bricks-and-mortar casinos. The random number generator used by NetEnt, Microgaming, IGT and other broadcast software providers is licensed and regulated.
The most basic PRNG is a toss of a coin: you can simulate this with a real coin flip and record whether it comes up heads or tails first. If you flip a coin 10 times, your chances of getting heads – or tails – on the first flip are 50:50.
If you flip it 100 times, you have better than even odds of having heads turn up at least once in the first 100 flips. The more you flip the better you get at realising those theoretical probabilities.
When it comes to casinos, we can mention a deck of cards, a pair of dice and a roulette as other RNGs. When properly used, they all produce unpredictable outcomes, because they have been exposed to entropy. In the real world, overall entropy in the environment, like velocity of wind, roughness of the surface and ambient temperature acts as the source of entropy that can influence the expected values of dice and roulette ball rolls. Though subtle, entropy made the numbers on which dice or roulette ball has fallen impossible to know.
IMPORTANCE OF COMPLEX RNG ALGORITHMS TO ONLINE CASINOS
Online casinos also face the issue that people believe Online casino games are rigged. People think the online casino games are a way for gambling sites to take all the money. Players don’t win the large jackpots.
It’s specific to slots and similar games (like blackjack, roulette and lots of other game-of-luck tables) with a house edge. Every game in casinos has a house edge, which is the percentage of every bet the casino takes for itself. The game with the lowest house edge is blackjack at 1.5 per cent. This number changes a bit with each variation of the game, but with blackjack it works out that players, on average, get back 98.5 per cent of all bets, with 1.5 per cent of their bets going towards the casino’s profit.
To make this happen, online casinos use something called RNG – random number generation. RNG embeds entropy into its choice of result by seeding its algorithm with elements affected by the world outside.
Keep in mind that these are still deterministic systems, and involve a seed generated from some hardware into which each game’s outcome is calculated. There is no way anybody could interfere with the outcome while the seed is being calculated into a set of numbers. A good RNG algorithm prevents players from being cheated.
In the same vein, any other variables are not going to affect the RNG of a single casino game. Whether the game is played in the dead of night, or the player can quite easily claim the jackpot in the game, 20 times in a single day, the RNG will still be using the seed to develop totally unpredictable results. Thus, if there is a proper RNG result generator, the player stands a fair chance of winning the real money from the slot game which the player is playing in, whether they are in UK or US casinos that are licensed.
