Many articles have been written on the subject of honesty in land-based slots. Steve Bourie wrote a great article entitled “Are Slot Machines Fair?” The article originally appeared in American Casino Guide 1999. You can find it online by searching the title on Google or Yahoo! The physical, land-based slots have many “variations”, which can be deceiving to the player. They are all illegal, and they do not occur. Read the article carefully.
Online casino slots, on the other hand use an electronic “random-number generator”, or RNG. This is a large computer program which manages game graphics, player accounts, statistics for every hand played and more. Random number generators are hard-coded instructions in software that never change. There is no way to flip a “sense-switch” (see Bourie’s article) slot online and give players a worse chance. The control parameters are the same for each RNG use as they were the previous time, and the next. The numbers will be generated randomly, but their pattern never changes. Software-based online slots have this advantage.
Online casino slots have a payout percentage of 83%. This is not the case with land-based machines. Online, every machine has the exact same winning percentage. If you look at the payout percentages of many online gaming websites, you’ll see that they rarely drop below 95%. This means that the house averagely makes a profit of 5%. Most casinos have payout percentages in the range of 97% to 98%. It means you could spend an hour gambling your $100 bet about three times and, on average, it would cost you $7.50. The true reward for players is a high-paying victory. The high-paying wins are balanced by the players who lose, and finance them.
Are online casino slot machines fair? They are. Independent testing laboratories regularly test the software that runs the games (look for the logos on the bottom of the website) and no game can be controlled to be biased. This is far different from land-based slots, which are appropriately known as “one-armed bandsits”.
The odds are better, and the consistency is greater across all games. But no one can guarantee that you will win. Gambling is a game of chance, and it’s all part of the excitement.
You’re better off playing online casino slots the next time you feel like playing a slot machine. Even if you live near a casino, it is still a good idea to use your computer. These are far more reliable.