What is the Technology Behind the Odds in Online Casino Games?

As you are probably aware, online casino games require a spot of judgement but mostly a whole bunch of luck for a player to win consistently. Nevertheless, these games are tremendous fun to play and – thanks to the technology that powers them – completely fair too. If it’s your day, it’s your day.

With casino gamers winning jackpot prizes running into the millions of pounds each and every day, it’s a hobby that has plenty of upsides.

One question that gets asked a lot refers to the fairness of such games. How can online casinos ensure complete impartiality and ‘randomness’ of their games? For that, they have two weapons up their sleeve.

playing online casino

Return to Player Rates (RTP)

Every single slot game offered at an online casino has to have a Return To Player (RTP) rate published.

This tells us exactly how often players can expect to win when playing that specific title. The RTP is a theoretical return based on infinite spins of the reels, so if the Return to Player is slated as being 96%, then if players spun the reels ad infinitum, they would eventually win back 96% of their money staked. The concept is monitored and governed by the UK Gambling Commission.

Now, that doesn’t exactly sell the idea of playing slots, does it? But here’s the thing: if you go and play a slot machine for 30 minutes, you aren’t guaranteed to win 96% of your stake back.

You might win more, you might win less…the RTP is merely a theoretical guide. All casino titles have an RTP, except of course those involving live dealers, such as CasinoEuro’s live roulette games. Here, the speed of the wheel and its randomness is assured by the presence of the ‘human touch’.

The most important thing to remember is that the odds don’t change with each spin to rectify the RTP; so every spin of the reels come with the same probability. That’s crucial because there is a misconception that if you win a handsome prize that, for some reason, you can’t win big again in that particular session.

This is an urban myth, and that’s because each game is powered by another clever bit of tech: the random number generator.

Roulette Wheel

Random Number Generators (RNG)

The modern brand of online casino games come with all manner of bells and whistles, from 3D graphics to multi-layered bonus features.

As we know, behind all good games lies a complex set of coding, and in this case that has generated an algorithm that ensures all casino titles are played out completely randomly.

In this instance, the algorithm is known as a random number generator (RNG).

These are driven by seed numbers (or results, whether playing slots, blackjack or roulette), which hold the key to the mathematical equation that decides when a roulette wheel stops spinning or which cards are dealt at the blackjack table.

Each possible outcome is given a seed number, and these numbers dictate which symbols appear on your slot machine reels, where the roulette wheel comes to a halt and so on.

And there really is no way of ‘beating the system’; unless you are an expert in chaos theory, of course.

As such, it has to be said that there really is no skill required when it comes to winning at slots, roulette or any other casino game for that matter. Luck is the simple order of the day.

Bradley Wood is a freelance writer who lives in Pomona, Los Angeles. He is pursuing graduation from the University of California (UC). Bradley frequently contributes his high-quality articles in Academics and Education to our site to help students in their day-to-day life.