RNG is at the core of casino games, but despite that, very few players truly understand all of the nuances behind this complex mechanic. Adding RTP and volatility to the mix makes matters even more difficult — how can all of this combine in a fair and well-regulated gaming experience?
Today, we collaborated with Slot.day founder Michael Slot to answer this question and explain how casinos can provide reliable outcomes using randomness.
What is RNG?
RNG stands for Random Number Generation, which might be a bit of an oversimplification of what the technology actually does in casino games.
In reality, machines are incapable of creating truly random numbers, since they simply follow a specific chain of commands and use various sources of data to generate numbers. If someone were to learn all these inputs and data points, they could theoretically predict the outcomes of spins, for example.
However, true randomness is something scientists can only observe in the behavior of quantum particles, while everything else appears to be deterministic. While there are devices like ERNIE that use quantum noise to provide random numbers, most machines rely on seeds — numbers or vectors that are used to initialize the number generation. These have proven to be quite vulnerable, so modern machines include several layers of protection to guarantee no one can access these seeds.
Some companies rely on external physical phenomena to create random numbers. For example, Cloudflare uses video data from a camera pointed at a set of lava lamps in one of its facilities for this purpose. The unpredictable nature of fluids in lava lamps guarantees that the outcomes will also be unpredictable.
However, in practice, there is no point in striving for true randomness — as long as the machine provides an outcome unpredictable for humans, it is generally good enough, and casino games pass this test.
RTP and its relation to RNG
Or do they? It turns out that even the less “random” type of randomness isn’t something casino games fully rely on nowadays. While the results of each particular game session will definitely be unpredictable, the results of hundreds of thousands of games will lead towards the same result — a predetermined percentage of deposited money going straight into the casino owners’ pockets, while the rest of it will return in forms of winnings.
But how can this be achieved?
Well, let’s start with explaining a few terms. The first figure — the percentage of money going to casino owners — is known as the house edge. The second number — the percentage of deposited money that the machine gives back in the form of winnings — is RTP, which stands for Return to Player. These figures are codependent, meaning that 97% RTP means a 3% house edge, 95% RTP translates to a 5% house edge, and so on.
The most reliable way to achieve this is to make randomness more predictable and controllable. As Michael Slot explains, modern casino software relies on something known as compensated randomness, which is an in-built program that changes the outcomes of future games based on the previous results. For example, if someone wins a lot of money in a few plays, the machine’s internal RTP will start deviating from the desired value, prompting it to produce more losses to compensate. The same thing works the other way around as well.
This might sound like cheating at first, but in fact this is just as good as uncompensated randomness. The only real difference is the fact that compensated machines are less likely to produce massive streaks of wins or losses, which results in a better player experience and more stable outcomes for casinos.
Another reason why using compensated randomness isn’t “unfair” is because every single game the casino puts out on display is already designed to favor the casino in the long run. The rules, the positions of symbols on reels, and every other aspect of the games are meticulously crafted to ensure that over the course of thousands of games they will produce the desired RTP. What compensated randomness achieves is only ensuring that this will happen over a shorter number of games, adding stability to it.
How RTP really works
This is where we have to explain the nuances of RTP. Unfortunately, lots of casinos do a rather bad job at it, resulting in many players having flawed expectations when it comes to playing their games.
First of all, as we’ve already established, RTP only really works when it comes to hundreds of thousands of games. What that means is that a machine with a 97% RTP will return 97 dollars for every 100 dollars deposited, but that doesn’t mean they will be returned to the person who deposited them — they might be returned as 1 dollar winnings to 97 other people, for example.
Another thing worth noting is that if you decide to redeposit your winnings, they will follow the same rule, which makes redepositing winnings a bad strategy in theory — if you were to play an infinite number of games you would at some point lose practically all of your money. However, as we acknowledged, players don’t operate on that scale, so machines are still unpredictable enough to provide varied outcomes.
Finally, while it might seem that RTP is rather meaningless on a personal level, it is still important for players to choose games that offer the highest possible return. In fact, RTP is probably the most important metric when it comes to casino games, and it is heavily regulated by authoritative organizations to ensure fair play, since it is probably one of the very few numbers that can be controlled in the unpredictable environment of casino play.
Volatility
When we talk about RNG in casino games, we cannot ignore the final piece of the puzzle. The simplest way to explain volatility is this: high-volatility games offer huge prizes with very low chances of winning, while low-volatility games offer smaller prizes that can be won more reliably. While in theory playing low-volatility games is a much more preferable strategy, lots of players feel that high-volatility games are much more exciting because of the promise of huge rewards.
It is important to remember that volatility is part of the game’s design, and is completely controlled by the people who developed the game in the first place. While high-volatility games still work by the same RTP requirements as low-volatility ones, the former are much more likely to leave you with no winnings at all, which can be a bad experience.
Interestingly, high-volatility games played a key role in making casinos popular, with huge jackpots making headlines in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Slot.day shares its experience: how to achieve success with winning slots.
- Remember that this promise is ephemeral and shouldn’t be taken seriously: the only healthy way to treat casino games is to think of any deposited money as lost — sort of a price to pay for the experience of playing.
- Never chase losses
- Stop playing as soon as the game stops being enjoyable
- Craft your own experience. If the casino offers a lucrative bonus for a game like Gold Cash free spins, feel free to use them. However, if you don’t feel like playing it right now, you don’t have to do it.
How do you regulate randomness?
In general, every casino game that is licensed by a certain entity has to attain a certain standard when it comes to RTP. For example, the United Kingdom Gambling Commission requires websites and land-based casinos to showcase every game’s RTP to ensure players are properly informed and can make data-driven choices. The organization also tests and approves all gambling products before they are released to the market, ensuring that there are no unregulated games available in licensed casinos.
While regulation is a rather long and difficult process, any respectful and trustworthy game developer and casino game provider ensures their games are up to the highest standards. If you as a player encounter a website that doesn’t operate in accordance with these regulations, you should leave it — chances are, you will get scammed.
Unfortunately, regulation does not cover large sections of the internet, where unmonitored online casinos can mistreat players or scam them out of their money. The safest route for any player is to choose a well-known casino with a solid reputation and all the required licenses — no matter what types of bonuses you might be offered somewhere else, nothing will beat safety.