How Do Slots Work?

Roulette, blackjack, bingo - there are many options on an online casino. But perhaps the most popular of them all are the slot machines. With a vast number of developers and thousands of titles, they provide fantastic choice and variety for players. 

Online slots have evolved from their physical counterparts. Most people remember the cherries, oranges and plums on the old-fashioned fruit machines in bars and pubs; online slots machines have taken this idea and just made it all a little bit more sexy.

There are now more paylines, symbols, and exciting themes on slot machines. There's nothing wrong with watching fruit, bells and bars whizzing around - but when you've got the option to play with zombies, dragons, Egyptian symbols, dogs, or anything else you can think of, why wouldn't you want to?!

There are online slots with virtually every theme you can think of. And although each game has its own specific prizes, bonuses and features, they all work in the same fundamental way.

If you've ever asked yourself, "how do slot machines work?" - you'll find the answer below.

The question of “how do slots work?” has changed over time, especially with the original one-armed bandit style slot machines. The early slot machines were mechanical, but this changed a long time ago. Casino owners discovered that the slots could be manipulated with magnets to guarantee continuous large payouts.

As a result, the random number generator (RNG) was created, and this concept is what's used in online play. It wouldn't be physically possible for reels to spin mechanically when playing on digital reels, so the principles of the RNG are now used online and land-based casinos.

An RNG generates numbers continuously, at incredible speeds. This sequence of numbers determines which symbols will land when you spin the reels to play online. Every number correlates to a symbol, and the constant, break-neck speed of the number generation ensures that every spin is fair and completely random.

This is why there's no such thing as a machine that's "due" for a win because every single spin has the same equal chance of producing a winning sequence. 

Providing you're at a casino that is properly licensed and regulated; you can trust that the RNG is fair. This is because they are checked and monitored by independent third parties to ensure the results being produced are genuinely random.

The frequency and size of the slot payouts are known as the volatility or variance. High volatility means that the slot pays out high prizes infrequently, while low volatility means lots of small prizes which are paid regularly.