One area we see players struggle is around the concept of slot randomness. How can it be random if I lost 10 spins in a row, for instance? Or this example:
The spins are random but the bonuses seem not to be. The Mini bonuses show up way too frequently to be random.
Susan B.
This leads to a concept some players may get if you think about examples in the wild, and that’s the concept of weighting. Randomness means the chances of any one outcome coming up are the same, but weighting is the idea that certain results have more likely of a chance of happening than another.
Think of a wheel on a slot machine. We all know that the top prize, even though the wedge is the same size as the others, doesn’t have the same chances of coming out. Take an example where the chances of that are 1 in 1,000.
The way slot makers do this is that although you see 24 wedges (for an example) on the wheel, there are actually 1,000 outcomes. So that top prize has a 1 in 1,000 chance, but maybe the smallest wedge is 100 out of 1,000 outcomes. So when you press the button to spin the wheel, one of those 1,000 outcomes is selected at random, and the wheel wedge that matches that outcome is ultimately where the wheel will land.
The Mini/Minor/etc. Is a similar scenario. There’s a lot more Mini outcomes than Majors or Grands, so it’s simply going to be more likely to pull a Mini outcome. Your odds are certainly not equal of pulling a Mini or a Grand.
Weighting is an important part of slot design because it’s what allowed bigger top prizes to be possible. Weighted reels were a critical part of the evolution of mechanical reels slots – the symbols and spaces don’t have an equal chance of coming out on those, either.
That’s how the top award could be larger than the natural odds of any one set of symbols lining up on the reels – the chances for that top combination coming out would be by design smaller to allow for it.
So ultimately, randomness is involved, but the game’s design accounts for the fact that bigger prizes naturally will be awarded far less often. Randomness selects from within a total set of outcomes, but the outcomes themselves are designed to ensure the machine pays back a certain percentage over the lifetime of the machine.
Have a question? Submit yours here!
