Some slots advertise front and center that you can have better odds for jackpot chances or better prizes at higher bets. How does that work when an RNG is involved?
Why do some machines say “increase your bet for a greater chance to win” if all wagers are tied into the RNG? How can it be random if increasing your bet increases your chances of hitting?
Anonymous Comment on Flip The Switch
And
If slots are truly random why do I hear Brian say we have a better chance of landing the major or grand on higher bets?
Janice N.
As we’ve shared here in the past, the Random Number Generator (RNG)’s role is to operate within a range of potential outcomes based on the slot’s design. This ensures that, while random, it’s still within a controlled set of outcomes.
One of the reasons for that controlled set of outcomes is that it ensures that the set of outcomes are programmed to reach the payback percentage that the game is set up by the casino, and designed by the slot maker, to provide in the long run.
For an illustrative example, Buffalo games traditionally are not designed to allow four buffalos on every reel (there are a few exceptions, but generally it’s capped per reel). If a game is designed to cap that at three, the RNG can’t deliver an outcome that shows four – it’s beyond the range of outcomes it’s programmed to be able to offer.
That range of outcomes doesn’t have to be static at all bets, however – you’ll sometimes see wording like “reel sets change by bet level” or “game will select from multiple reel sets for each spin” – the RNG still does its job of working within a range of outcomes, but what range of outcomes it’s working within can change based on bet, or even between spins.
This is how some prizes can be available only at certain bets, or that your chances of winning a progressive can increase proportionally with bet – there’s more outcomes at those higher bets that award it, and then it’s up to the RNG and when you hit spin to determine if you placed your wager at a microsecond where that progressive would be the outcome the RNG arrived at.
Sometimes these outcome changes are obvious – uneven bet increments and more/better bet settings on some slots are a sign that more money are being placed into the features. Some games note that you have to bet at certain levels to unlock bets or better payouts.
Other games note the odds of various things happen change at higher bets, like better wheel wedges on Ainsworth’s Quick Spin series. All of these are signs the range of outcomes change, although they’re not a sign in every case the overall payback is changing. If you have double the odds of getting a prize with double the bet, your better chances of winning the prize is washed out by the increased overall cost.
The RNG serves a critical role, but it’s not the only part in what determines the outcome, as the range of outcomes play a role as if that range is replaced, so would the odds of winning, the prizes at stake, etc. So they tend to work together to complete the behind the scenes of how a slot works.
Have a question? Submit yours here!
