Here’s another question trying to understand what Brian Christopher means about timing on a slot machine and the moment you press the button:
Does anyone know what Brian means when he says “timing”? Because whether he pushes the button 1 second apart or 10 seconds, 10 minutes or 10 days, nothing happens until you push the button. It’s not as if the RNG (Random Number Generator) is running while the machine is idle and then at the “right time” he pushes the button and he gets a mini instead of 20 bucks. The RNG only regenerates its outcome once it is energized by the push of the button.
Gregory R.
As of today, the RNG is running while the machine is idle, not just when you press the button, and that’s exactly why timing matters. It is not regenerating its outcome at the push of a button, as it’s always in operation.
Regulations are key here. Regulations active at the time of writing require the RNG to be active and generate numbers at a pace of a minimum of 100 times a second in the state of Nevada (to cite an example). The microsecond you hit the button starts the process of placing a wager and confirming the outcome based on what the RNG has generated.
So, if you pressed the button a moment sooner or later, a different number would be in play at that time. Of course, you won’t know what the other outcome would have been, so there’s no clarity as to whether you did better or worse than the point you actually pushed the button.
However, regulations will be shifting starting in Nevada starting next year, and that can lead to other changes in approach, so this isn’t to say all slots will work like this in the future. Key is that the 100 numbers a second rule isn’t listed in the regulations for the updated approach.
Nevada often leads the way for regulations, and so it would not be surprising to see changes mirrored in other jurisdictions as a result of Nevada adopting these updates, just as other jurisdictions had similar requirements about the RNG continuously cycling. An example is this line from New Jersey regulations that state that the RNG is:
Designed to continually cycle in the background between games; New Jersey Gaming Regulations
So ultimately, as of today, when a machine is idle, the RNG is not. Whether that is the same in the future will simply depend on regulations and machine design, but because slots don’t work on cycles and each outcome must be independent (other aspects of slots required by regulations), timing generally will always play some sort of role, as the next outcome cannot be decided until the time the wager is placed.
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