![]() Once the spin or play button is hit, the computer program does a few quick housekeeping chores, like determining the credits played and the paytable, then stops on the number that happens to be looping by at that precise instant. One gaming software engineer used the analogy that many of the early slot machine PRNGs were like a giant loop of random numbers that is constantly rotating. Spencer Peterson, VP, Technical Compliance, Konami Gaming, Inc. Although it is just a mathematical algorithm, with proper seeding and ‘free-wheeling’ techniques it has proven to fully serve the industry’s needs. ![]() With the addition of gaming markets and advanced regulations to allow new technology, at the core of all gambling devices still remains the Random Number Generator. The Pseudo Random Number Generator uses a computer algorithm and, therefore, is both practical and cost effective for use in slots. Since including a deep-space receiver, radioactive materials or a spectrum analyzer would be a bit expensive, the most practical slot machine RNG is a PRNG. (The ball blowers used in both keno and bingo are examples of TRNGs still working today in the casino world, along with roulette wheels and craps dice.) Not only that, but – given the relatively constant atmospheric conditions now present inside most casinos – one of today’s computers could probably predict a fan clock’s future outcomes based on past spins quite easily. Theoretically, each spin was random due to humidity, atmospheric pressure, temperature and mechanical variants.įan clocks are no longer in use today, since they could be easily manipulated by sophisticated instruments like bent coat hangers. Once released, the fan spun until the spring ran down and released the pay levers. ![]() It is perhaps ironic that the oldest mechanical slot machines from the 1930s through the early ‘60s had a True RNG, otherwise known as a “fan clock.” This was a spring-driven spinning blade, hand-bent and full of holes, that was wound by a player pulling the handle. Those folks in Washington don’t share a lot, but the speculation is that they derive randomness from listening to the variances of background radio waves from space, or they measure the rate of decay or other quantum factors associated with radioactive materials. If you’re the NSA, you might want to choose a better physical phenomenon than a dice roll. Bennett, “Randomness,” Harvard University Press ![]()
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