When it comes to casino games, slot machines are universally loved because they’re easy to use and don’t require complex strategy. Just put in your money and line up three identical symbols on a payline to win.
But how do they work, exactly? Slots are tall machines with spinning reels and a series of symbols that land in a random order once you press the spin button. When a winning combination is found, you’ll receive a prize – usually a sum of money.
While some people have theories about how slots work, the truth is that they’re purely random. A computer chip inside each slot machine makes a thousand calculations per second, producing a sequence of numbers that will determine how the symbols land on the reels. The numbers are then mapped by the slot’s internal sequence table to the corresponding stop on the reel.
Once this is done, the odds of hitting a particular symbol are calculated and displayed in the machine’s pay table. Originally, pay tables appeared directly on the machine, but nowadays they’re often embedded within game help screens. However, they still serve the same purpose – to inform players of how much they can win and how to make the most out of their gambling experience.