Random Number Generation, or its abbreviation RNG is a common term used at the majority of online gaming institution with reference to the safety and trustworthiness of the games available on that site. Despite its frequency of use it is often misunderstood, and regularly ignored. RNG is however relevant, and understanding it is important for anyone who wishes to understand the workings of online casino´s as the online gaming industry would not exist without it.
Random Number generation in it’s most simple terms is a means of begetting results as one would from a shuffle, throw or spin without the need to physically shuffle, throw or spin. Essentially, this technology produces random combinations of numbers that are equally as random as the combination that may be produced from one of these more traditional means.
If one was to take, for example, slot machines; the fastest spreading game in the online gaming industry, it is easy to see the practical application of this technology and why it was indeed introduced.
An old fashioned slot machine or one armed bandit would consist of a number of wheels, with a number of symbols. These wheels would spin when the mechanism of the game was put into motion; they would spin until they stopped showing a random combination of symbols. Today however, there are no physical wheels; the whole process and game is computerized.
Modern slot machines are ‘bigger and better’ now than they ever were in the past. The reason that they were able to improve so staggeringly is the invention of Random Number Generation technology. Today the symbols that appear on the slot machine once the reels have stopped spinning are not decided by the mechanical wheels but rather by a computer that randomly picks numbers within a particular range – let’s say 1-147. The program will randomly choose a selection of numbers within this range that will correspond to the number of reels the slot has. In this way, a 3-reel slot will be powered by a random number generation program that produces combinations of 3 numbers; a 5-reel by a program that produces combinations of 5 numbers. These numbers then correspond to predetermined stops on a virtual wheel; each of these stops is represented on your screen by a symbol. Therefore, the random number generation program spits out a number sequence, the machine knows which stop each of these numbers correspond to and depicts reels spinning until that stop and the symbol represented on it settles on the screen.
This is just one example of the use of Random Number Generation in the online gaming industry; it is by no means the only one. Random Number Generation technology is what allows poker to be played without a dealer, and roulette without a spinner. It is 100% safe and trustworthy as it’s process is just as random as any of our more traditional means of creating a random result.
