With the introduction of online casinos several problems have come up. This is because although online gaming meets so many expectations, there is still a gap to be filled with the absence of physical presence. One of such examples is in online slots, where players get paranoid about whether the game like Top Cat slot is being manipulated.
In this article, we will discuss how online slots manage to be as fair as slot machines at a land based casino.
How Slots Work
Slots everywhere demand you follow simple steps:
- Insert your coin or choose your bet size
- Select your number of paylines
- Hit the spin button
Hitting the spin button will spin the reels to produce outcomes that may have designated paylines. If you have the paylines selected, you gather a win based on the payout structure in the paytable.
The Fear Around Online Slots
Most players will admit that online slots are great. They make payments easier and remove the concept of waiting in line. But most importantly you can play anywhere on PC or a mobile device.
When playing however, you sometimes cannot shake the fact that the game is not working in your favor. This feeling is even stronger if one is on a losing streak. So how can we be sure we are playing a fair game?
Slots: A Fair Game?
The casino gaming ecosystem has come up with ways to ensure that gaming is fair to players. There are two major ways to find out, and they are the RTP and the RNG.
- Return To Player (RTP): This is a tool used to display the expected return from a slot game over a period of time. It makes use of the total player winnings divided by the total bets placed. The resulting ratio is multiplied by 100 to give the resulting percentage.
Most slots display their RTP to show transparency on what to expect from the game. The RTP of a slot is never a hundred percent. This implies that the house always has an in-built advantage; this is called the house edge.
- Random Number Generator (RNG): With online slots, outcomes are generated digitally with the use of an RNG. The RNG links several outcomes on the reels to numbers. So when the spin button is hit, one number is randomly generated automatically producing the outcome you see on your screen.
Third-Party Auditors Seal The Deal
So, with our understanding of the RTP, the house already has an edge. But even with this understanding, how can we be sure that they are still not cheating? The answer is simple – third-party auditors.
These are regulatory bodies that conduct the necessary investigation of a casino to make sure it’s games are fair. They run several bets to test the RTP, and advise the casino to display the figures. They also carry out tests designed to figure out the randomness of slot outcomes, thus, inspecting the RNG.
So it is clearly important to check if your casino of choice is licensed by a third-party auditor. This is the certificate of confidence in the fairness of that casino.
