Quite simply, slots use mathematics to function, so to win at slot games, you’ll have to use maths too! Don’t worry, you don’t need to be a mathematical whizz kid to win at slot games, playing free slot games here is really quite simple, but understanding the maths behind the game will help you to get to grips with how they work and ultimately choose the best slot game to play on.
The mathematics of slot games
If you haven’t heard of a random number generator, this is the algorithm that determines the outcome of every spin of the slot machine. Often abbreviated to RNG, a random number generator, as you might have guessed from the name generates the symbols that appear on the reels at complete random. This means that they cannot be influenced externally by anyone, including players. This is in order to protect the game, players and the industry. After all, if you could predict the outcome of the slot, there’d be no fun in that, it wouldn’t be fair for other players and the industry would collapse, meaning no slots for anyone! The number codes generated at random correspond to symbols on the reels and if you land a certain combination, you win!
How to use maths to calculate the probability of online slots games
A maths-based approach to winning slot games includes working out the probability of you winning a slot game and to work out the probability of a particular slot, you will need to know what the winning combination pays out in addition to what the probability will be of getting that combination.
Your first port of call should be the paytable, which will list how much certain combinations payout. Then you will need to calculate the probability of getting that combination during the game. It’s easy enough to calculate, all you need to do is calculate the amount of stops there are in the slot. For example, if the slot has three reels with five symbols on each reel, simply multiply the number of symbols on each reel to calculate the possible combination: 5 x 5 x 5 = 125 possible winning combinations! If the jackpot in the same slot then pays out for three lemon symbols, and only one lemon symbol occurs on each reel, to calculate the probability of a jackpot would be: 1/5 x 1/5 x1/5 which means you would have a 0.008% chance of landing the jackpot in that slot game.
So, as long as you know the number of times a certain symbol appears of each reel, it’s easy to work out the probability of getting any combination! It can get tricky however with slot games which have a large number of reels and winning combinations, especially as many modern slot games have up to 10 reels with 200+ stops.
To help you decide which slot to play, check the Return to Player percentages (RTP) which shows the overall percentage of the total bets which a slot game would theoretically payout over a prolonged period of time.
