Ask The Slot Expert

Dear John,

Does the RNG stop running when the first coin is put in, or when you either pull the handle or hit the spin button?

Dave

Dear Dave:

Technically, the RNG never stops running. It is always generating new numbers. But, at some point, the program running the machine needs to know the value of the RNG in order to know what the outcome of a spin is. The program is said to "poll the RNG" to find its value at a given time.

Some action by the player causes the program to poll the RNG. That action could be depositing a coin, hitting the Bet 1 button, hitting the Bet Max button, hitting the Spin button, or pulling the handle. The program has to account for all the different ways a player could initiate a spin, so most programs use more than one event to cause a poll of the RNG. There's no way to know which events a particular machine uses--and even if you did know, it wouldn't help you--but all of these events have been used to initiate the poll.

Best of luck in and out of the casinos!
John

Send your slot and video poker questions to John Robison, Slot Expert, at slotexpert@home.com.

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