How Do Casinos Ensure That Games are Fair and Random?

Some games are harder to win than others but on average they’ll pay out similar amounts. The games with the biggest wins payout the least often. Because of a clever little tool called the Random Number Generator (RNG), we can be safe in the knowledge that online casino games are indeed safe and modern. And the thing is, the best online casino sites will always pick the best games, and these can win us a lot of money with a bit of luck. 

On top of that, there are a lot of organizations out there that regulate the activity of every casino game to make sure that it is not cheating. If a casino game were to be found out to be rigged, the consequences for the people who made it would be pretty drastic. A lot of criminal proceedings would be brought against them!

Here’s a look at some of the factors that go into the RNG. It’s a pretty complex tool!

RTP

The Return to Player percentage of a casino game refers to the amount of money a player can expect to receive back from it in relation to their deposit over the course of $1,000,000 wagered.

So, if a player were to wager $1,000,000 in total on a game that has an RTP of 95%, they would supposedly receive the amount back of $950,000.

The average RTP of a slot game is usually around 96% but it varies from game to game. For example, blackjack tends to have the highest RTP at 99% or so. If you want to best your chances at winning some money playing online casino games, blackjack might be the best route to take. 

Some games actually have a pretty low RTP on average. For example, even the best online bingo is going to be less likely to win you decent money than blackjack or even slot games.

Volatility

Volatility is otherwise known as variance, so you might see it written in either way. But both these words mean the same thing. It refers to how often you win vs how high the wins are. A highly volatile slot will have big max wins on offer but won’t pay out very often whereas a low volatility slot will pay out small amounts more often.

A lot of slot games these days tend to be highly volatile as the big max wins on offer tend to bring in a lot more players. But actually, some of the best online casino slots are low-variance ones. You can still win thousands, but you probably won’t lose quite as much overall. A word to the wise there.

Hit Rate

Another aspect that’s programmed into the RNG of any online casino game is the hit rate. This is a simple percentage figure that will tell you how often a win of any size will occur. The hit rate of a slot game, for example, can be anywhere between 10% and 40%, sometimes even more or less than this amount!

This is actually not quite as useful a piece of information for the players as the RTP, the max win and the volatility. That’s because a high hit rate slot won’t necessarily make you more money. But, it’s still worth knowing if you can find the info.