About Online Casinos

Random Number Generator (RNG)
A random number generator, commonly referred to as an “RNG”, is the backbone of any online casino’s odds. It is the tool that creates the randomness in the results of any hand, spin or bet played at the casino. Since a truly random NRG can’t rely on a mathematical equation or algorithm to product random numbers because by it’s very nature, an equation is not random and could be manipulated, casino RNGs must pull their results from a natural event such as electromagnetic noise or radioactive decay. In fact, the RNG that we employ at SlotsandCasino uses just that, radioactive decay, to determine our game outcomes. While very complicated to explain, the true randomness of this phenomenon can be understood through the laws of quantum mechanics but the important take away from all of this is that our odds, and the odds at any reputable online casino can be trusted to be completely random and cannot be manipulated or adjusted.

House Edge
The “house edge” is the term used to describe the mathematical advantage that gambling establishments have over the players which is built directly into the odds. The house edge is what allows casinos and sportsbooks to profit, even while offering their players great chances to win. Often, as is the case at SlotsandCasino this advantage or “edge” is very small, therefore the casino must rely on many people placing countless numbers of bets to see profit over time.
An example of a house edge can be seen in the game Roulette. While betting on either black or red provides a player with a nearly 50% chance to win, the green 0 (or in the case of American Roulette 0 and 00) pays out to the house, therefore making the odds of winning from a black/red bet to slightly less than 50%. Those 0’s provide the casino the house edge it needs to be profitable, even when players are betting red or black and even though players still have a nearly 50% chance to win.
House edge varies from game to game but generally, the games considered to have the lowest house edge if played correctly are: Blackjack, Craps, Baccarat, Three Card Poker and Video Poker. Slots, while offering the best chance of winning huge in the shortest amount of time tend to have higher house edges than many other casino games.
Return to Player (RTP)
One can view the Return to Player or “RTP” as it’s commonly referred to as the opposite of the house edge. So, if the house edge is the statistical advantage that the house has over the player, the RTP is the expected mathematical return on the dollar to a player over an infinite amount of time. Why we say “over an infinite amount of time” is because due to variance (covered below) any one or group of bets can swing wildly towards winning or losing, something that many call “swings” or even luck. When calculating the RTP though, one must assume that all of this “variance” is evened out through countless wagers to a point where it’s no longer relevant. It is in this context that we can talk about the RTP, or the expected return to player of his or her investment.
When it comes to RTP, the higher the better. Think of it like this: If a player wagers $100 and the RTP of the game is 97.5%, the player can expect (taking variance out of the equation) that they will get $97.50 back. Now as we know, when looking at one session, or even a handful of sessions this is rarely the case. Sometimes a player will lose it all, sometimes they’ll hit big for $10,000, but again, if we look at this $100 bet an infinite number of times, the return to the player will always be $97.50. In other words, the higher the RTP, the better the chances to win over time.
Variance
Variance, simply put, is the unpredictability of outcomes in gambling. It is the mathematical deviation from what we would “expect” in a gambling wager based on the house edge or RTP for example. Variance lessens the closer we move from one wager to an infinite number of wagers. Think of it this way: If you flip a coin 10 times and the “odds” suggest that you will get heads 50% of the time and tails 50% of the time, this will almost never happen. That’s because of variance. You might get tails 7 times and heads only 3, even though the odds would suggest otherwise. That said, technically if you flipped a coin 100,000,000 times you’d be much more likely to be close to a 50/50 split of heads and tails because the variance is being evened out through more and more flips.

Variance can be a difficult concept to understand, but once you do you can begin to understand why some players might have a run of seemingly terrible luck, where they just can’t win, while others might seem like they’re on fire and just can’t lose. It’s all thanks to variance.

Volatility
Volatility is very closely related to variance. Volatility is usually used in the context of slot games and it refers to the degree that variance plays a role in the odds of a given slot. High volatility games (sometimes even referred to as “high variance games”) will, as you would assume, have a high level of variance baked into them, while low and medium volatility games will obviously have less.
While high variance sounds like it should always be a negative thing this is not necessarily the case. It really depends on the type of player you are, and here’s why:

While it’s very common for highly volatile games to go long periods of time without paying out, when they do pay out, they pay BIG. These games are intentionally built this way. Players that are willing to weather the variance and that can handle periods of small or no wins will eventually get treated with one or more huge wins when the game does eventually hit. Conversely, low variance games often pay out many small wins consistently but rarely offer the huge jackpots of higher variance slots. As you can imagine, medium variance games offer an experience somewhere in the middle with relatively regular small wins and some bigger ones occasionally thrown in too.