Bingo slots are an increasingly popular game, but how do they actually work? The technology behind the game is surprisingly interesting.
It used to be the case that if you wanted to play bingo, you had to head out to a bingo hall. While these can still be great places to spend an afternoon, there are other options for those who want to enjoy the game in a different way, and one of the most popular of these is bingo slots.
There are two main ways to play this game. You can head to a casino and play on a machine, or you can play bingo slots online by going to a site such as Jackpotjoy.
Whichever you choose, you will be greeted with a virtual form of bingo that plays out in seconds, letting you play a much larger number of games if you want to. However, have you ever wondered how these slots actually work?
It turns out bingo slots are much different from standard slot machines and may even be fairer. Here’s how bingo slots use technology to create a fun, fair and engaging game for people to play.
How to play bingo slots
On its most basic level, a bingo slot is just a fast game of bingo. Rather than the numbers getting drawn one by one and read out by an announcer, the whole thing is done electronically.
This means it’s as simple as placing your bet and pressing a button, then seeing your results. Unlike traditional slot machines, you won’t be playing on your own; you’ll actually be playing in competition with others using the same machines or online games, just like in a physical bingo hall.
You might be wondering how all this is fair? Can’t the computer behind the game just rig it so nobody wins?
It’s actually just as fair as standard bingo, and this is all thanks to the technology behind the game. Here’s how it all works:
Bingo slots and other players
Bingo is a game that requires more than just one player, unlike a standard slot machine. This means playing a bingo slot will link you up to other players, either in the same casino as you or over the internet.
In a casino, all the machines are linked together to a central machine. When you hit the ‘play’ or ‘spin’ button, you’re entered into a game with all the other casino patrons using the same type of machine, and therefore the same result is returned to all players.
If the casino is quiet, this can sometimes mean waiting a while before someone else starts playing at the same time as you. However, if it is busy you might find you’re only playing with the players who hit ‘play’ within milliseconds of you.
Online, things are even easier. Using the internet, the games can be played against other people playing bingo slots around the world, so you are much more likely to find other contestants to join your game.
Keeping things fair
The fairness of bingo slots is something that’s often questioned; after all, couldn’t the computer behind it all just allocate poor results to everyone? However, the game is just as fair as regular bingo, thanks to a type of technology called a random number generator (RNG).
In physical bingo, the balls are spun around in a cage to mix them up, then drawn by a host. This is completely random, as there’s no way to arrange the balls in a particular order; spinning the cage ensures everything is fully mixed and keeps the game fair for everyone.
Without a physical cage, computerised bingo needs another way of coming up with random numbers. This is where the RNG comes in.
Getting a computer to come up with a random number is actually extremely difficult, so the best way is often by using something else in the world that is definitely random. For example, an RNG might base its numbers off the number of lightning strikes in the world in a given second.
However, this is a lot more complex than is needed for a bingo slot, so they typically use something called a pseudorandom number generator (PNG). This generates a large amount of different numbers every millisecond, then when a random number is required it takes the latest one and performs mathematical operations to turn it into something new.
This is extremely complicated and therefore can’t be predicted, preventing cheats from working out which numbers are going to come up next. Although it is not truly random, it’s more than random enough to make bingo slots completely fair for players.
The technology behind bingo slots is remarkably complicated, but it is needed in order to make sure the game is enjoyable and fair for all the players. This means you can enjoy a game without having to worry about being cheated by the machine.
