By Samantha Williams
“Man against the machine” was once a far fetched Asimovian ideal, this is no longer true, we have reached the age of superior technology and playing video poker online could be said to be a matter of man against the poker machine. In Asimovian ideology, this would have been a war of attrition with the machine winning virtually every time, but there is one thing some gamblers still don’t understand regarding playing real money games online for real prizes, and this is the Random Number Generator. While Asimov ideas were once a progenitor of the fictional future, many of these ideas have actually come to pass and been relegated to the past.
What the RNG does is make it fair to play at online casino games, by consistently and fairly emulating, the same conditions as would appear in a live casino, when playing the same games. A random number generator has to be certified by specific licensing and testing authorities and needs to offer measurable results regarding fairness as well as have results regularly and independently audited.
With online video poker, an RNG is a series of software algorithms, in a physical video poker game on a real casino floor, there is – or was a microchip which controls these algorithms. Algorithms are problems solving procedures, or a means to an end if you prefer. RNG’s cannot be manipulated – just like every slot game on the casino floor at the Mirage in Las Vegas; every game from Microgaming (which also designs games for the land casino), has to conform to technical standards. This is why it is so important for the US to pull their finger out of their ass and get regulation and legislation in place for online gambling in this country. The UK has it in place so there is recourse for both players and operators. If an operator is found to be wanting there are arbitration procedures in place and renegades can get their license revoked by the pre-requisite jurisdiction.
Every online gambler knows, or should know, that playing at most UK sites, with a good Gibraltar, Malta, Alderney or at a push Cyprus, licensed site; their interest will be protected, if that online casino wishes to continue operating. There are also online casino watchdogs out in full-force; ready to black list any site for even the smallest of infraction.
But back to video poker; there are various algorithms used, in the old days these were the Knuth or Fisher-Yates shuffle; today the more superior Mersenne twister is used, as this is actually more stable. In a 52 card deck, playing video poker, there are 8.065817517 x 1067 possible unique sequences and this – expressed mathematically, is what the RNG algorithms makes sure takes place. So when you play Video Poker online, this is man against machine, made fair!
