There is nothing to keep your number from coming up two or three times in a row, and nothing that says it has to come up within several dozen spins or more. That’s the same as saying a payback percentage of 94.74 percent. That gives the house an edge of 5.26 percent. On an American double-zero wheel, the game is “programmed” with 38 possible results - 1 through 36 plus 0 and 00.The numbers come up randomly, and when you win on a single number, you’re paid at 35- 1 odds, a bit less than the true odds of 37-1. That’s the same situation you face on a table game.

Game designers set the odds so that normal results will lead toward an expected average payback percentage. Some answers: Slot Machines Don’t Work Like That That leads to the question, “How can slot results be both programmed and random? If there are big wins, doesn’t it take cold streaks to get back to the programmed percentage? That doesn’t sound very random to me.”

They see that a slot game has an expected payback percentage – usually less than 90 percent on penny slots but more on higher denominations. It’s that last part that gives many slot players trouble. Slots and table games both arrive at expected results through normal probability. A Bank of Common Slot Machines in a Casino

How slot machines are programmed