Recently I was diving into the world that is casinos and while looking at all the games, I seemed to focus on the slot-machine side of things. (Primarily due to the technology side of it.)
While reading up about the odds, different types of slots, how they work, etc... I noticed one common thing. While the game itself tells you; "You will win x amount with these combinations." Casinos seem to be very quiet when it comes to discussing actual percentages. I assume they do this since when someone sees that their chance to win a large amount is 0.000001%, it could deter them from using the machine?
Presumably, I assume they take a range of numbers like; 12,000. Take their number of payouts, then assign the payouts to a sub-range of that first range. For example; Payout 1 = 5, 24, 2356, 8000, etc... Then they just use a RNG to determine the outcome?
Anyway, with that in mind I started to brainstorm and try and make my own "odds/probabilities" for a classic three-reel slot-machine. Something that has given me some trouble is sourcing some actual information. As said above, casinos are pretty hush, hush about actual numbers.
So, my question is; "How do casinos come up with their probabilities?" For example; Let's say a casino wants to start a new machine, and they start allocating percentages to their payouts.
Is it as simple as them just picking a random super low percentage? Or are they actually basing it off some kind of formula?
Another follow up question I had, do they play the same odds/percentages on all reels or would they dynamically change the odds on the 2nd and 3rd reel based on the outcome of the 1st reel? (If so that seems a little dodgy???)
Any help/information is greatly appreciated! :)