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Interested in learning more about how online slots work? These hugely successful casino games might be straightforward, but there’s more to them than meets the eye. With so many slots Canada options available, it’s worth understanding what actually happens behind the scenes. This article looks at the two sides of a slot machine: the server and the client. It gives you an overview of what these two are and answers the question of which side is responsible for determining the outcome of each spin.
Server Side and Client Side Explained
Whenever you play an online slot or any other type of casino game, there are two ‘sides’ that work together to make the game proceed. First, there’s the client side. This refers to everything you see on your screen: the game itself and all the buttons you can hit. For slots specifically, you’ll see a button to spin the reels along with buttons for things like the paytable and game settings. The client side is everything that you can interact with.
As for the server side, this is the behind-the-scenes or under-the-hood stuff that you don’t get to see. It’s the software that powers a slot and makes it run as intended, while protecting it from hacks and other types of threats.
Everything that’s on the client side is stored on your computer or whatever device you’re using. The server side, on the other hand, is stored on the network belonging to the company that owns and operates the slot you’re playing. It’s not the casino operator that hosts a slot or any other type of game; it’s the game’s provider.
What Happens When You Play Online Slots?
Whenever you play a slot, or any other type of casino game, both the client and server sides are involved. They have to be, otherwise the game wouldn’t be able to run. Once a slot loads, you’re able to adjust your bet and hit the spin button.
Once the spin button is hit, a message is sent to the server side. An outcome for the spin is needed, so the software generates an outcome, i.e. a symbol for each position on the slot’s reels. To do this, it uses a random number generator (RNG). This is a computer program that uses complex numbers and formulas to come up with results that can’t reasonably be predicted.
The server side sends the result back to the client side, which then displays the chosen symbols on the reels. If the player has won, the winnings are paid out accordingly. Likewise, if any special features have been triggered, the player will be notified and the feature will proceed.
Online slots and other casino games use RNGs to ensure outcomes are as random and unpredictable as possible. Each individual outcome is separate from all others, and any patterns that people might notice are just coincidences. For example, there’s the idea that slots can be hot or cold. Hot slots have paid out a lot recently, whereas cold slots haven’t. Just because a ‘hot’ slot has given out a lot of money in winnings doesn’t mean it’s going to keep doing so. You could play a ‘hot’ slot and not make any money. The same goes for ‘cold’ slots. You could try one and have frequent winnings.
Which Side Determines Spin Outcomes?
The number of slot options keeps growing too. Canadian casino sites such as ToonieBet ROC have thousands of slots from leading providers waiting to be played, with new titles added regularly. This site, which is available everywhere in Canada except Ontario, has slots from the likes of Hacksaw Gaming, Betsoft, Yggdrasil, Games Global and Pragmatic Play.
Whenever you play an online slot, it’s the server side that determines the outcome of each and every spin. This is because the server side is where the RNG is. Nothing on the client side is capable of generating random numbers like an RNG or using any other method that could create slot spin outcomes.
The creation of a result is near-instant. It may take a few seconds for the reels to spin and the outcome to be shown on the reels, but the result is determined much sooner. The reels are shown spinning for several seconds for two key reasons: one, to recreate the spinning of reels in a physical slot machine; two, to prevent slot sessions from happening too quickly.
To recap, the client side is everything you see on your screen and can interact with. It’s the slot and all the buttons you can press. The server side, which you don’t see and can’t interact with, is what makes the game run and determines outcomes for each spin.
You might not realize it, but every time you play an online slot, loads of messages are sent back and forth between the two sides. There’s also a wealth of information that the server side supplies. Thankfully, you don’t have to think about this; just spin the reels and see what happens.
