Randy wrote:
One of the reasons that video slots became so popular is that the physical reels on the slot machines could only hold a realistic maximum of 22 or so symbols on them before they became too big to work on a mechanical level. With a video slot, which is computer-driven, you can theoretically have 40, 60, or even 100 symbols on each virtual reel, which changes the odds dramatically and enables you to offer much larger jackpots than you would be able to otherwise.
Today even the machines with mechanical reels are computer driven, allowing for the concept of unlimited sysmbols per reel, even though they only have 22 physical positions per reel. Each reel has its own random number genereator that will generate a number between 1 and 128 for arguments sake, and each of the 22 physical reel positions will be mapped to one or more of the random numbers generated.
I wrote an ebook once about my experience as a slot machine technician, explaining how slots work. It is still available online. You can read it at xhttp://www.slotsjournal.com/slots-secrets-ebook/ (remove the x).