When the question is "Are random number generator real?", the figure quoted most often is return to player, and read alone it tells anyone very little. It describes how much a game pays back across millions of rounds, so a slot listed at 96 percent keeps four of every hundred units staked over that span. It says nothing about a single session.
The stated return is reached only over a volume of play that no person will ever sit through. Across an hour at one machine, the result depends on variance far more than on the average. A player can finish well ahead or lose a whole budget on a game with a fair return, and both outcomes are normal. The percentage describes the design of the game over its whole life, and a single session sits somewhere inside that spread.
Reputable providers publish the return range of each title and send their random number generators to an independent testing laboratory. The certificate names the game, the version tested and the date of the test. A licence usually obliges the operator to offer certified games only, which is a real constraint on what can be installed. The same licence rarely requires the figure to appear on the game screen, so the certificate and the help panel remain the places to confirm it.
Some studios rate volatility on a scale inside the game's information panel; reviews that estimate it from a short test rely on far too few spins to judge.
Yes. Many titles are released in several versions chosen by the operator, and the gap between the highest and lowest can reach several percentage points with identical graphics.
In the game's information panel, which describes how the bonus rounds and features work next to the return figure for that particular copy.
Part of every stake funds a prize very few players ever win, so the everyday return an ordinary player sees sits below the published figure even when that figure is accurate.
Where available, the history lists recent rounds with their stakes and results, useful for checking a session; a handful of rounds proves nothing about the long term payback.