Random Number Generators in Online Poker

If you’ve ever wondered how poker sites achieve completely random, unpredictable results day after day, week after week, the answer is in their random number generators (RNGs). It’s not an easy thing to achieve 100% random results using man-made computers but the RNGs employed by the internet’s poker rooms do just that.

Online poker rooms are pretty transparent organizations if you think about it. They release millions of hand histories every day that would-be computer hackers could conceivably get their hands on to study statistical data and trends to look for predictable patterns. Several million hand histories is a nice sample size for anyone with bad intentions and a solid grasp of statistics.

The top online poker sites around the globe use a variety of countermeasures to stop malevolent users from wreaking havoc including hand analysis, red-flagging hands, manual investigations and other tactics that aren’t openly released. But the one area where poker sites really shine is in prevention.

The RNGs used by the internet’s poker rooms have been statistically proven to be completely random, rendering any attempts to predict cards futile. True random number generators use a combination of computer coding and real-world physical input to generate 100% random numbers that in turn generate 100% random card shuffles.

Poker sites don’t release complete information about the sources of their input but many do mention the use several sources including the mouse movements of players, atmospheric noise, network activity and CPU usage. From these sources, the poker sites generate an “entropy pool” from which random numbers are selected and used to create unpredictable results for their players.

So this all sounds nice and complicated but how do you know the poker sites really are random? Well, I’m sure plenty of people have asked the same question in the past because poker sites have already gone out of their way to address that very concern.

Every legitimate poker site on the internet submits itself to regular audits from independent, third party companies that specialize in this kind of thing. One of the most widely used and trusted companies, Technical Systems Testing (TST) has been auditing gaming companies for years, both online and offline. You can view most sites’ certificates of randomness online in PDF format.

PokerStars, which is the LARGEST and most trusted poker site in the world, even goes as far as to have itself audited by two separate testing companies: BMM International and Cigital, Inc. Both companies are respected leaders in the testing industry, with big name clients like AOL, GE, Motorola and many more. They gave PokerStars a complete battery of tests that were all passed with flying colors.

Read about the PokerStars RNG by clicking the link provided.