Notes on chance, odds and the design of games
How Games Are Built
A commercial game of chance is a designed object. Its rules are chosen, not discovered, and they are chosen against numerical targets: how much of the money staked the game retains, how long a given bankroll lasts, and how often the player sees something happen. These entries describe how those targets are met.
| Entry type | Entry | Last updated | Sections | Figures |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| worked arithmetic | How a game of chance is designed Designing a game means choosing a paytable that hits a target return while keeping the play long enough and eventful enough to continue. The edge is an input to the design, not an outcome of it. | 17 August 2026 | 4 | 1 |
| worked arithmetic | The mathematics inside a reel machine A reel machine's odds come from a weighted list of stops rather than from the symbols visible on the reel strip, which is why the display cannot be counted to recover the probabilities. | 17 August 2026 | 4 | 1 |
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