Why we do it?. The simple answer: To ensure the fairness and integrity of online gaming.
The in-depth answer: We set out to prove it was possible to deliver real cards to an online gaming environment and provide results that can be audited back to a video tape of a deal and a complete set of data records verifying the results. To do this, let's compare two methods of delivering cards to a poker table.
How a Random Number Generator works...
Why it matters?
Because 1 in 3 online poker players don't trust the randomness of the deal. See the survey by British polling firm '72 Point' on the right hand side of this page.
From the inception of online casino gaming in the mid 90's, the random number generator (RNG) was the only solution that was capable of producing random results in casino games. It is easy enough to produce an RNG that can have a predetermined payout of Slot machine for example, or the randomness of the roll of the dice, or the spin of a roulette wheel, because those games have a particular hold percentage in mind, and the casino sets the RNG to adhere to that percentage.
Using an RNG with a game like poker where a deck of 52 cards is used however, it's far more difficult than that. In fact there is not enough computing power on earth to store every possible permutation of a 52 card deck. To give you some idea of the complexity, let's first think of the total number of permutations of a 52 card deck. The number is 52! (that's 52 factorial, or 52x51x50x49...) and the result is
80,658,175,170,943,900,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
... or 80 duovigintillion.
How big is that number? If every living human being on earth, (6 Billion) shuffled 1000 deck of cards every second of their lives, and each person lived to be 100 years old, you would still not get to 1/1000 of 1% of the total number of possible permutations. In fact the number would be 18,934,155,600,000,000,000,000
6,000,000,000 x 1000 x 31,556,926* x 100 = 18,934,155,600,000,000,000,000
*1 year = 31 556 926 seconds
OK, now that you are in outer space thinking about those numbers, let's bring you back to reality and show you how a RNG works when it attempts to deal a hand of poker. This is best explained through this visual demonstration:
As you can see, the way a RNG works is by selecting cards from the overall pool of 52 cards, and then determining if it has used that card already, and if it did, that selection is discarded, and it goes and gets another one. Strange but true. This is NOT how the real world works, nor should it.
So the question is... If you could use real cards to determine the results of your online poker game, would you?
