>>>Good question. Probably random within the payout parameters it is programmed for (different payouts for different locales....). They key is, you can play skillfully against it, and if you are good, you can win. This was discussed this week on the Travel channel (Winning in Vegas).
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>>Actually the code behind it has a really good random number generator, but it's just that ... 'random'. Generally speaking these machines have about a 91.2% payout... in other words for every 1 dollar stuffed into the machine, over time it should average out to spitting out about 91 cents, but again.. "random".
>>Another interesting tid-bit that I ran across about 2 years ago... there was a guy working for one of these companies that develops the software for some of these video poker machines and he actually put his own little 'easter-egg' in the software ... a certain set of actions would cause it to payout...hahaha
>>There was also someone who had done somthing similar to a video slot machine program - but the oppoiste was true, the thing was designed NOT to ever land on the 'big payoffs'. Finally someone who ran a bar figured out there was something wrong because the machine would normally hit a big one every week or so, then suddenly 3 months go by & no one won...haha
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>Sneaky devils!!!! (now if only I could get a job there designing their software........... didn't I see some jobs advertised in Vegas not long ago?? Where did I put that info....hmmmmmmmmmm)

Yeeeep. There are several of the companies that design such software out there. They have some pretty detailed regulations they have to follow of course. I know for a fact that one of them does use VFP, and I think (but not positive) there is a second one.