Buffalo slot machine

[Spadeace]

I understand about the RNG in slot machines but there must be other factors that determine what shows up on the reels. For instance, if I play all five reels on the Buffalo machine, the first reel will show one, two, or three buffalo during the course of the game. However, if I only play the first three reels (which costs 1/4 as much), no more than one buffalo will ever show up on the first reel, I have observed this for thousands of spins. Don't know if it is true at all casinos but that is a fact at Jackson Rancheria in California.

[SteveBourieOLD]

The placement of winning symbols is usually more prevalent on the first several reels, while the later reels may only have one winning symbol. That's why it is so difficult to get all of them to appear at the same time.

[Spadeace]

I guess my question is really about whether the reels can be changed depending on how many reels you decide to play. Since it is a video machine, it would be quite simple to insert an algorithm to prevent more than one buffalo symbol to appear on reel 1 if only 3 reels total were being played. I believe after a random number is generated, allocation of symbols is actually accomplished by another additional process.