I think the article is referring to the "paytable" that you see on the machine. This just shows how many coins you get for each combination of symbols that show up on a payline on your machine. It's not the same as "odds", which is the probability of each combination occurring.

Randomness is controlled by the Random Number Generator (RNG) which is a carefully controlled device, usually in the form of a computer chip. At least in Nevada, these are of great concern to Gaming Control, and they physically check from time to time to verify that a casino is using only approved (truly random) RNG's. I'm guessing that even when a central control system is used, the servers are just selecting from Gaming approved chips somewhere at that location.

Different paytables are often approved for similar machines at a casino. This is what really controls the amount of profit the casino can expect from the machine (over the long term). One nice thing about Video Poker machines is that the paytables are always right on the machine and visible to the player. You can see at a glance when a casino like Harrahs downgrades their DoubleBonus machines from 9/7 to 9/6 payouts, for instance.

I don't know how Gaming is involved in switching paytables dynamically on a particular machine. I believe on the older systems, they must physically inspect when paytables are changed by swapping chips. It would be interesting to hear from one of the chippers working for a casino on this detail.