History of Slot Machines

History of Slot Machines

Slot machines are by far one of the most popular games for casino players. Slots are also by far the biggest money-earners for land-based casinos.  Slot machines make up around 70% of the income for Las Vegas casinos such as Caesars Palace, Luxor and the MGM Grand.

Earliest Slots Machines

Although nowadays slots players will find a range of themed slots games including video slots and bonus rounds, the first mechanised slot machines were very basic and were invented in 1887.

The first slot machine was invented by Charles Fey in San Francisco, California in 1887. The name “slot” machine comes from the slot that money or tokens are inserted into.

The first slot machines were invented as a means of providing an alternate gambling machine that was simple enough to process automatic payouts for winning combinations.  Due the massive number of possible wins in the original poker based game (flush draw, straight, two pair, full house etc) it made configuring a machine with automatic payouts for each winning hand virtually impossible.

Charles Fey invented the first slot machine, Liberty Bells, which composed of three spinning reels with a total of five symbols on each wheel.  As the symbols aligned on the slot face (horseshoes, diamonds, spades, hearts and a Liberty Bell) it enabled the mechanised slot machine to process automatic payouts when players received a winning combination.

The biggest payoff on the Liberty Bell slots was 10 nickels, which was awarded when a player received three Liberty Bells in a row.  Unlike modern online/video slots machines, each of the symbols on the Liberty Bell had an equal chance of stopping on the line.  This meant that the chance of winning the biggest jackpot was 5 x 5 x 5 = 1/125 (modern mechanised slots and video slots games have “weighted” symbols or using micro processing chips to reduce the chances of winning symbols appearing on the pay line.

Although slot machines were shortly banned in the US, the popular of the idea spread to other countries and manufacturers.  In 1907, Herbert Mills from Chicago produced a similar slot machine, “Operator Bell”, which used the exact same processes, reels and payoffs.

Variations of Slot Machines

As slot machines became more popular, different variations and styles of games spread across the country.  In 1891, a New York slot machine was manufactured that had 5 drums each holding a total of 50 card faces.  This slot machine was based on poker and became extremely popular.  Other slot machines used flavoured chewing gums and other symbols to such as Apples and Cherries to show up on the slot face pay line.  An early logo of the Bell-Fruit company is actually where the modern day “BAR” slots symbol came from.

Modern Day Video Slot Machines

In the late 20^th centuries, technology helped spur in the popularity of slot machines in the US with fully electromechanical slot machines invented in 1963 (Honey Money) and the first electronic, video poker games with second screen bonus rounds in 1996, called “Reel ‘Em”.

The rise of technology in the 21^st century in addition to the growth of online casinos led to a surge of demand in themed slots games with larger prizes and payouts.  A lot of the mechanical based slot machines that you find in the casino floor of major casinos now use micro-processor chips and “weighted symbols” in order to reduce the probability of players winning.  This allows casinos with multi-line slots to increase the payouts up to 3 million to 1, as opposed to the traditional mechanical 3-reel slots (10 symbols) which could only payout a maximum of 1,000 to 1.

Many online and land-based casinos now “link” up machines in order to provide a larger, more attractive “progressive jackpot” prize to players.  Every time players play or insert a coin in to one of these linked machines the progressive jackpot prizes grows bigger until someone hits the jackpot.

 

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