The History of the Slot Machine
Slot machines are an increasingly popular form of gambling. Players typically insert cash or paper tickets with barcodes into designated slots on these machines before activating them by pulling a lever or button – though modern machines usually feature touchscreen interfaces instead.
Charles Fey of San Francisco designed and built the first gambling machine around 1890. Based on poker, his machine featured three rotating reels painted with diamond, spade and cracked Liberty Bell symbols – any spin resulting in a winning poker hand would earn drinks or cigars at certain establishments.
Origins
By the 1880s there were machines similar to what we know as slot machines today that bore little resemblance. These novelty devices often involved toy horses racing after inserting a nickel and could be found in saloons and bars for patrons to gamble with tokens they later exchanged for drinks and cigars.
Charles Fey of San Francisca was the first true slot machine inventor. His three-reel machine used coin operation and used symbols on its reels that lined up into poker hands; these included horseshoes, spades, diamonds and Liberty Bell itself (its namesake). Three bells in succession gave the highest payout – 50 cents!
Over time, other symbols have made an appearance, including stars, card suits, bar symbols and various fruit such as cherries, watermelons, oranges and lemons as well as seven itself – popular ones being cherries, watermelons, oranges and lemons – plus the lucky number seven itself. Many slot machines also include playing cards from 10 up to Ace and King for added flexibility and entertainment value.
Symbols
No matter whether you prefer traditional mechanical machines or video slots, their basic principles remain similar: place a coin into a slot, pull a handle to spin reels with pictures and see whether any line up along a pay line – while modern microchip-controlled machines use microchips to determine how each spin plays out.
Charles August Fey, an American inventor born in Bavaria and resident in America at that time, invented the first slot machine in 1894 with a lever to set its reels spinning and suitmarks that lined up into poker hands. His invention proved so successful that he decided to open his own factory to manufacture them.
More recently, manufacturers have made efforts to enhance the game by adding and subtracting features in an attempt to make it better. Some examples of such innovations are adding extra reels or eliminating cards like Ten and Jack of Hearts from deck, or increasing stops per spin which often makes winning combinations harder to come by.
Payouts
Early slot machines involved players placing coins into slots and pulling a lever to spin the reels, with payouts coming in the form of candy or gum if three symbols matched up correctly – this type of machine was known as a fruit machine and helped manufacturers sidestep any restrictions against gambling.
Charles Fey of Bavaria invented the Liberty Bell slot machine, the first slot machine with automatic payouts in actual cash. The Liberty Bell simulated poker, featuring three spinning reels featuring symbols like horseshoes and bells as well as suitmarks from playing cards – with three bells lined up generating the highest jackpot worth 50 cents or 10 nickels.
Bally developed its inaugural fully electromechanical slot machine, Money Honey, in 1964. Featuring a bottomless hopper that could automatically payout up to 500 coins, its popularity led to gradual replacement of mechanical levers with buttons. Furthermore, Money Honey enabled games with second-screen bonus features common among modern video slots.
Electronics
Electronic components of slot machines are what drive their operation, controlling reel movement and payouts on display screens while also acting as random number generators to determine whether a spin was successful or not.
Charles Fey invented the Liberty Bell machine in 1894-5, using three spinning reels to display symbols including hearts, spades, diamonds and horseshoes. These machines paid out coins – with three bells fetching 50 cents as their highest reward; current slot machines often employ different systems that reward prize awards depending on how many coins are inserted before pulling the handle.
After World War II, slot machines quickly rose in popularity as governments saw them as potential sources of tax revenue. A pivotal event occurred with Bally Technologies’ introduction of their electromechanical Money Honey machine in 1963 – they had previously manufactured pinball machines!
