History of Slots

Slot machines have been in existence for over a century, and while slots have come a long way, they still follow the same basic principles that the first invented machines used well over 100 years ago. The history of slot machines follows the history of gambling over the 20th century, evolving from basic machines with few features that were found in clubs and bars to the amazing video slots used by online casinos today.

Early Years of Slot Machines

The first slot machine ever invented was the creation of Charles Fey. According to most sources, Fey – who lived in San Francisco, California – came up with the first ever slot machine in 1887. After experimenting with the idea of using card symbols to create poker hands on the reels, Fey settled on a simpler machine: a three-reel game that used just five symbols, including the Liberty Bell. This symbol gave the game the name “Liberty Bell,” a symbol that would later be used by imitators and basic slot machines throughout casinos around the world.

The game proved incredibly popular, with Fey having to fill a huge number of orders around the United States and even internationally. The original prototype for this machine still exists, and currently resides in the Liberty Belle Saloon & Restaurant in Reno, Nevada.

Meanwhile, other inventors continued trying to succeed in making a poker-themed game on five reels. The first successful version of this game was created in Brooklyn, New York, in 1891. Each of five “drums” (or reels) held ten different card symbols, meaning a total of 50 cards were available (usually, a couple high ranking cards were missing to reduce the probability of high pairs and royal flushes). These games became incredibly popular in New York bars; though the game couldn’t award prizes automatically, each bar could choose to give out small prizes based on the strength of the hand a player made.

These sorts of games continued to prove popular throughout the first half of the 20th century. Most of these games offered small prizes to winners; some games were designed to give players cash rewards, while others – particularly in areas where gambling was frowned upon – offered small prizes like gum or candy.

Electronic Slots

The first fully electronic slots began to show up in Las Vegas casinos in the 1960s. These games allowed slot machines to begin offering all of their prizes without the help of attendant, making them much more enjoyable for players (and much more economical for operators). These games also began to become more reliable in operator than the original mechanical machines, and were harder for players to tamper with.

In this era, machines also began to offer larger prizes, which led to the introduction of jackpot slots. Prizes of hundreds and then thousands of coins became commonplace by the late 1960s, allowing players to dream of winning thousands of dollars on a single spin.

Electronic machines quickly pushed the older and fully mechanical machines out of casinos entirely. Interestingly, though, these games continued to keep the lever that was pulled to operate the original mechanical machines, even though the lever was now entirely unnecessary; in the electronic games, players could just as easily hit a button to activate the next spin. Some electronic machines in live casinos still have working levers to this day, serving as a homage to the earliest slot machines.

Video Slots and Online Slots

In the 1970s, the first video slots began to show up in Las Vegas. These games were fairly primitive by today’s standards, but they were a giant leap forward in the evolution of slots. Instead of requiring moving parts that could break down over time, these games took place entirely on a video screen, using complex random number generators to come up with the results of each spinning reel.

While the first video slots were though of as little more than a new way of playing the same kinds of games that were found on electronic slots, developers soon realized that there were many possibilities for using the video technology to do things impossible in a mechanical game. For instance, animations could be added, and players could easily be awarded free spins for making combinations of special symbols. In addition, since there was no longer a physical limitation to the size of the machine or its reels, video slots could easily be made to have five reels, and each of those reels could hold numerous symbols. This once again allowed casinos to increase the size of the jackpots offered to players by creating especially difficult to achieve combinations in their games.

Another breakthrough came in the 1990s, when two important events occurred. First, the “second screen” bonus round was invented. This was an innovation only possible on a video slot machine, which could be programmed to bring up a second interface separate from the reels themselves. Secondly, online casinos began to emerge during this decade, bringing video slots into the homes of players around the world. Suddenly, players could spin the reels anytime they liked, simply by logging onto the internet at their convenience.

Today, slot machines remain the most popular form of gambling, both in online play and in brick-and-mortar casinos. With new innovations and improvements to games coming every year, it’s likely that slots will always play an important role in how we gamble at casinos.