History of Slot Machines – Mechanics to Computerized Electronics
History of Slot Machines – Mechanics to Computerized Electronics
Gambling has been around for centuries. While the exact origins of many of today’s casino games are unknown, we do know that the most popular and profitable gaming device was invented in the United States. It is the slot machine and it was invented in 1887 by Charles Fey in San Francisco.
This uniquely American invention has taken the casino gaming world by storm, even spreading to bus terminals, lounges and pubs in England, they have become hard to avoid. A “fruit machine” is the British term for a slot machine, or “one-armed bandit”.
Fey’s invention came about around 1895, and by 1907 Fey had partnered with the Mills Novelty Company to produce the first bona fide slot machine, the Mills Liberty Bell. The Liberty Bell featured a cast iron case, with a Liberty Bell embedded into the front of the machine. The actual machine selections had images of playing cards (hearts, spades, and diamonds).
Many large game item manufacturers attempted to purchase the manufacturing and distribution rights, but Fey refused. However, in 1907, Herbert Stephen Mills, a Chicago manufacturer of arcade machines, began production of a machine very similar to Fey’s Liberty Bell. The Machine Mills produced was called the Operator Bell.”
The most important innovation in poker machines came in 1901 when Charles Fey added the “draw” feature. On the first pull, the five card drums began to spin. When they stopped, the player had the option to improve their hand by pressing the corresponding buttons to keep the selected cards. A second handle pull would turn over the remaining cards and the final hand would appear.
According to Fey, “When I built the original draw poker machine, I found it to be the most consistent way to make money in hand games I’ve ever known.” A later adaptation, Skill-Draw, “is the same game with all the old fascination, modernized to meet today’s operating conditions.” This game was so successful between 1935 and 1941 that Fey gave his best Skill-Draw salesman a new LaSalle automobile.
The fruit machine was not far behind. In 1910, the Mills Company introduced a slight variation on the Liberty Bell and called it the Operator’s Bell with the now famous fruit symbols. Sources say over 30,000 of these cast-iron machines were made, until around 1915, when wooden cabinets were introduced to help control costs.
The original slot machines were mechanical devices and some cheaters tried various ways to beat the house. People tried everything from using magnets to drilling a hole in the side of machines, all in an attempt to influence the mechanism.
There was even a legal method discovered by a few that involved a style of pulling the handle that controlled the drop of one or more of the reels. This greatly increased the odds for players and caused casino operators some concern until a method was devised to remove this advantage.
Electronics reared its ugly heads when the sixties rolled around. Nevada Electronics’ solid-state “21” machines were a big deal, and by the mid-1970s other manufacturers had built solid-state 21 machines, craps, roulette, horse racing, and poker. The most successful of these was the Dale Electronics Poker-Matic, which could be found in most Nevada casinos.
In 1975, the Fortune Coin Company introduced the first video bell slot machine in Las Vegas. Bally in 1976 built a black and white video poker machine and eight months later the Fortune Coin Company returned the favor with a color version.
Remember, you are in the casino to have fun, the slots game should be fun. If you lose interest or get bored, withdraw the money, there is always another day. Casinos and slot machine will be there waiting for you trust me. There’s no point running back.