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The History of Slot Machines

Slots Nostalgia and the Good Old Days

All slot machines today, both in online casinos and land based casinos, are descended in some respect from the original slot machine, the Liberty Bell, which was invented by Charles Fey in 1899. Fey was a German immigrant who worked as a mechanic in San Francisco, California.

The Liberty Bell Slot Machine

The Liberty Bell worked like many people assume today's slot machines work: inside the casing there were 3 reels with 10 symbols on each reel. Back then the symbols were suits from playing cards, mostly, and a liberty bell symbol on each reel too. When the lever got pulled, a jackpot was paid if the same symbol came up on all 3 reels.

The Liberty Bell was the big jackpot. Get 3 liberty bells and you win 10 nickels, or 50 cents. Big money back in those days, I think.

Calculating odds in those days was easy. 3 reels with 10 potential stops gives the following odds: 10 X 10 X 10 = 1000 combinations. Only 1 of those combinations yielded the big jackpot.

Gambling Prohibition

Slot machines managed to get banned in 1902, which sure didn't take long since they were invented in 1899. But slot owners were innovative even then, and they changed the coin machines to offer candy, drinks, and gum, and they redecorated the wheel with pictures of the gum and fruit instead of the card suits.

Cherries have remained a constant on slot machines even now, and the sticks of gum eventually mutated into the bars that you still see on a lot of common slot machines.

Slot machines were a bit of a novelty and not really that popular until the 1970's in casinos. The physical makeup of the machines were limiting, because the biggest reels had only 25 different stops, which gave a 15,624 to 1 chance of hitting a jackpot. The top jackpot had to pay out considerably less than that in order for the casinos to make enough profit for the slot machines to warrant that kind of floor space.

But then Bally, the pinball machine company, invented a new slot machine that had both mechanical AND electronic parts. These newer machines also allowed bigger bets and larger hoppers which could accommodate the bigger coins. This made slot machines more profitable.

Random Number Generators

Then in the 1980's the random number generator became popular, and everything changed. The random number generator is basically a mini computer that simulates spinning reels through a computer program.

This created a slot machine revolution that changed the entire face of casinos. These virtual reels could be MUCH larger than actual reels, since they were powered by a computer program instead of a mechanism. The one-armed bandits' arms became unnecessary, because the spin button activated the electronic RNG, or random number generator, and the machines paid out a preset percentage.

This new technology has enabled the slot machine manufactures to produce a virtually unlimited number of entertaining and attractive slot machine games. It's eye candy of the highest order, and gamblers gobble it up as if it were popcorn. Slot machines now take up over 80% of many casinos' floorspace and make up a similar amount of the casinos' revenues and profits.

Resources for Slot Machine Nostalgia Lovers

If you're a collector, or interested in becoming a collector, you can find some great sites in the ODP categories devoted to Antique Slot Machines and Slot Machine Collecting. Definitely worth checking out.

This article is also available in Norwegian: Slots History - Kronespillhistorie

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