History of slot machines (15 photos)

There are an insane number of different slot machines these days, but they all have a common ancestor. They come from the first machine gun, which was invented in the early nineties of the 19th century by an immigrant from Bavaria whose name was Charles (according to other sources August) Fey. A mechanic and skilled metalworker, Fey developed a design whose principles are still used today: a set of wheels with many different symbols on them and payouts that are made when certain combinations of symbols appear.

Charles Fay probably had no idea that the Liberty Bell slot machine, which he invented in 1895, would become so wildly popular in casinos decades later. Of course, since then the slot machine has undergone many changes and innovations, and one of the most notable and popular improvements to Fei's invention was the video slot.

The wheels on these early slot machines were decorated with the familiar suits of cards from a regular card deck: hearts, spades, diamonds, and crosses—along with a few other symbols, including horseshoes, stars, and bells. A big reward on the Fairy slot machines happened when three bells or other symbols fell out in a row. His invention was therefore also called the “Liberty Bell” or the “ringing machine”. This name stuck firmly, and subsequently all slot machines began to be called that way.

Fairy slot machines soon spread throughout the country and were installed mainly in saloons and billiard rooms. In 1912, the state of Nevada legalized these machines as a form of vending machines, as long as they did not pay cash. This marked the beginning of a period in which slot machines paid out winnings in chewing gum and other merchandise. The symbols on the reels represented different fruits that corresponded to different types of chewing gum, with some of these symbols still in use today, and in many places slot machines are still sometimes called "fruit machines" and the reward for landing three cherries on many modern slot machines are a consequence of the original design.

The original of the first slot machine can still be seen in the Liberty Bell restaurant in Reno, Nevada, USA. Charles Fay's other achievements include the Draw Power, 3 Spinde and Klondike slot machines. In 1901, Charles Fey invented the poker machine. Also among his inventions is the separator that was used for the Liberty Bell. The hole in the middle allowed the control device to distinguish counterfeit coins and tokens from real ones. Fay was also the first to think of renting out his machines to drinking establishments on a 50/50 profit split basis.

The first slot machines accepted coins, but could not pay out winnings, so the owner himself gave them out. Already in 1888, serial production of slot machines with a progressive Jackpot system was organized in the United States of America. The first Jackpot depended on the weight of the coins, that is, when there were a lot of them, the partition could not withstand the weight, and they all fell out of the storage tank. But this model did not become widespread, since the smartest ones immediately guessed that if you just hit the machine harder, the coins would fall out.

This was the golden age of the industry, and in America one could be sure that others would follow suit and develop more complex and new variations of the basic design. And indeed, competitors were not long in coming - they quickly registered samples of slot machines of their own design. Even though they all used the same basic format, the wheels grew in size as... More symbols were added and more payout options became possible.

The desire to hit the jackpot gave birth to a new interesting character: a professional slot machine player. The first automata, whose designs were based on the classic designs of Fey and Mills, were relatively simple mechanisms. Each wheel stopped at the symbol a few seconds after the lever was pulled.

This design made the game more or less random, but it also made it possible to accurately calculate how successful or unsuccessful the outcome was. If you played a slot machine with four wheels, each with 25 symbols and only one of them representing the jackpot, the odds of winning were (1/25) to the fourth power, or one in 390,625.

Players waited until the winnings grew to an amount of at least 390,625 coins. Then they would come to the casino with their friends and take more money with them to play and occupy all the machines associated with that jackpot and play until one of them won.

It was a risky business because they had no guarantee of winning. The next big change in slot machine design—the computer chip—kept these guys out of business.

The possibility of a jackpot was easily calculated only on old machines. Knowing the number of symbols on each wheel and allowing each of them to appear equally, the calculation was simple. They waited until the jackpot rose to the magic number, then they grabbed the slot machines and played—sleep be damned—until they won.

Modern slots are a completely different matter. Now they are controlled not by mechanical wheels spinning at random, but by computer chips that use so-called random number generators.

The machine you are in front of may have 25 symbols and spaces on each of the four wheels, but each symbol is not equally likely to appear. The jackpot symbol can be entered into the software with a probability of appearing at any frequency set by the manufacturer. Now the odds of hitting the jackpot may not be one in 390,625, but one in any number - and you won't know which number will come up until you press the button. In fact, the odds of hitting one of these huge jackpots are usually several million to one.

Modern slots no longer require 25 symbols on each wheel. Many of them only have 12 or so, and the newest slot machines don't even use wheels. Instead, video slot machines have a screen on which the computer places symbols. But the solution to modern slots is still the same: the secret is in the computer chip, which determines which symbol will appear on each wheel or stop in the payout window on the monitor.

In 1964, the Bally Manufacturing company released the “Money Honey” slot machine, which has a number of significant differences from its predecessors. Firstly, the insides of the machine were now stuffed not with springs, but with electronics, and secondly, there was sound design, lighting, the ability to place bets with various coins and a special coin storage for paying out prizes.

In 1975, Walt Fraley invents the video game Fortune Coin, which did not immediately become popular. Players reacted to the new technology with great skepticism, trusting the real spinning reels of popular slots much more than the virtual reels of the new game.

Seeing the potential of video slots and understanding their advantages, International Game Technology (IGT) acquired the Fortune Coin game manufacturer in 1976 and used this technology to bring a whole line of new games to the market. This company is the second largest manufacturer of slot machines and specializes in video slots.

It was the invention of video poker in 1979 that caused the rise in popularity of video slots. Players quickly became accustomed to video poker machines, and manufacturers brought the first wave of video slots to the market.

Since the early eighties, slot machine manufacturers have continually added exciting innovations to their video slots: combining state and then national jackpots into a common progressive jackpot and bonus games. By connecting machines online, casinos are able to accumulate multi-million dollar jackpots that quickly increase in size and are played out frequently. Today it is very difficult to find a video slot without any bonus game.

Las Vegas (USA) and Melbourne (Australia) are considered the undisputed capitals of modern slot machines. In these gambling cities, players can choose between tens of thousands of options for a wide variety of slot machines.

Nowadays, many people play slots just for fun, for example, instead of watching TV after work. Many years have passed since the first slot machine appeared, but this industry continues to constantly develop and becomes more and more popular among players around the world.

Although, as the old law says: in the gaming business, reputation is perhaps much more valuable than in any other. However, neither professional ethics nor the improvement of slot machines will help people whose passion for gaming has developed into a serious illness - gaming addiction.