The History of Slot Games
Welcome to the Casino Time Machine! We’ll take you on a surprising journey through the mists of time to see the great casino stories unfold. Discover the incredible history behind your beloved slot games, from the small coin machine to the cutting edge games you carry in your pocket. Meet the people, see the places and witness the events that made it all happen.
It’s 1899, and Cuba has just been liberated from Spanish rule by the USA, Aspirin is patented by German pharmaceutical giant Bayer, and New York witnesses the birth of its future gangster, Al Capone.
In San Francisco, car mechanic Charles Fey has produced the world’s first slot machine for the public. In this addition of our blog, we take you through the intricate history of slot machines, from their humble 50c origins to the mega jackpot slots that set the industry standards today.
The Liberty Bell
The world’s first true slot, this beloved machine consisted of three spinning reels of well-known but today rarely-used slot symbols: the diamond, the spade, and the heart. The cracked liberty bell symbol was this slot’s cash symbol, paying out a humble 50 cents to the lucky player who span three liberty bells in a row. Whilst this game seems humble today, the Liberty Bell’s demand grew far more rapidly than Fey could have imagined, and more than his little workshop could handle. As manufacturers fought to buy the rights to this ‘one-armed bandit’, another eager player came into the game.
Its descendent, the Operator Bell was the craft of Herbert Mills, an arcade machine manufacturer from Chicago, who saw a golden opportunity to improve upon the Liberty Bell, without upsetting the morals and laws of the day (gambling was prohibited at the time, and thus operated in secret). The card symbols became fruit symbols, whilst the cash reward (however miniscule) became a fruity piece of gum. The cracked liberty bell became the infamous BAR symbol we all know and love. Why the BAR symbol? It’s quite simply the logo of the company that dispensed the Operator Bell gum payouts.
Slots And The Great Depression
The prohibition on gambling in early 1900s America didn’t stop slot machines and gambling, but merely drove it underground until The Great Depression of 1929, where states began to legalise certain forms of gambling to help charities and churches to raise money. By 1931, The Nevada Legislature had legalised most forms of gambling in an effort to promote tourism; never mind that the industry had been booming illegally for decades.
As slot machines began to roll out onto the casino floor, they earned themselves a reputation as a cheap thrill, the machine that kept wives and girlfriends occupied whilst their high-rolling partners fluttered on the blackjack and craps tables. These rapid-fire, stimulating, no-skills-required games quickly took hold of a generation, and a brand new wave of gambling soon swept across the continent. In no time at all, slot machines became commonplace in every casino, pub, club and taxi office there was.
The Modern Days
1976 saw the first video slot, providing a colour display and cheat-proofing features that weren’t possible with the mechanical coin and lever-operating slots of old. Fortune Coin Company’s machine was approved by the Nevada State Gambling Commission, and in 1978, International Gaming Technology purchased it. This machine became the staple game of the Las Vegas Strip and its downtown casinos.
The dollar slot machine was quickly replaced by the video slot machine in 1980, paving the way for the slots we play to this day.
A Host Of New Features
As video slots began to saturate the market, game manufacturers and providers started to get more creative in order to compete for the ‘top slot’. The steady stream of brand new features included the addition of multiple paylines, diverse themes, and then a ton of bonus features, from wilds and scatter symbols to unique bonus rounds and collecting features. Today, an online slot game doesn’t feel complete without at least some of these exciting bonuses.
By the 1980s slots were able to offer far larger jackpots than ever before, thanks to new Random Number Generators, five-reel formats and a wider variety of high-paying and low-paying reel symbols. The age of the Mega Jackpot had begun.
The Online Slot Is Born
Software experts knew that they had to take advantage of the booming video slot industry, but they wanted to bring this new style of digital entertainment out of the casino and into the comfort of the home. Thus, the online slot was born, and enabled players to indulge in their favourite games at home, with a new found flexibility and in a relaxed environment. Software developers immediately expanding the range of games yet again, including multiple reels, paylines, progressive jackpot slots as well as unique, engaging storylines.
What was previously just a side thought of the game, the design of each slot was suddenly thrown into sharper focus, with eager game designers and developers looking for innovative ways to maximise their players’ enjoyment of their slot. Introduce state of the art graphics, traditional video game elements, narratives, music, effects and animations, and there’s no looking back.
With the development of online slots, this form of gambling became a little more mainstream, thanks to the ability to play safely, with excellent security features, deposit and payment options.
There seems to be no slowing down in the online casino industry, and online slots are happily matching and outcompeting their table game counterparts. Whilst we scratch our heads and wonder what’s coming next, we’ll leave you with a few fun facts to whet your appetite to play some thrilling slots.
Did You Know?
The Biggest Win Ever…
…was a massive €17,879,645.12 won on Microgaming’s Mega Moolah slot on 6 October 2015, by a UK Army lad Jon Heywood. A massive win for a 25p spin!
Japan Has More Slots…
…per person than the USA, despite the fact that gambling is actually illegal in Japan. There’s a pachinko machine (an arcade game dispensing prizes and more recently, tokens which can be exchanged for money) for every 27 people.
The First Ever Branded Slot…
…was none other than Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, signed in an exclusive agreement between Microgaming and Eidos (now Square Enix Europe) in 2004. This remains the longest running brand partnership in the industry.
It Doesn’t Matter If You Spin…
…or hit Autoplay – the Random Number Generator runs through thousands of sequences a second, so press Spin a fraction of a second later, and the reels will stop on a completely different combination. So perhaps it’s best not to get distracted…
Big Bertha…
…was a Big Failure. Big Bertha was a massive slot machine that boasted a truly impressive 25.6 billion possible combinations. However novel Big Bertha was, she was replaced by Super Big Bertha, offering even more super-astronomical payout odds, and so quickly fell out of favour with casinos and gamblers alike.
On our next journey, we will have a look at the history of live casino, which famous people were also big gamblers, and how casinos were the place to be for socialites back in the day. Tune in for episode two of the Casino Time Machine.
