Slot Machines

Slot machines have been around for over a century now and we can credit Charles Fey a garage mechanic from San Francisco with their invention. Charles Fey came up with the idea of the first slot machine in 1895 by using spinning drums. On each drum there are pictures from a pack of cards and also a cracked bell. If the drums came to rest with all three drums showing the cracked bell, then a grand sum of 50 cents was paid out. Slot machines have come a long way since then.

Fey knew he was on to a good thing as the demand for his Liberty Bell was enormous but he did not sell out but rather lent his machine and other prototypes to gambling houses. By 1907 a man by the name of Herbert Mills came up with a different version which included fruit symbols instead of card faces and this can be considered as the expansion of the slot machine industry. Herbert Mills began to manufacture his machines in bulk and sell them to gambling houses and leisure palaces which were popping up all over America. By the mid 1900’s slot machines or one armed bandits as they were also known due to the lever that pulled the reels down to spin them, were an established part of the gambling world. In fact in Britain the slot machines were adapted and called fruit machines or AWP, award with prizes machines. Slots became a standard game to play at leisure houses and local pubs.

During all this time, slots remained mechanical and worked purely on the pull of the lever and the strength of the spin that each reel was sent on. But by the late 1900’s i.e. only a decade or so ago, the electronic slots machine had taken over. The electronic slots machine at first was powered by electric currents that sent the reels spinning once a button had triggered the spins but as technology progressed this was soon replaced by a mini computer program that sits inside the machine. Today, slots at land based casinos still use this computer program which is known as a random number generator.

The random number generator is also the same idea and principle behind today’s online slots which have soared in popularity since their inception over a decade ago. Slots used to be considered a sideline at land based casino for the ladies while their men played the more serious high rolling games. Today the opposite is true, that slots are most definitely the most popular online game to play that there is. There are many different types of online slots, each with a theme and each one tells a story. Generally there are two main types of slots games: the progressive slots where a jackpot is constantly changing (like Treasure Trail slots, Win Place or Show slots or Medal Tally slots) and the standard 3 reel (like Go for Gold slots, 7's and Stripes slots and Admiral's Inn slots) and 5 reel slots games (like Derby Dollars slots, 20.000 Leagues slots and Black Magic slots), known as “flat top” slots. Slots have come a long way since the garage of Charles Fey and continue to change and develop even more thanks to the every improving and changing technology.