118 Gambling - History of Slots

History of Slots

When you start to really get in to a gambling game, sometimes you might be curious as to the history of the game. People – those who see themselves as gamblers and non-gamblers alike – have been playing slots for years, so what is exactly the history of slots? How long have the slot machines been around and how much have they altered over the years? These questions are definitely interesting ones to explore.

Unlike a lot of the other gambling games like keno, the slot machine are actually relatively new to the world of game playing (even though the slots are often the first game most players become familiar with). But because they are quite new and not much time has elapsed, most people are still in agreement as to the history of slots. Although some slot machines can be dated back to as far back as the late 19th century in 1870. For some reason, Charles Fey – known as the Father of the Slot Machine – was seen as the first slot machine developer (despite the fact that other machines were developed earlier) with his 1894 slot machine.

Thus when looking at the history of slots, it is interesting to look at Charles Fey and how he got in to slot machines too. Well, Fey was born in Germany but ultimately immigrated to America. In his early 20s he was diagnosed with TB and was given a year to live but not only did he live, he had a major impact on the general history of gambling and particular history of slots. He was probably most famous for his Liberty Bell Slot which had 3 reels and 10 symbols, giving players a 1 in a 1,000 chance of winning the jackpot.

Ten years after his death sentence, Fey devised the alleged first slot machine which seems to have been the prototype for slot machines even today with the most modern computerized versions. To further understand the history of slots, there are three eras that can be discussed:

• Mechanical era
• Electromechanical era
• Computerized era

Learning about these 3 categories helps us form an understanding of the history of slots.

It was Charles Fey’s name which was linked to the mechanical era when he developed the 3 reel slot machine. Fey began his work in his basement and his slot machines were pretty much based on the lottery game Policy as he put his slot machines on a 50 per cent rental basis.

Moving on to the electromechanical era which was what players of the 20th century were accustomed to, this wasn’t such a great time for the slot machines in the history of slots. Big Bertha was initially popular but then Super Big Bertha (which was extremely costly to produce) took over. It used a 5 horsepower motor and had 8 reels with 20 symbols on each reel. Players only got 80 per cent paid back and the odds were a mere 1 to 25.6 billion! Makes today’s gambling games look easily winnable!

And finally to the computerized era of today where slot machines enjoy pre-programmed random numbers to generate numbers which correspond to symbols on the reels. Some machines have videos which stimulate the reels and there are less machines which accept coins (but the on line situation is different). With on line slot machines players can enjoy the slots no matter where they are or what time it is. If Fey could see these machines today, he probably wouldn’t even recognize the inner workings of them, at least not based on what he produced in the mechanical era of the history of slots. Nonetheless, the way the slot machines look to the untrained eye are still reminiscent of the Father of slot machine’s wonderful inventions.