History of Slot Machines
In 1895 the first slot machine was invented by Charles Fey called the Liberty Bell. This slot machine had a cast iron case, as well as cast iron feet. The Liberty Bell’s reel strips portrayed playing cards specifically king, queen and jack. When you made a winning combination, the machine had a bell that rang. Fey was a Bavarian immigrant born in 1862. His machines were so popular that he couldn’t supply the demand from his small shop. Several larger gambling manufacturers tried to buy the rights to the Liberty Bell, but Fey refused them all, monopolizing the slot machine market.
After the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco, Fey lost his factory as well as his domination of the market. However, a few years later in 1907 a man named Herbert Stephen Mill from Chicago modified Fey’s machine calling it the Mills Liberty Bell. Ten more symbols were added to each reel and it was made more mobile and compact. The Mills Liberty Bell began to increase their market share in the slot machine market after Fey’s collapsed.
Slot Machines
In 1910, a new variation to the Liberty Bell was designed by the Mills Novelty Company. This new slot machine was the first to incorporate today’s popular fruit symbols onto the reels. Renaming this slot machine, the Operator Bell, it was a heavy device, weighing over 100 lbs. The ringing bell concept was also dropped from these newer models, however, this original plan was not forgotten, as modern day casino slot machines have a bell sound that signals a winning combination. The Mills Novelty Co. produced over thirty thousand of these slot machines between 1910 and 1915.
1915 marked the end of the first era of slot machines with the introduction of a more cost effective material, wood casing. Over the next few years several new features were introduced such as the double jackpot. The new wood cased slot machines were much quieter than the previous cast iron models, that is why in the thirties, the machines were dubbed the ‘silent bell’.
During the 1930’s the Mills Co. began to theme the slot machines with colorful depictions such as the Lion Head, the War Eagle and the Roman Head in 1931, and the Castle Front in 1933. As these new flashy models were produced, new features were also added. The Lion Head still used the gooseneck coin acceptor that was introduced in the twenties, but later models such as the War Eagle highlighted a new coin acceptor that showed the coins moving across the top of the slot machine.
Casino Slots
In the 1930’s the popularity of slot machines increased greatly. In the forties, a man named Bugsy Seigel added the machines to his Hotel in Las Vegas called the Flamingo Hilton. What’s interesting is that the machines were originally introduced to the hotel as a way of entertaining the wives and girlfriends of high rollers. It was not long after, when the revenue from the casino slot machines began to supersede that of the casino’s table games. Forty years later in the mid eighties, both slot machines and table games were on par with eachother, and by the nineties, slots were the leader, capturing more than two thirds of all casino revenue in the United States.
The term ‘slot machines’ was originally used to define both automatic vending machines as well as the gambling devices, however, in the twentieth century, the term only refers to slots as we know them today. Slot machines have gained a universal appeal in casinos. Unlike other games involving skill and strategy, slot machines are played, and money is won and lost solely on the basis of the laws of probability. Today, slot machines are able to accept multiple bets simultaneously and create jackpots that can pay $5,000-$10,000 but can even run to more than $1 million. In 2003, the U.S. state governments taxed casino gambling and raised an astonishing $6 billion.
The modern day slot machine has indeed come a long way since 1895. It has survived a difficult era during the early part of the 1900’s when the anti-gambling movement emerged, but has flourished and evolved to become an important part of today’s gaming industry.
Slot Machines Online
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