The slot machine is probably the most popular game of chance in casinos, mainly due to its very simple mechanics. It is known by many names in different countries, like the fruit machine in Great Britain, Puggy in Scotland, and simply, the Slots in America.

Whatever the people call it, the slot machine offers entertainment and thrill to the players as they drop one or more tokens into the machine and pull a handle to activate a combination of images or symbols. The slot machine will pay you with rewards if you a good combination of symbols shows up. These symbols usually include stars, card suits, numbers, bars, and even fruits!

No doubt, a lot of gamblers wouldn’t miss passing by the slot machines as they visit the casino, be it an online casino or the actual one. But what is with this tacky machine that people have been hooked to it over the years? Let us go back in time and learn about the history of slot machines.

The Slot Machine In The 19th Century

The slot machine was not particularly invented or created for the purpose of being a tool for gambling games. Its origin dates us back into the late 19th century as the considered first slot machine was developed by Sittman and Pitt, a games and leisure company based in New York sometime in 1891. This machine had 5 drums with a total of 50 playing cards. It was originally placed in bars for the people to have some options to spend their time. They could insert a nickel for a brief play judi bola, being allowed to pull the lever one time to see what combination of playing cards would appear.

Payout would be made for lining up poker hands on the reels. It was then realized that to increase the house edge, 2 cards were eventually removed from the machine, the ten of spades and jack of hearts, so that the chances of a royal flush appearing in the combination would be slashed by 50 percent. Back then, the machine could not directly give out payouts, so the player must go at the bar counter to collect his winnings.

Who Is The Real Inventor Of The Slot Machine?

There is no exact information about the events leading to the creation of the first slot machine, like how it was conceptualized. However, it is said that one person, by the name of Charles August Fey, is regarded as the inventor of the slot machine. This machine, unlike the one mentioned earlier, was made to give automatic payouts. To make this possible, Fey made some changes in the machine’s mechanics so that the complexity of reading a win would be decreased. Specifically, this was done by replacing the original 5 drums with 3 reels instead. The playing cards were also replaced by only 5 symbols instead of 50. These are hearts, diamonds, horseshoes, spades, and liberty bell. The highest winning would be given for 3 liberty bell symbols. In this case, the first slot machine was referred to as the Liberty Bell.

Sadly for Fey, as he did not apply for the patent of his slot machine, other people were able to copy his creation. Imagine all the money he could have collected.

As the decades passed, slot machines found their way to the casinos, and with the dawn of the Internet, the online-based gambling sites. Newbie gamblers would usually turn to their mobile casino apps to play the slot machine and flex their luck.

 

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