The slot machine’s history is just as colorful as the game itself. It was invented years before the television and continues to take a prominent place on casino floors worldwide.
The evolution of the initial gadget has turned into a huge industry that entertains many. Today, slots are being spun every single minute, and this has been enhanced by the rise of the internet. If you’re wondering what slot games to play, many of them are available online, featuring progressive jackpots and enticing bonuses.
With that being said, the invention of the machine is a fascinating story. We will explore it today and maybe give you a few facts and stories you can tell your friends and family.
Sittman & Pitt
In the 1890s, Sittman& Pitt created the first functioning slot machine, a pair of New York-based inventors. Now, it didn’t work exactly like the slot machines do today.
The ones you will find today are digital, seamless, have the best graphics, and some are more like PlayStation games than slot games.
The design from Sittman & Pitt was far more basic and had exactly fifty cards in total. It was initially developed to pay out prizes for high-paying cards. However, as there was no way of paying out or any algorithm factored in, the payouts were completely random.
Many bars in the city soon adopted this machine and would pay out accordingly. For instance, if you got a pair of Jacks, you might get a dollar. If you got a pair of Queens, you might end up with a free beer. It was completely dependent on the establishment where the machine was installed.
As this decade progressed, the idea of Sittman & Pitt’s machine was evident. However, some tweaks still had to be made for it to become the goliath game we all know today. This is where Charles Fey comes into the story.
Charles Fey
Around the same time, a mechanic on the opposite coast in the United States was developing his own slot machine version.
Charles Fey was a German immigrant who had begun working on the slot machine about a decade earlier. Still, he didn’t unveil it until 1897.
However, the San Francisco native devised a much simpler idea that captured the public’s imagination. Fey’s idea was much more in tune with the design we still see on casino floors today. It consisted of five symbols:
- A horseshoe
- Three of the four suits of a deck of cards (hearts, spades and diamonds)
- A liberty bell
The Liberty Bell is, of course, the most iconic of these images. This gave way to the name of this machine. Not only that, it caused an explosion in orders for Fey.
By deviating from Sittman& Pitt’s slightly confusing system, Fey constructed a design where he used three reels and five symbols. This meant Charles could build the way for a payout system that was reliable and worked efficiently.
If you landed three liberty bells, you’d receive a grand total of 50 cents. This was the catalyst for the early stages of the gaming industry as it broke into the mainstream, and Fey’s device became immensely popular.
The Evolution of Fey’s Invention
As California state had ruled gambling as an illegal activity, which it still does to this day, despite increasingly louder calls to legalize it, Fey could not patent his Liberty Bell creation.This led to several companies stealing his idea and profiting from it.
The original invention can be found in Nevada, which is kept under lock and key in a museum. Fey also has a plaque on the grounds of his old workshop in San Francisco. It can still be visited today.
Despite the difficulties around receiving a patent, Fey still receives the rightful credit for his invention. Yet, as we moved to the more modern-day version of the slot machine, various individuals are credited for the evolution to where we find ourselves today.
The first video slot machine was created in the 1970s by a Las Vegas-based company called Fortune Coin Co. This essentially phased out the idea of the lever.
It moved slot machines towards the idea of becoming an interactive game where you would press a button to spin the reel, negating the need for a lever.
The Future of The Slot Machine
As we move forward over half a century, Charles Fey would be perplexed if he could see how popular his invention remains. Especially with how popular it is over 70 years after his death.
Whether the slot machine will continue its popularity is another question. However, mobile casinos have picked up the baton and run with it. You can now play interactive slot games by just picking up your mobile phone.
There are thousands of titles to choose from, and if you take a trip to Vegas, you will still see hundreds of slot machines across the casino floors. It doesn’t look like the popularity will slip anytime soon.
