With around 3 million slot machines globally, and many more online, the slot machine is here to stay. However, when you spin the wheels, have you ever wondered where these machines come from? Here, we’ll take you through the key events in the history of slot machines to see how we get to the present day.

1891-The First Slot Machine

1891 is year zero for slot machines. In this year, a New York company, Sittman and Pitt came up with the original design for a machine. Based on Poker, it had five drums, 50 playing cards, and cost a nickel to play – about $1.73 today. They took out two cards – the jack of hearts and the ten of spades – to reduce the likelihood of getting a royal flush, and if you won, you’d have to go to the bar to claim, usually free drinks or cigars. This meant there was no set prizes, it all depended on what the bar could afford.

1894-The Liberty Bell

Fey’s Liberty Bell Slot Machine by Nazox is licensed by CC by SA 2.0

The history of slot machines took a step into the modern form through the first coin-operated machine, invented by the Austrian Charles August Fey. Unlike the earlier machine, this was much simpler; the large number of possible outcomes in poker made it difficult to make a machine that covered all the winning combinations, so he went for five symbols rather than ten cards, and three reels rather than five drums. If you scored three bells, you won the maximum payout of 50 cents, which in those days was worth closer to 20 bucks.

Demand for his invention was so swift that he quickly had to design a factory to start building them full-time. Fey was prolific as an inventor, and in 1898, he came up with the Card Bell, the first three-reel machine that could pay out cash prizes from the machine.

This was developed into the Operator Bell in 1907 in Chicago, who found space for the slot machine in shops, bowling alleys, and bars. It was at this point that the slot machine really took over.

There were some variations along the way: some machines used new designs such as flags and wreaths. An interesting variation was where the machine was configured to give out chewing gum as a prize. This meant that the symbols were lemons, cherries and oranges, representing the colours of chewing gum flavours. Even the BAR symbol was originally a picture of a chewing gum packet and has been repeated ever since, long after the original meaning has been lost.

1964-The First Completely Electromechanical Slot Machine

Money Honey was the first completely electromechanical slot machine. It still meant that the players pulled the lever to begin the game because they were worried that this was an important part of the experience. It was also the first machine to include a coin hopper at the bottom that would allow a far greater level of winnings to be paid out. After this became popular, the handle began to be removed from future designs and buttons became the normal approach although you can still find the lever-operated machines for those who like the traditional touch.

1976 , 1986 and 1994-Video Slot Machines, Progressive Jackpots and Multi-line Slots

Video Slots by Erik McLean is licensed with Unsplash Licence

As you might expect, it was the Californians who took the leap into video slot machines. Fortune. The first design made use of a modified Sony TV and was at first only available in the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel, before being distributed throughout Nevada once it was approved by the Nevada Gaming Commission. Video slot machines then took over, and could be seen all over state, and became particularly popular on the Las Vegas Strip, offering a new dimension to slot gaming.

Although there was no major shift in the history of video slots except for gradually improving graphics and gameplay, the next development was the bonus round that took place on a separate screen. This increased the variation in how slot machines were designed, meaning that they made up a high proportion of the casino’s revenue. It originally appeared with the Three Bags Full game, which allowed an additional payout to be made on its separate screen.

An important contribution of video slot machines was that they multi-line slots, with more than one payline. Three-reel slot machines give you either one, three or five paylines, whereas with video slots you can have up to 1024 paylines. Payouts are also calculated differently for video slots. For reel slots, the jackpot is won by playing the maximum coins, whereas in video machines, you can make wagers that are higher and get higher payouts.

Between these two developments came the progressive jackpot with Megabucks in 1986. This offered winnings that increased each time that the player doesn’t win a jackpot, meaning the potential pot increases each time someone loses. This meant that in 1987, a player managed to score a jackpot of almost $5 million.

Online Slots

The next enormous shift was the development of online slot machines. This took a while to gain wheels as there was considerable scepticism from regulators, but they gradually gained support. Apart from the regulatory environment, there was concern that they’d never be as enjoyable as the physical machines.

It has been suggested that the first online casino was developed in 1996, but there is limited evidential support about this. However, there is more solid information about what the first online slot actual was: Cash Splash from Microgaming. This was the first seed in what developed in an every-growing harvest of different online slot games. From the start, they were based on random-number generators, and since then, the basic format has been built upon with new designs, better graphics, and more exciting games.

2005-Mobile Slots

The Casino Floor by Chuma A is licensed with Unsplash Licence

Mobile slots seem to have been around forever, but there was a first: Pub Fruity, a Java-based game that was simply a mobile version of a fruit machine. However, it was the release of the iPhone in 2007 and the associated App Store in 2008 that really resulted in an avalanche of mobile slots. This had the advantage that games could be simply created and then sold directly to users, without there being a need for a website. This also made it easier to upload the deposit to the slots.

It was almost inevitable that this would lead to the evolution of metagames, with new features, challenges, and rewards. The Red Tiger Daily Jackpot was a good example of this, with a jackpot that increased every hour, or random prizes were offered during the draw.

The Future

As you’re probably aware, the sheer range of slot machines suggests this isn’t the end of the story by any means. As we’ve seen, we’ve come a long way from the first machines in 1891, and with the advent of online and mobile technology, the pace of change has increased substantially. The rate of release has increased to over 100 each month, meaning that there’s always something new to try. If you want to have a try at what’s available, or explore some of the old favourites, why not have look at the enormous range on Tsars or Rabona to explore these for yourself.