First Slot Machine
Introduction
The first mechanical slot machine was invented in the late 1800's by a Bavarian imiagrant named Charles Fey (1862-1944) in San Francisco. In order to understand the history of the slot machine though we need to jump back a little in time. Before Fey’s invention there were other coin-operated games of chance. The Liberty Bell is arguably the first slot machine for gambling with automatic payouts. It was invented in 1887 by Bavarian-born Charles Fey in San Francisco, California. This slot machine simulated the card game of poker, having three spinning reels each with five symbols: diamonds, hearts, horseshoes, spades, and an image of the Liberty Bell. On August 8, 1893, Schultze had patented his own “coin-controlled apparatus,” called the “Horseshoe.” This was the first US patent issued for a gambling machine and was the first to somewhat resemble what we now know as a modern slot machine. 1895: Charles Fey Makes the Liberty Bell Car mechanic Charles Fey is widely regarded as the inventor of the first mechanical slot machine, although there is quite a bit discrepancy surrounding the year he made the first cast iron Liberty Bell. It was the first slot machine of its kind to feature an automatic payout feature. Slot Machine History The First Slot Machine. The original Liberty Bell slot machine had three spinning reels that featured pictures of. Slot Machines and Fruit Machines. In 1902, slot machines were banned in many states in America, but this did not deter. Advances in Slot Machine Technology.
The first mechanical slot machine was invented in the late 1800's by a Bavarian imiagrant named Charles Fey (1862-1944) in San Francisco. In order to understand the history of the slot machine though we need to jump back a little in time.
Poker Machines
Before Fey’s invention there were other coin-operated games of chance. The most popular one, invented by Sittman and Pitt of New York, was a 'poker machine' that was similar to a slot machine and used 5 reels with 10 poker cards on each reel. These machines were very profitable and were used in hundreds of locations (mainly in cigar stands) in the 90's (the 1890's that is). The machines paid out prizes, like a free cigar or free drinks, which were distributed manually by an attendant.
Charles Fey
When Charles began building machines, he initially built ones that were similar the popular poker machines and called them by various names, like the 'Duke' and the 'Klondike'. After building a few of them, placing them in locations, and doing very well with them, he then opened a factory in San Francisco to work on his machines full-time.
But Fey wanted to build a machine that would pay out automatically. This wasn't possible at the time due to the difficulty of calculating the vast number of winning combinations of a machine with 5 reels and 10 cards on each reel. So, in 1898, Fey designed a poker machine called the 'Card Bell' machine that retained the card symbols of the earlier poker machines but had only 3 spinning reels and only 5 symbols printed on each reel. The automatic prize-payout allowed the machine to be the first to pay out coins.
The 'Liberty Bell'
About a year later, in 1899, he created the 'Liberty Bell' machine, which added horseshoes and bells to the suit symbols on the reels. Lining up three bells would win the top prize (hence the name). Fey's design became the standard design for slot machines going forward and was so popular that all 3-reel slot machines were referred to as 'Bell Machines'.
Fey rented his machines to saloons and bars and split the profits 50/50. The demand for Liberty Bell slot machines was huge and allowed Fey to monopolize the slot machine market. Many gambling supply manufacturers wanted to buy the manufacturing and distribution rights to the Liberty Bell but Charles Fey didn't want to sell them.
But Fey could not keep up with the demand so in 1907 he partnered with Mills Novelty Company to manufacture a cast-iron machine called the 'Mills Liberty Bell'.
Unfortunately for Fey, patent laws of the time did not protect gaming devices because a Federal Judge ruled the slots could only be used for gambling and had no useful purpose. So a few years later, in 1910, the Mills Novelty Company introduced a slight variation to the Mills Liberty Bell called the 'Operator Bell'. The machines from Mills Novelty were the first to use the fruit symbols like lemons and cherries that you see on some slot machines today.
1910-1933
Part of the growth of slot machines was due the wide open nature of San Francisco during the early 1900's. The climate started to change quickly though in 1909 when San Francisco outlawed all gaming machines. Nevada did the same a year later and the state of California created a statewide ban on slot machines in 1911.
These laws did not have much of an effect on slot machine sales because slot machine manufacturers were able to find ways to alter the games to avoid getting them classified as gambling devices.
For example, the 'Liberty Bell Gum Fruit' model dispensed a package of gum, which allowed the machine to be classified as a vending machine. The Caille Brothers slots created machines that had a Swiss music box located in the bottom of the cabinet so the machine was classified as a musical device. Another popular strategy was to have slot machines dispense items like mints or gum in order to have them classified as vending machines.
Slot machines reached their peak sales during the Great Depression and the lawless days of prohibition, which began in 1919. They were popular in the speakeasies as well as the many respectable businesses that needed the profitable machines in order to stay in business during the tough economic times.
1933-1945
After prohibition ended the government decided to target slot machines since they were looked at as tools for organized crime. Raids began to increase as well as laws prohibiting the possession of slot machines or a sale of a slot machine to an illegal state. Despite these efforts, the popularity of slots machines was difficult to stop and slots were still able to operate in some places.
Post WWII
After World War II, governments started to become friendly to the slot machine industry because it now looked at it as a source of tax revenue.
Computer Technology
In 1963, Bally developed the first electromechanical slot machine, called Money Honey, that used electronic micro-processors to decide the outcome of the game.
The first fully-electronic slot machines were introduced in Las Vegas in 1975. They were built by the Fortune Coin Company and used simulated reels on a monitor. The electronic machines caught on slower than expected because many players did not trust the fairness of the machines. In 1978, the company that would later be known as International Game Technology bought out the Fortune Coin Company.
In 1984, a Norwegian scientist named Inge Telnaes received a patent for a device titled, 'Electronic Gaming Device Utilizing a Random Number Generator for Selecting the Reel Stop Positions.' International Gaming Technology (IGT) bought the patent in 1988 and now all slot manufacturers his technology must license the patent from IGT.
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HPG ADMIN on February 27, 2013
Take a look at any online slots site, and you’ll find a stunning variety of games. From classic three-reel fruit machines to epic video slots with in-game bonus features and levels, slot machines have come a long way since their creation.
I decided to take a trip into slot machine history to find out who invented slot machines and how they developed over time. This post is a summary of what I found out. Slot machine fans, this post is for you.
The First Slot Machines
Have you ever wondered how slot machines got their name? It’s actually a shorthand way to say nickel-in-the-slot machine, a testament to the old days when you slipped a nickel into the slot of a simple fruit machine.
By this definition, slots gaming pioneers invented the first machines in the 1880s. Bars and saloons in the Old West offered them. It involved punters dropping a coin in the slot to witness two toy horses racing or something similar. Punters wouldn’t win anything for these games, but they would often bet with each other.
There were a few different iterations of slot machines, such as the machines developed by New York-based Sittman and Pitt. This game cost a nickel to play and had five drums which would show up. They awarded payouts for making poker hands with these cards.
In 1894, on the other side of the United States, a San Francisco-based inventor named Charles August Fey invented the first version of what we’d recognize as a classic slot machine.
Shortly after this, he built the 4-11-44, which was so successful that he quit his job to build them full time.
By 1898, Fey had created the first three-reel slot machine. These had automatic payouts built-in, with the coins falling out of the machine and into the tray below. He then built the Liberty Bell slot in 1899, which had bells, horseshoes, and other symbols of luck on the reels.
Slot Machines History and Evolution
Based on the history of early slot machines outlined above, we can say that Charles August Fey invented the first slot machine proper. However, I wanted to go deeper and learn more about how slot machines evolved and became what they are today. The following is a brief history of slot machines.
- By 1909, Fey’s slot machines, and those created by his competitors has become such a success that they were banned. Moral forces such as the church petitioned for them to be banned, and in this year, the government of San Francisco capitulated to their demands. This caused slots production to shift to Chicago.
- During the Great Depression in the 1930s, the popularity of slot machines continued to grow. They spread far and wide across the United States.
- By 1951, slot machines were almost completely banned all across the United States. The exception was Nevada, with the boom-town of Las Vegas continuing to service gamblers from across the world. However, it was a well-known secret that slots still existed in private clubs all over the country.
- In the midst of financial need after World War II, governments across the world embraced slot machines. Why the sudden change in tune? You guessed it, tax revenue. With a newfound optimism and liberal attitude, and a need for taxes to rebuild from the rubble, the slots industry boomed like never before.
- Like most booms, this one produced a hyper-competitive environment in which developers created all sorts of new slot machines. Technology had advanced since the ban, and developers created new electronic slot machines with more complicated payout schemes.
- Video slot machines started to pop up in 1975, but surprisingly, they didn’t succeed at first. It turns out that land-based slots players preferred to pull the handle and watch the reels spin in front of them.
- The first progressive jackpot slots came online in the mid-eighties. This was a watershed moment in the history of slot machines. Since then, jackpots have grown exponentially. In Las Vegas today, slots like Megabucks can pay tens of millions.
- In 1988, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act became law. This recognized tribal sovereignty and made it more difficult for states to enforce gambling bans on tribal lands. This led to the rapid expansion of the Native American gambling industry.
- In the early days of the 21st century, casinos came under pressure from the rapid rise of online casinos. This, some would say uncoincidentally, led to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006.
- Today, online slots are still illegal in the USA, but land-based machines are alive and well. Despite being illegal in America, lots of players from around the world play online slots at a rapidly growing number of online casinos.
5 Interesting Slot Machine Facts
- Did you know that slot machines and other electronic gaming machines produce roughly 70% of profits for most casinos?
- The largest slot machine payout in history occurred in 2003. A software engineer from Los Angeles won $39.7 million while playing the Megabucks slot in Las Vegas. The wager cost him $100.
- A World War II veteran named Elmer Sherwin won two multimillion-dollar jackpots in his life. The first was a $4.6 million win in the Mirage on opening night, and the second was a $21 million win which occurred 16 years later.
- A Chicago-based operator named Herbert Mills introduced the first slots with fruit symbols in 1907. Those symbols can still be found in lots of slot machines today. Any cultural meme created today would do extremely well if it lasted that long.
- When the catastrophic San Francisco earthquake hit in 1906, most of the original Liberty Bell slot machines were destroyed. Only four survived, and today, any remaining antique slots are worth quite a bit more than a nickel!
Summary
Slot machines have come a heck of a long way since Charles Fey tinkered with the first Liberty Bell machines in his basement. He probably couldn’t have even imagined how big his invention would become. The number of slot machines in existence today is innumerable. Tens of millions of machines are available in casinos, pubs, bars, cafes, and gaming halls across the world.
First Slot Machine In Las Vegas
Slot machines will continue to evolve and change, and they won’t escape the VR revolution.
First Slot Machine Ever Made
Will we someday see a billion-dollar progressive jackpot? Right now, it’s unthinkable, but I’ll bet you that had you told Charles Fey that someone would win $39.7 million on a Vegas slot, he would have laughed in your face.
This has been the history of slot machines to date. Where we go from here is anyone’s guess!