Slots History

Slots is the young game which first appeared in the USA, but it took them only one hundred years to conquer the world.

Slots have appeared in the end of XIX century, two inventors from New York created slot with five reels with poker combinations on it. It had no payback system so the owner of the place where the slot was installed paid the winner with free dinner or drink.

Then Charles Fay came in the game. The German immigrant created the machine in the form of a metal box with three reels. On each reel he depicted different symbols among which there were stars, card suits, horseshoes and liberty bells. When three bells fell on the reels the players got the huge for that day prize – 50 cents. Owing to this fact the slot was called "Liberty Bell". Soon Charles Fey made another slot with fruit symbols. It became a standard for slot machine aesthetics. Cherries, bananas and "BAR" symbols can be found in the modern slot machines. These slots have become popular among people and entrepreneurs.

A Chicago citizen Gerbert Mills applied several corrections to the slot machine having added some symbols on the reels of the slots. Also he has increased the game screen for the players to see how close they were to the needed combination. Those updated slots became very buyable all over the country. To prevent law abuse money prizes were replaced by candies with fruit flavors. This can explain the British name for slots – "fruit machines". For a long time slots were used as vending machines, but everything changed, when gambling was legalized in Nevada State in 1931 and slots became one of the casino games. Slots were used to occupy bored wives and girlfriends of the gamblers playing poker or roulette meanwhile.

The slots stopped being an entertainment for girls only when in 1960 "Bally" started the mass production of slot machines. As a result the company gained high profits and the game spread all over the United States. In 70-s the producers started using microchips and random number generators in slots. Although these machines were not perfect, but they were more reliable than the mechanical machines, as it was harder to cheat them. To start the slot reels the player needed to press the button instead of pilling the arm.

Nowadays a bell isn't the only symbol you can find on slot reels in online casino. Updated online slots provide to the players the opportunity to bet on many payout lines simultaneously and the opportunity to hit enormous jackpot. Among the changes and innovations slot machines of internet casino experienced during the century you may find the change in reels number, bonus games, win doubling games and other functions increasing player's chances to win.