History Of Casino Slot Machines

Pitt and Sittman were the first ones who in 1891 designed and manufactured the first casino slot machines in New York. The original slots had 5 reels, the symbols were cards and the combinations were as in poker hands. The first machines did not pay out prizes, instead the owner of the place where the slot machine was offered prizes like free drinks and cigarettes.

The first casino slot machines known as the Liberty Bell were made by Charles Fey. But they did not become so popular as now until they were placed in the hall of the Flamingo Hilton Hotel.

The Liberty Bell machine differed a lot from the one we know today. The machine was made of cast iron, and the weight was over 100 pounds. The symbols on the machine were stars, horseshoes, and cards suits. This machine was already able to pay out and paid 50 cents to winners.

The Operator Bell Slot machine came next. It was also made by Charles Fey and contained the fruits symbols. The Bell Fruit company made the fruit machines and paid out the prizes as fruit-flavoured chewing gums to the winners. The BAR symbols comes from those days as the company wanted to advertise its gum.

Later on, after the anti-gambling movement banned the slot machines, "Bugsy" Siegel the famous crime figure built the Flamingo Hilton at the Las Vegas Strip and placed lots of slot machines in the hall. He did this because he wanted to keep the wives and girl-friends of rich players occupied while they were playing.

The slots became incredibly popular and the manufacturers saw the future in the game. Then the electronic slots were created and made the game more widespread as it was before. This also lead to the production of different slot machines.

Later on, in the 70's, the slots manufacturers used the electronic chip in the machine and made the RNG determine when the slots will stop. In the 80's all the casinos already had the slots with micro-chips. At first the game became popular in the USA, and later on it moved all over the world. Nowadays they say that the casino slot machines make over 70-80% of the total casino revenue.

Though the game changed a lot and moved from large machines to the online version, the main principles still remain the same, and the game keeps on winning hearts of many players day by day.