Let’s dive into a little fruit machine history, shall we? The slot machine goes back to the year 1895 and was invented by Charles Fey in San Francisco.
The first machine
The first slot called Liberty Bell was a complicated yet well-functioning machine on which you could win cash prizes. It was a revolutionary moment in fruit machine history because up until then no such thing had existed. Of course, the concept of betting itself has long been around, but nothing like that was invented on the machine. The Liberty Bell had 3 spinning wheels that showed pictures of playing cards. This machine, however nice for the first one, didn’t have a very long life. in 1902, slot machines were banned everywhere in the United States.
Transition to fruit machine
The ban of slot machines didn’t stop inventor Fey from coming up with something else. I’m unsure why they’ve gotten away with it, but instead of showing pictures of cards on the reels, they replaced it with fruit. That’s how the fruit machine came into existence. Perhaps it’s because fruity pictures look more innocent, but the concept of the machine was still the same. It’s betting. So the culture continued, now the fruit machine became a big hype.
Mechanics
During the first decades of the slot machine, everything on its worked mechanical. I don’t think the modern slots weigh up to the charm the rambling noise and movement of reels the traditional machine makes. Some things can be improved, but a feeling can’t be replaced. It took a while before modern technology took over, it was around the 1960s that slot machines started transitioning into electronic ones. Everything on these machines could happen faster and more efficiently. But above all, and it is the biggest temptation, prizes you could win on the machine increased.
Important improvements
You can imagine that in the early years of the slot machine, there was no way of really knowing if it was a fair machine. By fair meaning, does anyone ever win? Is the machine random? Does anything trigger it? When slots became electronic rather than mechanical, a big improvement for the fairness for players was the Random Number Generator. It’s a computer that keeps track of the spinning and produces a random outcome to the spin you make on the machine. From then on, messing around with a machine became a lot harder. Another important step in fruit machine history.
Themes
Electronic slots offered a lot more possibilities and flexibility. Not only in theme, graphics, and colors but also in the number of pay lines on the machine. Graphics are a big part of the charm of a slot machine and electronic slots opened the way to endless possibilities. You’d think that after so many years, maybe people get tired of slot machines. But it’s a fact that its popularity has only increased. Still today, with all the table games available in a casino, most of the revenue for a casino (both online and in real-life) comes from slots and fruit machines.
The birth of online slots
So we went from mechanical slots to electronic slots and… online slots! Online casinos started to pop up in the early 90s, but it wasn’t until the 2000’s that it became a big hit. Casino brands all slowly transitioned to being a real-life presence to turning into an online one. Although many people still love playing slots in real-life, there is definitely something very convenient and relaxing about playing slots online. All you have to do is make sure that the casino you want to play online is legit and fair. Then you can create an account, deposit money and start playing.