Slot Machine Facts
If you live on this planet, and especially if you’re over the age of 18, you have heard of slot machines and might have even spent countless hours sitting at one. That is completely understandable considering that slot machines have been a huge staple in the entertainment industry throughout the last century.
Interesting Facts about Slot Machines to Know Slot machines are present in traditional casinos since many decades. It is a favourite game of most of the bettors because the spinning of the slot really promotes great excitement to win the game. Slot Machines Antique – 10 Fun facts about the casino: did you know that Rewarding online slots VideoSlots Casino is one of those highly prominent names in the industry enjoying a great reputation among online casino players, party environment when you have nothing to lose.
Slot machines take up serious amounts of floor space in just about every casino in the world. Invented in the 19th century, they are still one of the most popular casino games in the world. On average, 30% of casinos profits come from slot machines. They are everywhere and offer thousands of different games to select from.
With their consistent levels of popularity on a global level, you can rest assured that they also bring an interesting history to the table. Here is the awesome history of slot machines.
1- The First Gambling Machine Can Be Traced Back to the 1800s
Back in the early phases of the 19th century, people here in the United States began to realize the large potential profits that could be made from owning and operating what today would feel like a fossilized version of a casino. One of the early pioneers of the casino industry who brought forth the concept of a “gambling machine” was a man from Brooklyn, New York named Charles Fey.
It’s interesting to note that there is a great debate amongst the gambling/casino community about who invented the first slot machine and when it was invented. Before Fey’s prototype of the slot machine, it is said that the Brooklyn based company Sitmann and Pitt brought forth the world’s first “gambling machine.”
This gambling machine wasn’t like the typical slot machine that you are used to. This machine was more like a poker machine. The machine had 5 drums or reels, and each reel held 10 cards. Instead of a button that you would press on a slot machine you would pull a lever after inserting money inside the machine.
After the lever was pulled, the drum would spin the cards, and the objective of the game was to land a strong poker hand. The machine would later become more advanced and favorable when it gave the player the opportunity to deposit unwanted cards and draw for more, almost like you would in a normal poker game.
The rewards that came with these machines wouldn’t be automatic. The machine didn’t spit money back to the player if the player won, and there also were a lot of states that had these machines but didn’t have the legal permission necessary to allow gambling inside the states’ lines. They would typically win a beer or cocktail, or a cigar/cigarette.
2- Innovations Were Soon to Follow
The original version of the slot machine, created by Fey in 1895, was called the “Liberty Bell.” It was different from the former prototype of the “poker machine,” one of the reasons being that his machine had only three reels. The machines also had a mechanism that allowed players to receive an immediate reward that would be dispensed by the machine if the player won.
Different from the poker machine by Sitmann and Pitt, instead of having reels with different cards, Fey’s machine with 3 reels had a symbol such as a horse shoe or liberty bell on each reel. The symbols would eventually line up in order to hopefully create a winning payout for the player.
Fey gained so much popularity and success based on his prototype of the first slot machine that competing companies would eventually surrender to just copying Fey’s idea. After Fey and his slot machine gained much fame and notoriety, the machine would inherit its new name, The “One Armed Bandit,” with a lever on the side of the machine.
Fey would go on to eventually open The Slot Machine Factory in 1896. Even though the original “Liberty Bell” machine cannot be played anymore, gambling enthusiasts are still able to see the machine at a museum in Reno.
3- Slot Machines Were Banned for a Period of Time
Especially when comparing the early styles of slot machines to the more technologically advanced models found today, it’s easy to tell that slot machines have come a long way. Plus, they’ve been around for over 100 years.
Now that electronic machines have been around for quite some time, we have strayed far away from the early days of having to pull a lever in the hopes of winning. Slot machines can oftentimes make you work hard before you can have the lucky chance of winning something sizable. Since their early days, men and women both have slaved away for countless hours, pulling the handles or pressing the buttons.
Aside from the electronic machines adapting a button, modern slot machines also would stray away from the original 3 reel concept, which is what you would ordinarily find inside your typical modern casino.
When speaking of the history of the early days of the slot machine, we left off right around the beginning of the 1900s. After the United States fell in love with Fey’s “Liberty Bell” in 1895, by 1902, slot machines would just several short years later end up getting banned throughout the United States.
The banning of slot machines would bring on a new era, which started when Herbert Mills brought forth a new variation of the slot machine in 1907. His machine would introduce the concept of using fruit symbols as the characters for each reel, and instead of their being cash prizes, winning players would receive prizes in the form of sweets, such as candy or chewing gum.
It wouldn’t be until the early 1960s that the world would see another dramatic change in the style and mechanics of the slot machine. In 1963, a famous company in the industry named Bally introduced the very first electromechanical slot machine.
The name of the machine was called “Money Honey” and featured electronic reels. Regardless of the reels being electronic, a pulled lever was still required in order to make the reels spin. Another huge change that Money Honey brought to the industry was that it held the capacity to be able to spit out up to 500 coins.
As the popularity of this machine grew, which happened quickly, a button would eventually be used in place of the lever.
4- The Computer Revolution of the 1970s Introduced Video Slot Machines
Slot Machine Facts And Myths
In 1976, the world would see the very first video slot machine. This had a dramatic impact on the popularity of slot machines, as though their popularity couldn’t get any larger. Created by the company Fortune Coins, the video slot machines used a Sony television display screen that displayed the videos and was first featured inside the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.
It wouldn’t take long before almost every single hotel on the Las Vegas Strip featured the new video slot machines. Casinos wouldn’t see any more changes in the slot machine industry until the 90s.
1994 could arguably be the year that many enthusiasts would say was the most revolutionary year out of any other year for the slot machine. The arrival of the internet opened doors for the casino industry that many people thought impossible.
The birth of the internet was the catalyst that would quickly bring the birth of the first online casinos. In 1994, different online casinos added slot machines as one of the games that could be enjoyed online, allowing players to never even have to step foot in a casino in order to play their favorite game.
By 1996, video slot machines began incorporating a second screen that provided the player with the potential opportunity to go into a “bonus round.” When the player activated a bonus round, an additional new screen would appear that simply gave players the chance to win more. During this time period in the mid to late 90s, this style of slot machine made up 70% of the total profits earned by all casinos.
Just to give you an understanding of just how popular slot machines are today, a recent study in England concluded that the citizens there have spent over £5 billion a year just on video slots alone. Imagine if a study was conducted that could tally up the annual spending on slot machines in every country of the world.
Conclusion
It’s just amazing how consistently the United States alone has found great pleasure and joy year after year through what used to be such a technologically simple machine. Regardless of its simplicity, Americans and other people around the globe have embraced all of the different concepts and stages of the slot machine.
I’m sure there are so many other neat and interesting pieces of history in regards to slot machines that I easily might have left out. If you have more cool facts and tidbits on slot machines and their awesome history, please drop a comment down in the section below.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.In every area of entertainment – art, films, sports, entertainment – a plethora of myths and legends have sprung over the years. This is especially true in areas such as gambling, where players are generally suspicious that the house (casino) will try and increase its already clear advantage. Today we’ll take a look at some of the popular slot machine myths, and try and separate myth from reality…
Top 10 Slot Machines
Myth: Slots are programmed for a designated payoff cycle. Even though this cycle can contain thousands of spins, once it reaches its end, the outcomes will repeat themselves in the exact same order as the last cycle.
Fact: False. Each spin is completely random, independent from all previous spins.
Myth: Slot machines are programmed to pay off a particular percentage of bets. Thus, after a jackpot is hit, the machine will tighten up to get back in the balance. On the other hand, when the jackpot has not been hit for a long time, it is overdue and more likely to hit.
Fact: Each spin is independent for past spins. Consequently, the odds are always the same – it makes no difference when the last jackpot occurred or how much the game paid out in the last hour, day or week.
Myth: Machines pay more if a player’s slot club card is not used
Fact: False. The mechanism determining the outcome of each play doesn’t consider whether a card is used or not. The odds are the same with or without one. Furthermore, by not using you player’s card you are denying yourself valuable comps and sometimes cash back from the casino.
Myth: Using a player card enables casinos to report any winnings to the IRS
Fact: If you’ve won over $1,200, the casino reports you no matter what. If you have a net losing year, the casino may have evidence of it, and such statements may be used as evidence to declare offsetting loses to jackpot wins.
Myth: Slot machines can be manipulated remotely by the casino’s slot department to tighten the slot. You better tip the staff well or else…
Fact: There is some truth to the stories that a machine’s odds can be changed remotely. What’s known as “server-based slots” are still in an experimental phase and are and in a vast minority compared to the classic one-armed bandits roaming the casinos. However, regulations are enforced to protect the player from possible abuses, and in any case, once the player inserts credits into the machine, no change can be made. For the more “traditional” machines, someone would be required to physically open the slot up to make any change.
Truth About Slot Machines
Myth: the machines closer to the doors, entrance/exits and overall heavy traffic areas tend to be more “loose” while those in quieter areas tend to be “tight.”
Fact: There is no correlation between slot placement and the machine’s payouts.
Myth: Slot machines are more inclined to be “looser” during slow hours on slow days of the week. On the other hand, when the casino is busy, management tightens up the machines.
Fact: Casinos try to strike a good balance between being profitable and having players that leave the games happy. If the slots are too tight, it’s less likely the player will return to this casino, so management want the slot machines loose enough to give the player what’s called a long “time on device,” meaning that he spent enough time on the slot machine to warrant a future return to the same casino.
Myth: Some lucky SOB hit a jackpot on the machine you just left – you would have gotten that jackpot if you kept playing. #%&@!
Fact: Surprise – Not true! There’s a computer chip inside the slot machine that runs the Random Number Generator (RNG). The RNG continuously cycles through numbers even when the machine is stands idle. These numbers correspond to the stops on the wheel that display the winning or losing symbols that you see when the reels stop. When you hit the spin button or pull the slot’s handle, the RNG picks the combination at that given microsecond. If you had stayed at the machine, there’s no guarantee whatsoever that you would have stopped the RNG at the exact nanosecond to display that same combination of numbers. In the time it takes for you to sip your drink, the RNG has cycled through thousands of combinations.
Myth: The temperature of the coins will affect the machine’s payout
Fact: Not true. The machine is not affected by temperature and does not need a sweater or bathing suit. It doesn’t matter if you play hot, cold, old or new coins (unless their chocolate coins, which no machine accepts). The coin slot is a mechanical device and is impervious to name-calling, pleading, hugs or swearing.
And – perhaps the most underrated slot machine myth of all…
Myth: There are tiny leprechauns working inside the machines. If they don’t like your face – you don’t win.
Fact: completely false…slots area totally mechanized (and today, mostly computerized). Also, there’s hardly any room inside for any leprechauns.
Comments
comments