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Join iGaming writer Dominic Field on a trip back in time, as he documents the fascinating history of slot machines. From early vending machines and mechanical marvels, to video slots and the latest digital innovations.
Early Precursors
Although the history of slots really begins in the 1890s, the deepest roots trace back to England in the 1600s. That’s where we saw the earliest mechanical vending machines, where coins were exchanged for tobacco.
Much later, in the 1880s, coin-operated novelty devices began appearing in saloon bars across the United States. These contraptions usually featured horses, which would “race” for entertainment after a coin was inserted.
Neither of these prior inventions had anything to do with gambling, of course. But they were steps in an evolutionary chain leading to Sittman and Pitt’s poker game, a machine widely-considered the first genuine precursor to slots.
The Sittman and Pitt Poker Machine
Designed and built in 1891, by the Brooklyn-based Sittman and Pitt, this machine featured five spinning drums, each bearing ten images of playing cards. After inserting a nickel and pulling the lever, these drums would spin, just like the slot machines which came later.
The idea was to match combinations of cards and form a valid poker hand. However, whenever that happened, employees had to issue the prize manually, as there were too many permutations to develop an automated payment system.
Although these poker machines proved popular with drinkers in the bars of New York, this fundamental issue posed a problem. Unable to scale the business, Sittman and Pitt never achieved the widespread commercial success their invention deserved.
Problem Solved – Enter Charles Fey
Charles Fey, whose Liberty Bell was the first true slot machine, was the first to overcome this obstacle. The German-born mechanic, who lived in San Francisco, spent much of the 1890s designing gambling gadgets.
His first invention was called 4-11-44, named after the highest-paying combination in an illegal lottery. But his second creation, dubbed the Card Bell, was the first capable of paying prizes automatically.
This laid the foundations for his most famous device, the Liberty Bell, released sometime between 1895 and 1900.
Enter the Liberty Bell
The Liberty Bell featured three reels, each with ten positions, and a total of five symbols. Philadelphia’s famous landmark was the game’s most valuable icon – hence the name – but this was accompanied by hearts, spades, diamonds and lucky horseshoes.
This setup produces exactly 1,000 possible combinations, a manageable enough number for Fey’s automated device. The game cost a nickel to play, and three bells earned you the 50 cent jackpot, or 10x your stake. It was engineered with a baked-in RTP of 86%.
The Liberty Bell was intended to be small and portable, explaining why it looks a bit like a cash register. This convenient design helped Fey tout the machine around the bars of San Francisco, where it proved extremely popular. More than 100 were produced, and Fey split the revenues equally with saloon owners.
Attack of the Clones
The success of the Liberty Bell machine didn’t pass unnoticed. But unfortunately for Fey, he failed to copyright his ideas, leading to several companies producing copycat machines.
If you believe the story, its portability partly explains why we now have the iconic fruit symbols in slots.
Emergence of Fruit Machines
It’s thought the Bell-Fruit Gum Company stole one of Fey’s machines, ripping the core mechanics off. And in 1909, when San Francisco banned gambling, the devices were repurposed as gum dispensers.
The Liberty Bell’s symbols were exchanged for fruits, each one representing a flavour of available gum. And the now-famous BAR symbol looks strikingly similar to the Bell-Fruit Gum Company logo.
As the first to crack the mass production and distribution of slot machines, the Bell-Fruit Gum Company’s design caught on. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Progressive Jackpot Games
Charles Fey didn’t just create the first slot game with automated payout mechanics – he also pioneered the concept of progressive jackpots.
By accumulating coins over time, the jackpots were no longer fixed, resulting in much bigger potential payouts. This proved a hit with the gambling public. But once again, with no copyright in place, it was widely imitated.
Fey’s lack of foresight may have significantly hampered his own individual success. But luckily for us, it helped progressive jackpots become more widespread.
Steady Progress
In 1931, when gambling was legalised in Las Vegas, the market for slot machines boomed, but innovation was restricted by technological limitations. Until the 1960s, slot machines remained entirely mechanical.
There were gradual improvements in the design of cabinets, payout mechanisms and reel configurations, but all of the games required physical reels, gears and levers. However, everything changed in 1963, when the Bally Manufacturing Company released Money Honey.
Electric Machines
The most significant advancement since the Liberty Bell was produced, Money Honey was the first slot to use electrical solenoids instead of mechanical components. It also boasted the “bottomless hopper” – a dispenser capable of paying up to 500 coins automatically.
Although the reels were now electronically powered, Bally initially kept the handle, meaning players had a familiar element to interact with. But every other aspect of the machine was changed forever, with the introduction of lights and sounds, complicated bonus features and bigger payouts.
The development proved permanently transformative, led by casinos in Las Vegas. By 1968, Bally was responsible for 94% of slot machines produced in the Nevada area
Video Slots and Digital Transformation
It didn’t take long for levers to be phased out, replaced with push buttons and increasingly fancy features. Then, in 1976, the Fortune Coin Company debuted the first video slot, which used a modified 19-inch colour television to display virtual reels.
The Fortune Coin video slot was launched on the Vegas Strip, garnering much attention and inspiring others to make similar games. With mechanical constraints now removed, video slots could be far more elaborate, incorporating multiple paylines, different reel combinations and complex bonuses.
This machine set the template we still see today, even in online slots.
Online Casinos
In 1994, Antigua and Barbuda passed the Free Trade & Processing Zone Act, planting the seeds of regulated online casinos. But it was only when companies like Microgaming and CryptoLogic came along, facilitating the first secure games and financial transactions, that things took off.
The Gaming Club, powered by Microgaming, is often cited as the first internet casino. But CryptoLogic’s InterCasino, which didn’t launch until 1996, is probably the better-known of the two.
Into the New Millennium
As revolutionary as these sites were, slots developers were still limited by the slow internet speeds and technology of its day. It wasn’t until the late 1990s and early 2000s, primarily powered by Flash, that studios could fully unleash their creativity.
It was around this time we saw the first five-reel slots with over 20 paylines, something the likes of Charles Fey could only have dreamed about.
Big names like Playtech and NetEnt quickly joined the party, throwing lots of money at producing branded slots, which leveraged popular music, film and television IPs.
Mobile and HTML5
Throughout the late 2000s and early 2010s, global smartphone usage skyrocketed, leading designers and casinos to move away from Flash. HTML5 emerged as the new standard, ensuring smoother graphics and improved performance on devices with smaller screens, while also removing the need for plugins.
Developers weren’t just porting desktop games, though. Mobile-first design led to interface changes that greatly improved the experience. The switch from horizontal to vertical layouts, with touch-friendly buttons and other elements, represented a genuine evolution in the creation of slot games.
Further innovations include massive progressive jackpot networks, such as the Mega Moolah games. Not to mention the now-ubiquitous cascading reels, scatters and multipliers we take for granted today.
What’s Next for Slots?
The next chapter in the history of slots is yet to be written, but crypto casinos seem likely to play a leading role.
Provably fair games are already widely-understood, and there’s a recent trend towards crypto casinos featuring their own “original” blockchain-based designs. Perhaps this might eventually lead to simple, quickfire slot games with unique themes and mechanics.
Although the Metaverse never really took off, augmented reality games based on slots are very much a thing. It’s already been five years since Gonzo’s Treasure Hunt pioneered this genre of live casino games, and many other slots spin-offs have proven popular.
Skill gamification is something I’d like to see more often in slots. The core appeal will always be simplicity – there’s currently no need to understand complex strategies. But I think it’d be interesting to see more slots that incorporate levelling up, or choice-based rewards.
