It’s hard to believe that modern slot machines, including those available on the Internet, appeared in the 19th century, at the time of colonial wars, duels and the conquest of the Wild West. In addition, a lot of interesting things have happened in the 150 years of slot machine history. We will talk about it.
The history of the appearance and development of slot machines. It is believed that the first slot machine was produced by Sittman and Pitt of New York in 1861. It was a slot machine with five reels and fifty playing cards. There were machines in bars and the price per game was ten cents. The essence of the game was that the player dropped a coin into the slot, and then pulled the lever, and as a result, he randomly fell out a combination of cards, reminiscent of poker. Then, depending on the player’s choice, the player could drop a few cards to get the combination. Since the machine could not pay out winnings on its own, if you won, you had to go to a bar and get your money. Even though people often spend money on beer, gambling should give the player something!
However, this slot machine was more of an ancestor of modern video poker than a simple slot machine. In addition, engineer Charles Augustus Fey created a mechanical slot machine between 1887 and 1895. This talented engineer created complex mechanisms in his spare time and also repaired cars and engines. His creation could even automatically bring winnings!
In terms of game mechanics, the game is very similar to modern machines: three reels with symbols. However, nowadays, the number of reels can change, for example when you play the popular Beetle Mania slot. The player flips a coin, pulls a lever and gets a combination of symbols. Depending on this combination, the player can decide whether or not they win. There were also variants with three and five reels. Fey used symbols such as hearts, diamonds, spades, horseshoes and bells instead of playing cards. The machine was named the Liberty Bell in honor of the Liberty Bell. Such machines were very popular and were bought in large quantities. However, despite Mr. Fay’s patent, many counterfeits quickly appeared.
