In the world of online gambling, slots are certainly the most popular type of casino game played online. This is also true for land based casinos. If you walk into any major land based casino, you will find that slot machines dominate the casino floor. There is a good reason that slot games are so popular. As opposed to card and table games, slots are easy to play and do not require players to learn the rules or have a complicated betting strategy in order to win. Anyone can play and win with a simple click of a button or the tap of a screen. They are by far, the easiest way to have fun and win big online. But have you ever wondered about the origin of slots and antique slot machine operation?
The First Slot Machine
Today’s modern online video slots contain complicated online casino Australia software that runs the slot machine, the graphics, animation, sound, and overall theme. It is hard to imagine that these modern animated casino games evolved from a simple mechanical device known as the Liberty Bell. The very first slot machine was invented in 1895 by a car mechanic named Charles Fey in San Francisco California. The machine itself consisted of 3 reels and contained a total of 5 symbols. These symbols included horseshoes, diamonds, spades, hearts and a symbol of the cracked liberty bell. The bell gave the machine its name. The antique slot machine operation was extremely simple. A spin resulting in three bell symbols paid the jackpot amount of 50 cents.
Inside the Slot Machine
By replacing 10 cards with 5 symbols, Fey was able to reduce the complexity of a winning combination and create a machine that paid out for every 3 reel combination. So how did these machines actually work? The antique slot machine operation was based on a set of metal loops inside a solid cast iron body. Inside each antique slot machine there were three metal loops. These loops were called reels. Each reel had 10 symbols painted onto the outside of the reel. When the lever was pulled, the reels would spin independently from each other. If 3 of the same symbol lined up on the screen, the machine would pay out a coin prize.
The Evolution of Slots
In the years that followed, slot machines grew more popular and as a result, the machines themselves become more intricate and offered a wider range of payouts. The antique slot machine operation continued for many years with newer machines containing a total of 5 reels and housing card symbols. These 5 reel machines eventually developed into the modern slot machines and became the basis for the land based video poker machine. It wasn’t until the 1960’s that the first truly electronic slot machine was developed and released to the public. A far cry from the antique slot machine operation, these machines were based on a type of electromagnetic construction and were able to pay out bigger jackpots of up to 500 coins for matching symbols on the revolving electronic reels.