Slot machines in the past

Before you yourself were led to play these machines that today are called “slot machines”, some important events took place in history, yielding this mythical game. Moreover, when you invoke the term “Casino”, quite often the first image players associate it with is a slot machine.

Although today they are bursting with technologies, be aware that this was not always the case and that at the outset the slot machine was very basic. We offer you right now a voyage back through time to learn the origins of your favorite game.

The inventor: Charles August Fey

We obviously could not evoke the past existence of slot machines without zeroing in on this figure, Charles August Fey, an unknown adventurer who decided at age fifteen to leave his native Germany, seeing no suitable future for himself in that country. Incidentally, this was the way he avoided his years of compulsory military service and stayed out of the war.

After having resided in France and then in the United Kingdom, Fey left on a voyage for the United States, where a member of his family already resided.

The arrival of Fey in the United States

After setting foot on American soil, it is quite clear that it was toward the sunshine that Fey would migrate. It is certain that living in California quickly made him forget about his years in Bavaria, which for that matter he did not at all regret. Before reaching age 30, Fey’s life was pulsating, a life at 100 miles an hour being lived to the fullest. Three children, a beautiful wife and a job in one of the largest firms in the region.

But it didn’t address the appetite for success in Fey, who even with a very pleasant family and work situation in which to live decided to take up a new challenge, to leave his company and create his own with the help of his colleagues.

His beginnings with slot machines

Before creating what we can call the first slot machine in history, Fey tried his hand at similar projects. First there was the “Horseshoe”, a system that activated discs inscribed with symbols. Then later, it was the turn of “4/11/44” to see daylight. It was really this machine that instilled in Fey the desire to persevere in this milieu. Yet at that moment, it was still not a question of a slot machine.

1899: The arrival of the Liberty Bell

We now find ourselves at the end of the 19th century. Although the machines created by Fey met with the success expected, he was still not satisfied. He wanted to construct a machine allowing him to bring into play a whole slew of combinations, which until then were rather restricted by the systems.

It was here that the Liberty Bell first saw daylight. It was a machine made of metal, not very imposing and thus easily integrated in all environments, which had 3 reels on which symbols were drawn. There were ten possible combinations per reel, which by a simple calculation: 10 x 10 x 10, gives us a total of 1,000 combinations. The automation of the system rendered the Liberty Bell system completely self-contained and enabled it pay out winnings to players without the need for intermediaries. The success was enormous.

The slot machines of today

Largely inspired by the Liberty Bell, today’s one-armed bandits have not really changed. The system is identical, the rules too. After having stood the test of time, and of laws seeking to ban it, the slot machine is one of the permanent symbols of brick-and-mortar casinos.

Its new Eldorado is evidently casinos on the Internet, in which slots play an important role. It is also true that on this media, the technological advances are rapid and enable machines to be placed online that are utterly remarkable from the standpoint of amusement, winnings and also graphics.