History of the Slot Machine or How the Slots Started Rolling

Spinning and winning should be the slogan of our modern electronic slot machines. You win, you lose and it all seems so planned out, as if the machine had a brain, but the slot machines started out differently, brainless, by the hand of a genius car mechanic.

It was in the year 1895 in San Francisco, California where car mechanic Charles Fey invented something that would change casino history and gambling history all together. He invented the first mechanic slot machine, which was called the Liberty Bell. The first slot machine was called such because Charles Fey painted card symbols such as hearts, diamonds, and spades, and the liberty bell, which would also give the highest payout.

This is how the first slot machine worked; within the iron cast slot machine where three reels that are metal hoops. Each reel had a certain amount of symbols painted on it, depending on who made it, and the reels were spun by a lever which had to be pulled. If three symbols of the same kind lined up in the middle row, then the cash prize was awarded in coins. Back in Charles Fey's time, the maximum payout was fifty cents which was a lot of money back then in the 1890s.

Once the word of the invention of the slot machine got out, demand rose so high that Charles Fey could not build his slot machines quick enough. Many companies have by that time already offered him to buy his patent, but he would always refuse. Because of his refusal to sell, the manufacturers had to come up with something else or just try to copy Charles' invention. They did the latter and in 1907, a Chicago manufacturer that went by the name of Herbert Mills started producing slot machines which were copied from the original of Charles Fey. Herbert Mills called his product the Operator Bell, and thus added the popular fruit symbols to the reels.

From the 1930s to the 1970s, electronic gambling machines were built and the demand in casinos for electronic gambling devices increasingly rose. The slot machine was not really part of this electronic hype, all the way until 1975 when the first electronic slot machine was finally introduced. The manufacturer of the first electronic slot machine was Fortune Coin Company.

This is how the slot machine was created or in other words; how the slots started rolling. Within a century this highly popular gambling game has not only been invented but has succeeded in its establishment and demand.