Slot Machines

These days, fruit machines are the bread and butter of many casinos and gaming establishments around the world (casinos stateside are said to make a majority of their profits from the floors of fruit machines), but that wasn’t always the case. How did these “silly” machines rise to the top of the gambling world?

Let’s take a look at the history of the fruit machines:

Fey Leads the Way
San Francisco’s Charles Fey invented the first slot machine, the “Liberty Bell”, in 1895. Joining forces with the Mills Novelty Company, Fey soon upgraded the Liberty Bell, festooning it with images of fruits. Though he named it the “Operator Bell,” it was, for all intents and purposes, the world’s very first fruit machine.

The Law Steps In
The popularity of Fey’s creation was such that the city government decided to step in, enacting a number of strict anti-gambling laws. In order to survive, the Mills Novelty Company (and a host of imitators that had sprung up) redesigned their slot machines to work like vending machines. This makeover helped the machines skirt the law and gain new players.

The Adoption of the Bar Symbol
One of Fey’s imitators, the Bell-Fruit Company, started to produce machines that dispensed gum. The Bar symbol was actually an advertisement for one of the company’s products. These machines proved to be so popular, however, that with time, the Bar symbol became a standard slot machine feature.

The UK Goes Gaga for Fruit
Fruit machines spread throughout Europe during the First World War, and became quite popular, particularly in Great Britain, where the simplicity of the design and game won people over. Initially, the machines were played in UK amusement parks, with prizes like cigarettes or drinks given away in place of money. The popularity of fruit machines was so high in the UK, in fact, that the government adopted a new set of regulations requiring a skill element for players to win a prize. This law resulted in the development of game play features like the bonus trail, nudge, hold and cash ladder.

Know any other interesting historical facts about fruit machines? Let us know in the comments below.