The Great History of Slots

In 1891, Sittman and Pitt were two businessmen living in Brooklyn, New York. They came up with the idea of ​​creating a machine to be installed in bars, which could provide these businesses with extra earnings. It consisted of a game with 5 cylinders, which had the drawings of 50 poker cards.

A coin was inserted into the machine and the reels were spun to form a poker hand. According to the hand that came out, the player took a prize that was not money, but some item that was sold in the bar: it could be a free beer or tobacco. These slot machines could be "fixed" in some way so that there were not too many winning combinations.

Although the game was very popular, it was not entirely efficient. Charles Fey of San Francisco had the opportunity to create a better game, based on that of Sittman and Pitt. The number of combinations that the 5 poker cards could throw was so great that it prevented the prizes from being made in cash.

Fey simplified the model, creating a slot machine with only 3 reels and 5 symbols in total: diamonds, horseshoes, hearts, spades, and the Liberty Bell, which was the symbol that gave Fey's slot machine its name. 

For the rest, the mechanism was the same: a coin was put in and a lever was pulled. But, as there were fewer combinations, it allowed pre-established cash prizes to be delivered. The jackpot was achieved by lining up 3 bells.

Fey gave a demonstration at a gathering to which he invited several bars and restaurant owners. His slot machine was immediately accepted.

The game became so popular that Fey could not provide all the machines that were requested. Even when they were later banned in California, Fey continued to supply other states with his slots.

But he didn't stop there and kept innovating, based on his first model. The first variation of the Liberty Bell slot was a machine called “4-11-44”, because that was precisely the combination that landed the biggest prize. The next step was the creation of the “Card bell” slot machine, which added a new symbol, the star.

The first slot machines created by Bell were cast iron, and of considerable weight, and the symbols he used for these machines were card suits, stars, and horseshoes. The average price was $0.50, a figure that, though it may seem small now, was at the time a considerable amount of money.

In Reno, at the Liberty Bell Saloon, the first slot machine created by Fey is still on display.

As the story goes, Fey consistently refused to sell his slot machine secrets. However, after 1900, he began to have competition. One theory says that one of his machines was stolen from a bar. And, coincidentally, shortly after, the “Miss Liberty Bell” appeared, made by Herbert Stephen Mills, owner of the “Mills Novelty Company”.

The “Miss Liberty Bell” was a copy of the Bell slot, and was just as successful as the original. It is said that Fey and Mills would have teamed up sometime later, so as not to compete with each other.

Miss Liberty Bell was also an iron box, with forged legs. He added, as a novelty, a bell that sounded when the winning combination (3 bells in a row) occurred, but then the bell was removed. Although the idea would be taken up later by other slot manufacturers.

The Mills Novelty Company also created variations of the "Miss Liberty Bell." One of them was the “OperatorBell”, a slot machine that changed the usual symbols for fruit drawings. 

By 1910 there were five different models of slot machines, all based on the "Miss Liberty Bell." By the time of World War I, Mills Novelty was manufacturing over 30,000 slot machines, and doing business in Europe.

As a matter of practicality and economy, Mills changed the iron box for wooden boxes. Around 1930 he also improved his production line, which allowed him to make more slot machines and improve the designs. 

He created a line of quieter machines, called the "Silent Bell", and introduced improvements such as double prizes, which allowed a player to win twice in almost a row.

Mills introduced another novelty to his slots: “themed” machines. The “War Eagle”, “Lion Head”, “Roman Head” and “Castle Front” appeared. The War Eagle also had a receiver capable of detecting counterfeit coins and showing the number of coins played.

The new restrictive laws of 1909 prevented slot machines from awarding cash prizes. The prizes for the winning combinations consisted, then, of candies or small gifts. It is assumed that the reason for changing the previous symbols to fruits is that they indicated the type of candy that was obtained when winning. It is also said that the fruits indicated the flavor of the candy.

It is supposed that it was at this time that the most popular symbol of slot machines originated: the cherry. The bars indicated that the prize was chewing gum. Hence the “BAR” symbol is so common in current slots. Back then, it was the logo of the Bell-Fruit Gum Company gum factory.

With the 1919 law that prohibited the consumption of alcohol, the slot machines installed in bars were no longer productive. But since alcoholic beverages continued to be sold illegally, slot machines began to operate on these sites and, in addition, they began to give out cash prizes. It was the real takeoff of slot machines.

The gaming industry continued to grow, even illegally, until the state of Nevada decided to legalize it in 1931. Then many companies began to manufacture slot machines to supply Nevada casinos. The greatest growth occurred in the 1960s.

In 1964, the Bally company began to manufacture slot machines which it called “Money Money”. They were electric and introduced sound effects. This slot model was the first to have a drawer to store coins, and also the first in which it was possible to play with coins of different denominations.

Bally introduced the biggest innovations in the slot machines of that time, adding cylinders and enlarging the "hoppers" (coin deposit) to accommodate 1-dollar coins. This brought as a consequence that the prizes were also increasing.

By 1980, Bally controlled 80% of the slot machine market. Around that time, Atlantic City also legalized gambling, and Bally's continued to grow. The fact of adding cylinders made it difficult to obtain winning combinations, therefore increasing the amount of money accumulated for prizes. Because, in addition, not only were cylinders added (up to 25) but each time the value of the bets was increased: it was possible to bet between $5 and $100.-

Over time, Bally began to develop computer software on its slot machines. Telnaus, a software developer, created a system that generated numbers randomly and also alternated the winnings. This step taken by Telnaus, hand in hand with Bally, revolutionized the world of slots.

Today, the number of slot variants is huge: different amounts of reels, prizes, paylines, etc. are combined. Themes vary in TV shows, actors, comic book characters, and movies. They can even be connected to create gigantic pools.

And all this, without mentioning online slots, with its notorious RTP features, which have made it possible for the game to reach millions of people, and the jackpots to grow rapidly, many times exceeding a million dollars.