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 machin...