There are at least two different accounts of the original invention of slot machines. One is that the first device was the Liberty Bell machine, invented by an American named Charles Fey in 1887.
From here, the next step for slot machines happened in 19745 when Walt Freely introduced the first video-based slot machine. This machine was called the 'Fortune Coin' and was a very simplified machine, consisting only of the solid-state computer unit, the coin hopper and a TV screen. A slot machine (American English), called also fruit machine (British English), the slots (Canadian English), poker machine or 'pokies' (slang) (Australian English and New Zealand English) or simply slot (American English), is a casino gambling machine with set of numbers or pictures that after putting money in it and pressing button will randomly spin. The game is popular in casinos as it is.
It was relatively simple, featuring just three reels and five symbols: a Liberty Bell (hence the name) along with a horseshoe, a heart, a diamond, and a spade.
The other version is that Fey didn’t develop his machine until later, in 1895, and that the first device was in fact inaugurated in 1891 by two men named Sittman and Pitt. This machine wasloosely based on poker, although there were only 50 cards used.
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These 50 cards were featured on five spinning drums (10 on each), which would display a five-card poker hand on each spin. The better the hand displayed, the more a player could win.
There were some similarities and differences between these two devices. Both required a player to pull a lever to start the reels or drums spinning, and it was this aspect that led to slotmachines being known as one-armed bandits.
The basic principle of both was also the same in that players inserted a coin and won certain amounts based on the result of the spin.
One of the main differences between the two was that the Liberty Bell had a mechanism that automatically dispensed coins depending on the result of the spin, while the machine developed bySittman and Pitt did not.
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There were many more possible combinations due to the five reels instead of three and the use of playing cards instead of just a few symbols.
It was perhaps this key difference that made the Liberty Bell the more popular of the two. Although both devices were produced in numbers and installed in bars, saloons, and other venues, it wasthe Liberty Bell that really started the slot machine boom.
Other companies soon began to manufacture their versions of these early devices, and the slots industry was well and truly established.