How the Slot Machine was Invented
Before the first slot machine was invented by Fey, there were other game machines, where you could have played poker and win a free drink if you hit a winning combination. Those machines were known as trade stimulator machines, since they offered different merchandise as prizes.
The difference between Feys invention and the other game machines was that Fey machines paid out in coins. The first slot machine was a 3-reel machine. Each reel had 10 symbols including horseshoes, bells, spades, diamonds and hearts. The highest winning combination in Feys slot machine was 3 bells in a row, this is why it was called the Bell or the Liberty Bell machine.
There were only 1,000 optional combinations in the first slot machine. The total payout for all the winning combinations was 750 coins, which means that the house edge stood on 25 percent. Since the Californian gambling law did not allow gambling machines that paid out in cash, Feys slot machine presented itself as if it pays out in merchandise, even though in reality it paid with coins. Later developments of the slot machine would give out mints or gums with each spin for the same reason.
In 1907, Fey cooperated with the owner of the Mills Novelty company to manufacture an advanced version of the original Bell machine. The Operators Bell machine was introduced in 1910 by the Mills Company. The new slot machine had 3 reels and 20 symbols on each reel.
The slot machines were still illegal in many parts of the US, still, their popularity continued to grow. Their popularity grew even more when Bugsy Siegal add slot machines to his Las Vegas based Flamingo casino gaming floor in 1940. His idea was to occupy the wives and the girlfriends of the gamblers while they were playing at the casino table games.
Nowadays, the slot machines are the most popular casino chance games and they are responsible to about 80 percent of the American casinos profits from gambling. Todays slot machines are computerized and they appear in many different versions and designs, including 5-reel and 9-reel machines.
