The Slot Machine
The Liberty Bell is the first recorded slot machine. Yes that slot machine was invented in 1898. The inventor Charles August Fey (cute middle name). Fey was a creator of many inventions of coin operated gaming machines. He was based in San Francisco , USA . The machine was a three real machine and his design still continues to be a basis for gaming devices today.
A great deal of cynicism of his original invention existed as players felt he could control the symbols that would appear. Each of his three reels had four symbols and a lot of folks thought he could control the game outcome.
The next series of events that occurred only related to slot machine symbols. The basis of how Fey's machine worked did not change, the symbols did.
In the early 1900 the United States went through prohibition and this slow downed the gambling industry and the slot machine advancements were halted. Until the mid fifties the next piece of industry in the slot machine industry was the Money Honey machine invented by Bally Manufacturing. The slot machine springs were replaced with gizmos such as lights, bells and features such as multiple coin features.
As well the metal machines were replaced with less expensive wood machines. When they were introduced into the Flamingo hotel first in Las Vegas in the mid forties a basis for the setup was for wives and girlfriends to play.
In the 1970's the first set of Video Slot machines started to go into production. Players however did not feel comfortable with the Video format as people did not feel comfortable with the games trust factor.
That is a little of the background on the slot machine and look at us now. We have 3, 5, 7, 9 reel games with 21 game symbols, multi pay lines, bonus games. You name it and we have it. The slot game is modeled after actors, sports celebrities. The industry growth of slot machines is huge.
Who has the most slot machines, Las Vegas of course, and then we have a large quantity of machines in Australia , Shreport Florida and then in fourth position is Russia where they are experiencing a 30% annual growth in gambling popularity.
Slot machines are taking over the land based casinos as far as floor space is concerned. 5 years ago the sports book was huge. Now the sports book is smaller with the space being dedicated to the slot and video slot sections. With margins as high as 21% the slot machine generates the revenue for the casino.
The land based casinos have 2/3's of there revenue generated from slot machines. Online casinos have learned to value the slot machine as well.
Most online casinos have approximately 1/3 of there games as slot machines. Online slot games represent 30% of all the bets placed at an online casino. Operators are able to produce games rapidly and can express themselves with creative symbols and themes.
Operators make there highest return from slot machines so it is inevitable that they will continue to remain popular.