From the mechanical to the video slot It’s always fascinating looking at the history of various gambling games, mainly because there is always a whole load of evolutionary history to sink your teeth into. Furthermore, with most modern gambling games such as slots or roulette there is also a very interesting technological angle to consider, because these games simply would not exist without a set of crucial technological advancements.
And nowhere is this more true than in the field of slot machine gambling, something that has endured an incredible amount of technological change over the last century or so. The first slot machines are completely unrecognisable when put side-by-side with some of the ultra
best online slots to play around these days, and it is all because of major technological innovation. Let’s take a look at the timeline between the mechanical slot and the modern video slot.
Late 1800s and the Liberty Bell machine Have you ever heard of a man called Charles D. Fey? Chances are most people haven’t, however this Californian engineer is the main person responsible for the wonderful world of slot machine gambling. You see, back in the late 1800s there were a few incredibly simple slot machines appearing in Californian bars, however they weren’t all that popular, mainly because the prizes on offer were underwhelming things like a free drink or cigar.
Charles D. Fey ended up making a few crucial alterations to these early slot machines, ending up with his fabled Liberty Bell machine. This was the first slot machine to pay out actual coins, and it ushered in a new wave of slot machine gambling.
Early commercial success of slot machines Charles D. Fey’s Liberty Bell machine very quickly got popular across California in the early 20th century, however due to the fact that gambling was technically still illegal acorss the US they didn’t spread quite as quickly as they otherwise could have. Still, by the 1920s slot machines were ever-present in bars across the country, and had also made the jump over the Atlantic to Europe.
The seeds were sown for a 20th century slot gambling revolution, and it wouldn’t take long for this to happen in earnest.
The heyday of slot machine gambling By the 1960s slot machines had become incredibly popular around the world, however it was the Las Vegas gambling boom that truly cemented slot machines as some of the most popular gambling games in the world.
This is the point where the iconic slot halls in Las Vegas became an essential pilgrimage for avid gamblers, and slot machines quickly became some of the most popular gambling games in the world.
Invention of the RNG and arrival of the video slot Slot machine developers were flirting with the idea of creating video slots for quite some time, however before the invention of the RNG in the 1980s they didn’t have a way to actually do it.
The RNG changed everything, however, and with it came the possibility of video slots.