slot machine

A slot machine (American), fruit machine (English), or poker machine (Australian) is a type of casino game. Traditional slot machines are coin-operated machines with three or more reels, which spin when a lever on the side of the machine is pulled. The machines include a currency detector that validates the coin or money inserted to play. (The slot machine is also known informally as a one-armed bandit because of its traditional appearance and its ability to leave the gamer penniless.) The machine pays off based on patterns of symbols visible on the front of the machine when it stops. Modern computer technology has resulted in many variations on the slot machine concept. Slot machines are the most popular gambling method in casinos and constitute about 70 percent of the average casino's incomeSittman and Pitt of Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A. developed a gambling machine in 1891 which was a precursor to the modern slot machine. It contained five drums holding a total of 50 card faces and was based on poker. This machine proved extremely popular and soon many bars in the city had one or more of the machines bar-side. Players would insert a nickel and pull a lever, which would spin the drums and the cards they held, the player hoping for a good poker hand. There was no direct payout mechanism, so a pair of kings might get the player a free beer, whereas a royal flush could pay out cigars or drinks, the prizes wholly dependent on what was on offer at the local establishment. To make the odds better for the house, two cards were typically removed from the deck: the ten of spades and the jack of hearts, which cut the odds of winning a royal flush by half. The drums could also be re-arranged to further reduce a player's chance of winning.
The first one-armed bandit was invented in 1887 by Charles Fey of San Francisco, California, U.S.A, who devised a much simpler automatic mechanism.[2] Due to the vast number of possible wins with the original poker card based game, it proved practically impossible to come up with a way to make a machine capable of making an automatic pay-out for all possible winning combinations. Charles Fey devised a machine with three spinning reels containing a total of five symbols – horseshoes, diamonds, spades, hearts and a Liberty Bell, which also gave the machine its name. By replacing ten cards with five symbols and using three reels instead of five drums, the complexity of reading a win was considerably reduced, allowing Fey to devise an effective automatic payout mechanism. Three bells in a row produced the biggest payoff, ten nickels. Liberty Bell was a huge success and spawned a thriving mechanical gaming device industry. Even when the use of these gambling devices was banned in his home state after a few years, Fey still couldn't keep up with demand for the game elsewhere.
Another early machine gave out winnings in the form of fruit flavoured chewing gums with pictures of the flavours as symbols on the reels. The popular cherry and melon symbols derive from this machine. The BAR symbol now common in slot machines was derived from an early logo of the Bell-Fruit Gum Company. In 1964, Bally developed the first fully electromechanical slot machine called Money Honey. The new electromechanical approach allowed Money Honey to be the first slot machine with a bottomless hopper and automatic payout, of up to 500 coins, without the help of an attendant.[3]
The first video slot machine to offer a second-screen bonus round was Reel 'Em In developed by WMS Industries Inc. in 1996.
A great success it has been, without room for disagreement. The movement of money is an interesting thing in and of itself. Just how much money was fed into the machines in Nevada and the Caribbean to get to the $300 million yearly gross revenue? If we do a little basic math… working on the average that 10 cents of each dollar deposited is retained by the player, then $3 billion worth of pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, etc. move through the machines. The details of the slot machines in discussion here are necessary knowledge for anyone who wants to make this an important part of their day.
Essentially, a cabinet housing contains three or more narrow cylindrical drums, commonly called reels, which are marked with symbols. Vertically disposed on a common axis, the reels are caused to revolve freely when a player activates the machine and pulls a lever-like handle affixed in the side of the cabinet. Payoffs are handled instantly, based on the horizontal alignment of symbols after the reels come to rest.
Nickel and quarter machines are by far the most popular, and account for about 85% of reel action in any given year. This popularity is followed by the dime boxes, then half dollar and silver dollar machines. You can now find machines that accept $5 bills, and some rather large progressive jackpot machines that take $100 bills!The modern, deluxe, single coin one armed bandits with a nice shiny chrome finish can run you as much as $1,700 to own for yourself. But even if you're thinking of dropping that coin, check and make sure it’s legal to own a slot machine in the state or country you live in.
You may be familiar with the name 'Big Bertha' when it comes to the reels. This machine was designed to accept half dollars and dollars, and to pay back about 80% of what it takes in. The box is made for the most part to be a propaganda machine, catching customers’ imaginations and desires in one big metal mental image. Well it worked, which is proofed by the appearance of the Super Big Bertha. This six by ten foot super slot machine is said to have cost more than one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to produce. A Five horsepower electric motor is needed to power the twenty-inch wide chain driven wheels. With eight reels containing 20 symbols each, there are 25.6 billion different possible combinations. That's right BILLION. Only one of which actually pays the 1 million dollar promised prize. A little more basic math shows that with these odds, one individual would have to put about 205 billion one dollar spins to work to mathematically hit the million dollar prize. Not the best return on investment ever conceived, except from the casinos point of view. A long-standing record of $65,093 was won in one slots pull on a one-dollar progressive at Harold's Club in Reno in 1973. Quite recently (in 2001) a woman won over $1,000,000 in an Ontario, Canada casino. It's worth noting the machine was a progressive that was $100 a pull. In addition to being the biggest revenue producer, our friendly one arm pals have also been the single biggest cause of police raids, legal indictments, and courts decisions over all other forms of gambling combined. Part of the problem is the manner of play. No other style of gambling creates such a hypnotic fascination. The term zombie has been married to the reels in American popular culture for years now. It's seen time and time again that it is very difficult to resist the temptation to drop a coin when given the opportunity. Even those who have a moral problem with the concept of gambling have been shown to be affected by this phenomenon. The antecedents of this common behavior are rather indefinable, but it can most likely be largely attributed to two things, one just stated, the temptation to drop a coin with hopes of a massively large payoff for an insignificant bet, and the other is probably the mechanical attraction produced by the machines. The action of placing a bet lets you see the light show, and watch the reels spin. There is a larger level of excitement in reel players when they hit a jackpot than other gamblers when they win large sums. The complications behind this phenomenon are too complex to discuss here, but rely largely on the mental expectations and experience of players in each style of high stakes gaming.Slot machines were invented in the late 1800's by a man named Charles Fey. He created the first machine in the basement of his home. The machines didn’t become popular until years later when they were installed in Bugsy Siegel's infamous Flamingo Hilton hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. Fey's first machine was not any more bulky or any cruder than modern day examples. Nor did its reels carry the fruit symbols common today. The standard playing card imagery was what we are all used to - hearts, diamonds, spades, bells, horseshoes and stars. The first slot machine was actually called the Liberty Bell, and can still be seen today in a collection at the Liberty Belle Saloon and Restaurant in Reno, Nevada.
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The San Francisco Chronicle described Fey's machine: "A machine featuring 3 reels mostly hidden with Horseshoes, Spades, Diamonds, Hearts, Bells symbols on reels. The device is operated by depositing a nickel in a slot to release the handle, when the right combination of symbols stop in the window the player is awarded coins ranging from 2, on 2 Horseshoes to 20 for 3 bells. Most of those present agreed the machine should be a great success