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The History of Casino Games - Online Slots
Along with the roulette wheel (and of course a deck of cards), the slot machine is the most recognizable symbol of casino gambling. Slots are also the most popular form of gambling – both online and on land.
And, of all the gambling games, the history of the slot machine is the most easily traceable, probably because it doesn’t go back to ancient times, just a mere 100-plus years.

The company of Pitt and Sittman produced the first version of a slot machine, in 1891. Those original machines did not supply their own payouts so the establishments that housed them offered their own prizes, usually in the form of a free drink. But the Father of the Slots was Charles Fey and in 1895 he created the first slot, which he christened “The Liberty Bell,” in his basement. Fey, a German immigrant, worked as a mechanic in San Francisco. A few years later he joined the Mills Novelty Company and in 1907 they produced the Mills Liberty Bell, an improved version of the original Liberty Bell. The Liberty Belle Saloon and Restaurant in Reno, Nevada, still houses the very first Liberty Bell slot machine designed by Charles Fey. Fey’s grandchildren, who have successfully preserved their famous ancestor’s illustrious position in the history of gambling, own the Liberty Belle.

The original Liberty Bell was made of cast iron and had cast iron feet (replete with toes and everything). Inside the heavy casing were 3 reels with 10 symbols on each reel. The machine's reels had pictures of playing cards, specifically the king, queen, and jack, and a liberty bell symbol. Three liberty bells in a row paid out the big jackpot. This is obviously the source of the game’s name but the name “Liberty Bell” was also derived from the bell that rang when the player hit a winning combo. Today, even in online slots, a ringing bell still indicates that a player has hit the jackpot.
Slot machines were soon declared illegal and in order to distance themselves from anything that smacked of gambling, slot owners changed the payouts to non-monetary offerings and changed the symbols on the wheels from playing cards to pictures of fruit. In the UK, slots are still referred to as fruit machines and cherries are still a commonly seen symbol on today’s slots. The Bell-Fruit Gum Company was the first to mass produce machines that dispensed gum for every pull and the packet-of-gum symbol morphed in the bar symbol we often see today.
Slot machines stayed constant in terms of design – and consistent in terms of popularity - until the mid-1990s when Bally (the pinball machine company, not the casino) invented a new machine that had both mechanical and electronic parts. These newer machines allowed bigger bets, had bigger reels, and were able to accommodate more coins. In other words, these new machines were more profitable for the casinos.

But the biggest revolution in slot machine history came in the 1980s when the random number generator (RNG) came into existence, changing slots forever. The random number generator is essentially a small computer that simulates spinning reels through a computer program, doing away completely with mechanical reels. These computerized reels were much larger than mechanical reels and they were no longer activated by pulling the lever of the “one-armed bandit” but rather by the push of a button. From there it has been a short, natural jump to virtual, online slot machines, which use the same computer software as the slots you’ll find in Las Vegas casinos.

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