Slot Machines History

Slot machines were first invented by Charles Fey, a car mechanic, who wanted his customers to have something to do while they were waiting for their cars to be fixed. The first slot, the Liberty Bell, was not much bigger or bulkier than the modern day slots, and the reels had not the familiar fruit pictures that we have today, but playing card symbols, as well as bells, horseshoes and stars. At the time, no one knew what a revolution his little invention would cause, or how big slot machines would ultimately be.

So popular were the slot machines in his little shop that Fey decided that he would take it one step further and began to build and rent his machine to the casinos. However, it may be interesting to note that at first the casinos were not overly enthusiastic about the machines. They saw the slots mainly as a kind of filler, as a way to minimize the lines at what they saw as the more serious games, the ones that would produce more revenue. In any case, at first they placed only a few slots in the casinos, to see how people would react to the new invention.

However, great was their surprise when lines began forming at the slots, and their popularity could not be dismissed. And the rest is history. Today slot machines are the most popular game in any casinos, and it is small wonder that they are the biggest generators or revenue that the casinos have. While in some of the smaller casinos there may be only a few slots, in other, such as those in Las Vegas, there are rooms with ten of thousands of slots, with a whole variety of games that go quite beyond anything that Charles Fey, the Slots Pioneer could have imagined.